• Twitter usage surged in the early days of Elon Musk’s ownership.
  • In recent months, the app now named X has seen a decline in usage, web traffic, and downloads.
  • Downloads of the app are now lower than the years prior to Twitter going public.

Twitter is now downloaded less often than it has in over a decade after an abrupt rebrand and an escalation of controversy driven by its owner Elon Musk.

Since the start of July, the app’s downloads have fallen by almost 30% compared to the preceding two months, according to data from app performance tracker Apptopia. That was the same month Musk decided to rename the company X, ignoring conventional branding wisdom and the wishes of CEO Linda Yaccarino. Compared to the same period last year, just prior to Musk’s $44 billion takeover, downloads are down 18%.

It's one of the worst showings of interest in the app since before it went public in 2013. Twitter has gained usually 15 million to 30 million users a month since 2011, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It gained just 10 million users between August and September of this year.

Downloads of the app fell in nearly every country where Twitter, or X, is available, including its biggest markets like the US, UK, and Japan, according to Apptopia. Visits to the web version of X, which still operates as twitter.com, fell since the start of the year, with global web traffic down 10% in August and US traffic down 15%, compared to a year ago, according to an analysis by Similarweb.

Usage of the app also slipped on a daily and monthly basis, with millions fewer people opening the app regularly. So far in September, daily users are down to 249 million, a roughly 2% decrease since July when daily users were at nearly 253 million. Monthly users are down by about the same percentage, now at 393 million users from 398 million in July.

Musk has said he expects Twitter to reach 1 billion users a month by 2024. To reach that goal, he will have to find a way in the next few months to almost triple the number of monthly users. More recently, the billionaire admitted the company as a whole "may fail."

After Musk took over the app last October, downloads and usage surged after remaining relatively flat throughout the months between his offer to buy the company in April and the deal officially closing in late October. Usage dipped early this year to around 249 million users per day. Although usage began to pick up again in April, daily and monthly users have been on a steady decline since late May, when daily users peaked at 252 million, Apptopia data shows.

Musk has dramatically cut staff since his takeover, including conducting further layoffs this week to X's trust and safety team, leaving only a few such workers to oversee content at the company, according to a person familiar with the company who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. Meanwhile, advertisers continue to avoid X, decimating its business.

The apparent decline in downloads coincides with Musk's ongoing changes and politically charged use of the app. Most days, Musk himself becomes a trending topic on X, leading it to become more of a platform about its billionaire owner than a place for keeping up with a day's events or broad public conversation.

Musk has reveled in promoting false information, overseen and allowed a rise in antisemitic commentary, and changed the algorithm to promote posts and comments of paid subscribers over all else. Musk in turn has lambasted and sued third parties critical of how the site has changed under his leadership.

A representative of X did not respond to a request for comment. An automated reply to the company's media contact line said, "Busy now, please check back later."