Recent data reveals that social network X has achieved a notable increase in in-app revenue over the past year, even as active user numbers have seen a downturn. Global consumer spending in the X mobile application on both iOS and Android platforms surged by 76.3% year-over-year during the first three weeks of January, as reported by app intelligence company Appfigures. Conversely, other metrics indicate a decrease in X’s daily active users, coinciding with a rise in usage of competitors like Bluesky and Threads.
According to an analysis conducted by Appfigures, global consumer spending on X’s apps for iOS and Android totaled $7.6 million from January 1-20, 2024. By the same time in January 2025, this figure had risen to $13.4 million, the firm noted. This revenue comprises in-app purchases made through X’s mobile applications, excluding revenues generated from advertising or web-based subscriptions where users can obtain discounts.
This figure does not represent the total revenue of X, which predominantly relies on advertising. Thus, it merely offers insights into consumer spending trends.
The increased consumer spending could be partly attributed to the integration of xAI’s Grok AI chatbot in the X app. Observations noted consistent spikes in net revenue following the introduction of a free version of Grok in November 2024, just before X rolled out a faster model and the Grok button in mid-December, along with a new image generation model launched on December 9.
Additionally, X established an NFL portal in late November to enhance sports engagement, potentially increasing user adoption given that sports discussions are among the most popular topics on X.
In the United States, consumer spending on X’s iOS and Android platforms grew by 61.4% year-over-year, rising from $4.4 million between January 1-20, 2024, to $7.1 million during the same timeframe in 2025.
While global consumer spending via mobile has experienced year-over-year growth, the totals for individual months have not followed a consistent upward trend. Spending fluctuated throughout the year, with February 2025 marking the lowest point at $9.6 million across iOS and Android, while December recorded the highest at $25.6 million, spurred by increases beginning in October ahead of the U.S. elections.
During January 2025, the top in-app purchases on the X iOS app were as follows: the X Premium Monthly subscription ($11/month) took the top spot, followed by the X Premium Plus Monthly subscription ($30/month), X Premium Basic Monthly ($4/month), a subscription to Elon Musk’s account ($4/month), and the X Premium’s Annual Subscription ($114.99/year).
Despite this surge in consumer spending towards the end of the year, additional data suggests that X may be experiencing a loss of active users.
Both U.S. and global daily active users on X fell by approximately 13% in January 2025 compared to the same period the previous year, as per estimates provided by app intelligence firm Sensor Tower, following a data request from TechCrunch. Sensor Tower also recorded a slight decline in year-over-year growth for monthly active users on X.
According to Jonathan Briskman, the principal market insights manager at Sensor Tower, X had over 313 million global mobile app monthly active users in Q4 2024, and more than 300 million active users from the start of January 2025 through the present.
As X’s active user base diminished from January 2024 to January 2025, the daily active users on rival platforms such as Instagram Threads and Bluesky surged by over 170% and 495%, respectively. This growth was fueled by several factors, including international expansions and the introduction of various new features across both platforms.
We reached out to X for its internal monthly active user figures, yet the company did not provide a response.
While Appfigures and Sensor Tower’s data emphasizes consumer spending, there are also hints that X’s advertising sector is experiencing a resurgence. Ad spend data provider Guideline noted a 123% increase in ad spending for X in December 2024, after a decline of 32% in November, following two years of significant reductions ranging from 60-80%.
Updated post-publication to include newly released ad spend data from Guideline.
Compiled by Techarena.au.
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