Meta's Muse Reaches No. 2 on US App Store, But Launch Numbers Lag Behind Rivals
Meta is beginning to win over Wall Street following Tuesday's launch of its new AI app, Muse. The tech giant's push into agentic AI is also a hot topic on X among industry players. Now, early numbers offer better insight into how popular Muse actually is among its target market of U.S. consumers.
According to new data provided by market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, Muse has been downloaded more than 83,000 times on iOS in the United States. The app is currently limited to the U.S. for now.
Downloads Trail Meta's Previous Launches
While this pushed Muse into the No. 2 position on the App Store's Top Charts, its launch pales in comparison with other recent app debuts from Meta, such as Threads and Meta AI, the data indicates. For instance, Threads was downloaded more than 4.3 million times in the U.S. on its launch day, and the Meta AI app saw 108,000 U.S. downloads during its debut.
Muse also trails another notable consumer AI app's launch: ChatGPT. In less than a week after its arrival, ChatGPT topped half a million installs in the U.S., which was also its only market at the time. If that spread were divided evenly, ChatGPT would have averaged 83,300 downloads daily at its debut β a number that Muse took twice as long to reach.
Momentum Builds Despite Slower Start
None of this necessarily means the Muse launch is going poorly β it may just be taking off at a slightly slower pace. The app is still climbing the charts on iOS, having moved up from the fourth position on the U.S. App Store on Wednesday to No. 2 as of today.
Its Android counterpart, however, is faring less well. Muse has only achieved a rank of No. 338 in the Productivity category on Google Play. Android download numbers aren't yet available.
Muse is also available via the web and through WhatsApp, neither of which are counted in these estimates.
A Strategic Bet on Agentic AI
Still, Muse's numbers, while early, are worth watching as the app represents one of Meta's bigger bets to date. In short, the company believes that agents that work to get things done on people's behalf will be the future of consumer AI β and it's staking its claim on this emerging market. It's at least as significant a move as when the company rebranded from Facebook to chase its metaverse ambitions as Meta.
Competitive Landscape Heats Up
Meta, of course, is not alone in its pursuit of consumer-facing agentic AI. Every company has a horse in this race, it seems, from Google's Gemini Spark to Anthropic's Claude Cowork and beyond. But for simple-to-use agents aimed at the everyday person, the competition for now is between Meta's Muse and Instinct, a new AI agent that works over text messages and was recently valued at $2.5 billion.
Despite security concerns and an overly broad and permissive privacy policy, Silicon Valley insiders have been raving about Instinct's capabilities. While there are plenty of other agents that focus more narrowly on things like managing...
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