Threads Keeps Growing After Initial Hype Dies Down, Showing It Has Real Appeal

Meta's Threads reached 500 million regular users by mid-2026, nearly triple from the previous year. What matters more than the size: the app's initial rush of people fleeing Twitter had already slowed by mid-2024. People who stayed afterward chose to keep using it for actual reasons—better content quality, useful tools for creators, features that build community—not just because it was new. It's now the biggest text-focused social app besides X.