Meta's Muse is outpacing ChatGPT’s early mobile launch | TechCrunch

Meta's new AI app Muse is outpacing ChatGPT's early mobile performance by a significant margin. In its first 12 days, Muse pulled in 1.8 million iOS downloads across the U.S. and Canada compared to ChatGPT's 1.3 million during the same window. The comparison gets messier when you account for their different launch strategies — ChatGPT went global on iOS only, while Muse launched in just two countries but on both iOS and Android — but even when Apptopia narrowed the data to iOS alone for both apps, Muse still came out ahead. Daily active users tell a similar story: Muse hit 642,000 DAU in the U.S. versus ChatGPT's 231,000 at the equivalent point, and even on iOS alone, Muse's 359,000 DAU beat ChatGPT's numbers from that early period. Muse's momentum has only accelerated since launch. The app jumped from No. 2 on the U.S. App Store immediately after release straight to No. 1, surpassing ChatGPT in the rankings. Globally, it's racked up 2.8 million total installs in those first 12 days without showing signs of slowing down. These figures come from Apptopia, a market intelligence firm that doesn't have direct access to Meta's internal data, so they're educated estimates rather than official numbers. Meta hasn't publicly disclosed its own figures yet. Meta's cross-promotion machine is probably working overtime behind the scenes. The company learned how to weaponize its ecosystem when it launched Threads, which now has over 500 million users through aggressive marketing and integration with Instagram and Facebook. Muse is getting the same treatment — it connects to both Instagram and Facebook, plus WhatsApp, giving Meta multiple avenues to push it to existing users. Data shows that over 95% of Muse's current users are already Facebook users and 63% use Instagram, suggesting Meta's integration strategy is paying off early.