Twitter Lite Downloads Experience 350% Increase Despite Drop in Active Users

The rebranding of X, formerly known as Twitter, was an incredibly rushed endeavor. In just three days, they managed to crowd-source a new logo, remove all traces of the old Larry the Bird logo, and even place a massive X on their San Francisco headquarters. However, this quick rebranding had some unforeseen consequences, namely a lack of awareness surrounding the new name and logo. As a result, the number of weekly active users and the app’s ranking on both the Play Store and App Store suffered greatly. Interestingly, amidst all the chaos, Twitter Lite unexpectedly emerged as the victor.

According to TechCrunch, the report, which cited data from Sensor Tower, revealed that while X’s total downloads and weekly active users took off in the post-branding week (August 6-20), Twitter Lite saw significant gains. In the first week after rebranding, app downloads increased by 350 percent. Some believe this happened because Twitter Lite still carried the same name even though the main app was renamed to X. So when people who are not tech savvy came to download the app and searched for Twitter, all they saw was Twitter Lite and downloaded that instead.

X branding chaos

We previously reported that analyst Eric Seufert posted various charts on his X account highlighting Twitter’s impact on app downloads after it changed its name and logo. The charts showed that the app fell massively among the top apps during that time.

Now, data from Sensor Tower has provided a clearer picture, as TechCrunch shares. It said the app’s weekly users fell 4 percent, while its Overall Rating fell four digits to 36.

But these numbers only paint half the picture after the X rebrand. While user engagement and downloads took a hit, revenue grew. According to data from Sensor Tower, the company’s turnover increased by 25 percent after the name and logo change. This increase came largely from the App Store (about 24 percent).

Currently, the app has recovered and regained lost downloads and engagement due to app usage in India, USA and Indonesia.