Meta’s Threads has overtaken X (formerly Twitter) in a critical user engagement metric. According to new research estimates, Threads, launched last summer as a direct competitor to X, now has more daily active users (DAUs) in the United States than its rival.

Business Insider cites data from analytics firm Apptopia revealing that Threads surpassed X’s DAUs in the U.S. market in December 2023, a position it has maintained ever since. This trend coincided with Threads becoming the most downloaded app on the Apple App Store that month.

“Threads DAUs in the US passed X in December 2023, and it has not looked back,” Thomas Grant, Apptopia’s VP of Research, told BI.

According to the research, in April 2024 so far, Threads has averaged an estimated 28 million DAUs, a 55% increase from its December average of 18 million. Meanwhile, X has averaged 22 million DAUs in the U.S. during the same period, a 21% drop compared to Threads.

While X’s DAUs have remained relatively flat over the last three months, they are up from December when the platform saw 17 million DAUs – the first month Threads beat X on this metric in the States.

However, Apptopia notes X still has an advantage in U.S. monthly active users (MAUs), with an estimated 140 million compared to Threads’ 100 million.

Based on Sensor Tower estimates, X’s DAUs globally are down 19% compared to October 2022, the month Elon Musk acquired the platform. In the first quarter of 2024, worldwide, X’s DAUs were also down 14% year-over-year.

Despite Threads’ momentum, it faces challenges in reaching Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s goal of 1 billion users. A recent promotional campaign featuring Taylor Swift failed to generate a “noticeable lift” in Threads’ user numbers, according to Sensor Tower and Apptopia.

Nevertheless, Zuckerberg remains optimistic about Threads’ prospects, describing it as “on track to be a major success” during Meta’s February earnings call. He expressed confidence in the app’s ability to demonstrate that a “friendly discussion-oriented app can be as widely used as the most popular social apps.”

Meta is set to report its first-quarter results on Wednesday, providing further insights into Threads’ performance and the company’s social media strategy.