Is X suddenly seeing a surge in downloads, and a potential resurgence in public popularity?

The platform has been losing traction since the name change from Twitter, with its official usage data showing a significant decline in active users in Europe (the only region that it still shares data for), down 15% since Elon Musk acquired the app.

But now, under new Head of Product Nikita Bier, X is claiming that it’s seeing a surge in downloads of late, with the app claiming that it saw the most first-time downloads in its history last week, including pre-X times.

That’s also reflected in third party data, with Similarweb’s chart for X downloads showing a big spike in Google Play Store rankings.

Sensor Tower shows a similar spike in App Store rankings, which comes after Musk threatened legal action against Apple for what he claimed was a deliberate effort to suppress X’s rankings in its charts.

And that’s not all. Bier has also reported that X is gaining traction in Europe. And with Musk also reporting that X is seeing around 600 million monthly active users, up from 500 million in 2023, the numbers do seem to suggest that X may be gaining favor once again.

Or is it?

According to Similarweb, the sudden spike in X’s rankings is more likely due to discussion around the murder of right-wing media personality Charlie Kirk than they would be reflective of a broader trend.

Similarweb data shows that X’s daily active users rose 5.6% over the last week in the U.S., and 2.2% worldwide, while its app store rankings have increased slightly, in terms of broader averages, since the incident.

So X is getting more attention as a result of increased discussion in relation to this event, but in general terms, there hasn’t been any sustained spikes in usage as a result.

As such, it’s impossible to say that X is regaining popularity at this stage, with the numbers only spiking in the short term, and not extending through to app usage.

That’s not to say that X is doing significantly worse either, though as you can see in the above chart, the broader trend is that X usage is declining, based on Similarweb’s estimates.

Essentially, it’s too early to tell whether X is gaining traction due to changes implemented since Bier took over the head of product role, which is what he seems to be suggesting, with X’s official usage numbers set to tell the tale around actual usage.

And X will have to report its EU usage figures again next month, under its DSA reporting obligations, and that could give us a better indication of how, exactly, the app is placed in terms of popularity and usage.