Meta’s AI app surged to the No. 5 spot on the U.S. App Store this Thursday following the Wednesday launch of “Muse Spark,” the company’s latest AI model and the first release spearheaded by Alexandr Wang, head of Meta’s Superintelligence Labs.
Rapid Adoption and Market Impact
Market intelligence provider Appfigures reports that consumer demand propelled the Meta AI app from No. 57 just before the Muse Spark release to the top five, signaling a massive influx of new installs. Data from Sensor Tower estimates that Meta AI captured approximately 46,000 iOS downloads in the U.S. on April 8, 2026, marking an 87% day-over-day increase, while Android downloads saw a modest 3% rise.
The Technology Behind Muse Spark
Meta describes its new AI model as a significant leap over the previous Llama 4 iterations. This release represents a calculated effort to close the gap with competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic, a strategy that has involved billions in AI talent acquisition and a $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI.
Muse Spark supports multimodal inputs—including voice, text, and images—and is engineered for complex reasoning in fields such as mathematics and science. It also features visual coding capabilities, allowing users to generate websites and mini-games from simple prompts. Additionally, the company confirmed that Meta AI can now deploy multiple subagents to address user queries.
Upcoming Rollouts and Competitive Landscape
In the coming weeks, the model will expand to WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, and Meta’s smart glasses. Alongside this, the Meta AI mobile app and web interface have received a design refresh, now allowing users to toggle between modes based on specific task requirements.
Despite the momentum, Meta AI still trails industry leaders, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT (No. 1), Anthropic’s Claude (No. 2), and Google’s Gemini (No. 3). Alexandr Wang acknowledged the growth in a post on X, noting that the app is “still growing.”
Meta AI is up to #6 in the App Store overnight, and still growing 🙂
Also who knew the 7-Eleven app was so popular pic.twitter.com/55JduZWsds
— Alexandr Wang (@alexandr_wang) April 9, 2026
Global Growth Metrics
Appfigures data shows that Meta AI has reached 60.5 million total global installs across the App Store and Google Play, with 25 million of those occurring in 2026 alone. Over the last five months, download volume has increased by 138% compared to the app’s initial launch period. India currently leads as the top market by downloads, followed by the U.S., Brazil, Pakistan, and Mexico.
Beyond mobile applications, Sensor Tower reports that daily web traffic for Meta AI in the U.S. climbed more than 450% day-over-day, reaching an all-time high on April 8, 2026—a 570% increase over the previous 30-day average.
