Meta's AI assistant app Muse is outperforming ChatGPT in early mobile adoption, at least by third-party estimates. According to Apptopia, Muse was downloaded more times in its first twelve days than ChatGPT was in the twelve days following its own mobile debut, though the comparison is limited to iOS devices in the United States and Canada.
Aligning the comparison
The two apps launched differently. ChatGPT arrived globally but iOS-only. Muse arrived on both the App Store and Google Play but only in the U.S. and Canada. Apptopia reconciled those differences by isolating iOS data in the overlapping markets during the first twelve days of each launch. On that basis, Muse recorded 1.8 million downloads to ChatGPT's 1.3 million.
Globally, across both platforms, Muse hit 2.8 million total installs in its first twelve days. Appfigures, a separate analytics firm, separately reported Muse crossing 1 million downloads earlier in the launch window. Apptopia's figures cover a longer period and both app stores, which explains the difference.
Daily active users lead
Muse also leads in daily active usage. Apptopia's data shows 642,000 U.S. daily active users for Muse, compared with 231,000 for ChatGPT at the same point after its mobile launch. Even restricting to iOS only, removing Android's contribution, Muse holds 359,000 daily active users against ChatGPT's figures from that period.
Muse also climbed the U.S. App Store rankings, moving from number two immediately after launch to number one, according to Business Insider. That put it above ChatGPT in the top charts.
Meta's distribution advantage
The figures point to something structural about how Meta launches products. When the company rolled out Instagram's Threads, it used cross-promotion across Facebook and Instagram to reach 500 million users. Muse sits inside the same ecosystem. It connects to Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, giving Meta multiple surfaces to promote the app to existing users.
Apptopia's data confirms that overlap. More than 95 percent of Muse's users are also Facebook users, and 63 percent are Instagram users. That is not a coincidence. Meta's strategy of pushing new products through its existing user base has worked before, and Muse appears to be following the same playbook.
What the data does not capture
These numbers measure adoption at a specific moment. They say nothing about retention, engagement depth, or whether users return after the first week. ChatGPT's early mobile numbers came from a product that had years of brand recognition through its web interface. Muse is still building awareness, and the initial download surge may reflect curiosity about Meta's AI offering more than sustained usage.
The estimates also come from a third-party firm that does not have access to Meta's internal analytics. Meta has not released its own public figures for Muse's early adoption. The comparison, while directionally clear, remains an approximation rather than a definitive measurement.
What is clear is that Meta's combination of product distribution and cross-platform integration gives Muse a launch advantage that ChatGPT did not have. Whether that advantage compounds into long-term usage is the question that matters now.