Meta's Muse Tops Early ChatGPT Downloads as Shares and Options Surge

Muse launched on Sept. 8. CNBC reported Monday, citing analytics firm Sensor Tower, that the app overtook ChatGPT as the leading free iOS app in the U.S. on Friday and recorded 730,000 downloads over about five days after launch. Sensor Tower said Muse's cumulative downloads topped ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude and SpaceXAI's Grok during the same post-launch window, though the firm cautioned that the apps had staggered releases across Apple and Google platforms, which affects totals.

Separate estimates from market intelligence provider Appfigures, reported by TechCrunch, put Muse ahead of ChatGPT over their first 12 days in the U.S. and Canada. Appfigures said Muse had 1.8 million iOS downloads in that window, compared with 1.3 million for ChatGPT, and 2.8 million total installs globally in its first 12 days. The firm estimated Muse's U.S. mobile daily active users at 642,000, versus 231,000 for ChatGPT at the same point after launch; on iOS alone, Muse had 359,000 daily users, still above ChatGPT's figure. Appfigures does not have access to Meta's internal numbers, and Meta has not shared public figures for Muse.

Meta pitches Muse as a way for consumers to manage and direct digital assistants that can perform tasks across the web, such as filling out electronic forms and organizing email inboxes. The app is powered by Meta's Muse Spark family of AI models and is free, with monthly subscriptions priced at $20 or $100 depending on usage. Meta has described the launch as a major push by CEO Mark Zuckerberg into the AI agent market, which the freely available OpenClaw tool helped popularize earlier this year among developers and technology enthusiasts.

Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon told CNBC in a Monday interview that agentic use cases had largely not been for ordinary consumers until now. "I think up to this point most of the agentic use cases have not really been for normal people," Rasgon said. "Now you've got Meta's Muse and other agents out there that are starting to maybe get more potential for more broad-based adoption." Asked about the data-heavy app, he added, "They care about security, I don't know how much they care about privacy."

Investors reacted strongly. CNBC reported that Meta options volume Monday was about 4.5 times the 30-day average, with almost $3.9 billion in total premium exchanged, according to Cboe LiveVol and SpotGamma data. More than twice as many calls were likely bought versus puts, and seven of the top 10 trades were bullish or neutral. The most active contracts were zero-day-to-expiry calls with strikes from 720 to 745 now in the money, while the 775 and 800 strikes expiring in mid-October also saw heavy volume. SpotGamma founder Brent Kochuba said, "The inflows in options are huge. It seems like AI hype around their Muse."

SpotGamma data showed more than $1 billion in call premium traded was likely initiated by call-buyers, and more than $850 million was tied to selling, a mix suggesting a bullish bias balanced by hedging to the upside. The biggest dollar-size trader of the session appeared to take a net $20 million short position across spread trades centered on the sale of a one-by-two 710/765-strike call spread expiring Oct. 16, a trade that makes money if Meta slips below $740.

Meta shares surged Monday, though CNBC's two reports gave slightly different figures: one said the stock rose more than 11%, while the options report said it rose 12%. The options report said the shares were within 7% of their all-time high from August 2025 and had added 21% since Meta unveiled details of Muse. Meta also announced plans to develop a subsea cable called Petal to send data across the Atlantic Ocean.

Muse's early growth has been aided by Meta's distribution machine. Appfigures said more than 95% of Muse users are also Facebook users and 63% are Instagram users. Muse can connect with Facebook and Instagram and works inside WhatsApp. Meta used a similar cross-promotion strategy for Threads, which now has more than 500 million users, TechCrunch noted.

The launch comes amid broader concerns about AI safety and cybersecurity. Meta recently agreed to pay roughly $17 billion to settle with a coalition of state attorneys general that had sued the company for misrepresenting alleged harms to children and teenagers caused by apps like Facebook and Instagram. It is unclear how long Muse will remain a hit. Other AI services, including OpenAI's Sora and Meta's own Vibes AI video tool, had strong release moments but did not remain blockbusters, TechCrunch reported. Vibes helped bolster downloads of the Meta AI app when it was released last September.

Editor's Summary

Meta's Muse app has drawn more early mobile downloads and daily active users than ChatGPT during a comparable launch window, according to third-party estimates, and it became the top free iPhone app in the U.S. The launch helped lift Meta shares Monday and drove options volume to about 4.5 times its 30-day average. Meta has not released official figures, and analysts continue to question privacy and whether Muse can sustain its early momentum.