Meta pours ad muscle into AI app Muse as estimates show downloads pass more than 3.4 million

Muse, Meta’s AI app, launched September 8 and has quickly become one of the most-downloaded apps in the U.S. and Canada, the only markets where it’s currently available. At the start of this week, Muse had surpassed 2.5 million downloads; by Thursday, that figure had climbed to more than 3.4 million, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. Sensor Tower notes the estimate, current only as of Thursday, can lag behind real-world adoption — meaning it doesn’t yet capture the full effect of the promotional push Muse received at Meta’s annual Meta Connect developer conference this week, where Meta announced upcoming features including video chat with the Muse avatar, computer-use support on Mac, a dedicated email address, more partners and connectors, and plans for smart glasses integrations.

Other trackers show similarly strong but varying numbers: Apptopia puts total downloads at 4.3 million, with 2.6 million on iOS alone, while Appfigures estimates roughly 2.3 million installs as of Thursday, almost evenly split between iOS and Android. Sensor Tower also found that Muse’s daily active users climbed 27% on Wednesday, the day after Meta Connect wrapped.

Even before the conference, Muse was growing fast: Sensor Tower estimated 2.8 million downloads in its first two weeks, from September 8 to 17, an average 55% day-over-day growth rate in downloads — well above ChatGPT’s 24% day-over-day growth in its first 10 days, while download growth for Claude and Grok declined during their respective launches. Muse hit the top of the U.S. App Store on September 18 and has held that spot since, and topped the Google Play Store on September 19, where it also remains.

Much of that traction is organic, but Meta is also cross-promoting Muse to its Facebook and Instagram user base — the same tactic that helped Instagram Threads reach 500 million monthly active users. Meta’s Head of Threads, Connor Hayes, told Business Insider that Meta’s approach with Muse differs from Threads: rather than matching user-generated content to interests, it builds promotional units that show what the AI agent can specifically do for each user. Sensor Tower found Meta began running house ads for Muse on September 9, a day after launch, and within 10 days Muse was receiving more of Meta’s internal ad promotion than Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp; Meta has also bought ads on Reddit, TikTok, and YouTube. By September 22, Muse ranked among the top 10 brands by ad spend — though paid promotion accounts for just 6% of the app’s ad impressions from launch through September 19.

Why it matters

Muse’s growth shows Meta can turn its own platforms into a built-in distribution engine for a new AI product, a template it could reuse for future AI launches — even though most of the traction so far still appears to be organic rather than paid.