The latest Pew Social Media report shows X’s ability to survive in the US, despite competition

Threads and Bluesky still have a long way to go to catch up with X in the US, according to data from the latest Pew Research Center report released this week.

The research firm asked about these smaller services for the first time, and found that each was used by fewer than 1 in 10 U.S. adults or fewer.

Although X is not one of the largest social networks in the United States, it is still the network 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 increasing competition since Elon Musk bought Twitter and renamed it X in October 2022, as Musk’s changes to the platform’s content moderation policies and the site’s right-wing political shift prompted some users to look for alternatives.

In addition to the growth of open source decentralized networks like Mastodon and Bluesky, other startups have launched potential Twitter competitors such as Spill, Post, T2 (Pebble), and Hive. However, many of them have since closed.

Pew data indicates just how strong X’s grip on the market is.

The report found that even Meta, with all its resources and platform power, has not yet managed to take on X with its competitor Threads.

According to Pew, 21% of US adults said they used X, compared to just 8% who used Threads, and 4% who used Bluesky. Meanwhile, Truth Social attracted 3% of US adults.

Despite this competition, the X hasn’t seen much slippage in usage over the years, according to the report. For example, a Pew Center report on US adults’ social media use published early last year found that X was used by 22% of US adults. Its 2021 report showed that Twitter (before it was rebranded as X) was used by 23% of adults in the United States.

In other words, if X is falling, it means it has been a long, slow decline.

This year’s report also found that YouTube and Facebook remain the most widely used platforms by US adults, with 84% and 71% saying they used them, respectively.

Meanwhile, 50% of US adults said they use Instagram, 37% use TikTok, 32% use WhatsApp, 26% use Reddit, and 25% use Snapchat.

Pew noted that many of these services have seen growth in adoption over time. TikTok is up from 21% in 2021, and Instagram, which is now used by half of US adults, is up from 40% in 2021. About a third of adults now use WhatsApp, up from 23% in 2021.

Reddit, which has become a darling in the age of artificial intelligence thanks to numerous content licensing deals, was used by only 18% of US adults in 2021, compared to 26% today.

Of course, all of these numbers look very different from American teens’ social media use, where YouTube remains number one, but then followed by a different set of top apps, including TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat.