Pew’s latest social media report shows X’s staying power in the US, despite competition

Threads and Bluesky still have quite a way to go to catch up with X in the U.S., according to data fromPew Research Center’s latest reportreleased this week. The research firm asked about these smaller services for the first time and found they’re each used by just under 1 in 10 U.S. adults or fewer. While X is not one of the largest social networks in the U.S., it’s still the one to beat within the smaller market of social apps that focus on short, real-time text posts that appear in a vertical feed. This space has seen increased competition since Elon Muskbought Twitterand rebranded it as X in October 2022, as Musk’s changes to the platform’s content moderation policies and the site’s rightward political shift sent some users looking for alternatives. In addition to the growth seen by decentralized, open source networks likeMastodonandBluesky, other startups launched would-beTwitter rivalslikeSpill,Post,T2(Pebble), andHive. Many of these have since shut down, however. Pew’s data indicates how hard X’s grip on the market remains. Even Meta, with all its resources and platform power, hasn’t yet been able to beat X with its competitor, Threads, the report found. According to Pew, 21% of U.S. adults said they have used X, compared with only 8% who have used Threads, and 4% who have used Bluesky. Truth Social, meanwhile, had attracted 3% of U.S. adults. Despite this competition, X hasn’t seen much of a slip in usage over the years, according to the report. For instance, Pew’sreport on U.S. adults’ social mediause published at the beginning of last year found that X was then used by 22% of U.S. adults. Its2021 report showedTwitter (before its rebranding to X) was used by 23% of U.S. adults. In other words, if X is declining, it’s been a long, slow drop. This year’s report also found that YouTube and Facebook continue to be the most widely used platforms by U.S. adults, with 84% and 71% saying they used them, respectively. Meanwhile, 50% of U.S. adults said they used Instagram, 37% used TikTok, 32% used WhatsApp, 26% used Reddit, and 25% used Snapchat. Many of these services have seen their adoption grow over time, Pew noted. TikTok is up from 21% in 2021, and Instagram, now used by half of U.S. adults, is up from 40% in 2021. Around a third of adults now use WhatsApp, up from 23% in 2021. Reddit, which has become a darling of the AI era thanks tonumerouscontent licensing deals, was used by only 18% of U.S. adults in 2021, compared with 26% today. Of course, all these figures look very different from U.S.teens’ social media use, where YouTube remains No. 1, but is then followed by a different set of top apps, including TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat. Topics Consumer News Editor StrictlyVC concludes its 2025 series with an exclusive event featuring insights from leading VCs and builders such as Pat Gelsinger, Mina Fahmi, and more. Plus, opportunities to forge meaningful connections. Anduril’s autonomous weapons stumble in tests and combat, WSJ reports This Thanksgiving’s real drama may be Michael Burry versus Nvidia The future will be explained to you in Palo Alto Why ‘hold forever’ investors are snapping up venture capital ‘zombies’ Altman describes OpenAI’s forthcoming AI device as more peaceful and calm than the iPhone OpenAI learned the hard way that Cameo trademarked the word ‘cameo’ US banks scramble to assess data theft after hackers breach financial tech firm