X's Mobile Revenue Continues to Drop for 3rd Consecutive Month - Longest Ever Decline

X's mobile revenue has been on a very weird trend in the last few months. And by weird I really mean negative. It's weird because over the 12 months ending March of this year, the app only experienced a negative month four times.

But April kicked off a negative trend that's still going - three consecutive months of declining revenue - not only is revenue not growing but it's actually shrinking.

Let's have a look at the numbers:

According to our App intelligence, X's mobile apps generated $7.4M of net revenue - what X gets to keep after Apple and Google take their cut - in June.

If you've been following my monthly check-ins you'll know that's a tiny bit lower than May's $7.6M haul, which was lower than April's $8M haul, which was lower than March's $8.2M net revenue.

So, things aren't going up.

Although this isn't the first time revenue is on the decline, this is the first time X has endured a multi-month decline. And although 2024 is shaping up to be no-so-great for the black bird, 2023 was pretty great.

Our estimates show that in 2023, net revenue rose 347% from under $2M to over $7M - all net.

But in 2024 X's arch nemesis Threads, which launched in the summer of 2023, started getting more traction and is now growing its downloads about twice as fast as X. I can imagine that's one reason for X's revenue drop.

Another is X's introduction of additional subscription options - more expensive options - that promise removing ads in different areas (but don't, in my experience) which make X seem like an expensive playground.

But from my own personal experience, it's X's algorithm changes that float content many simply don't want, which drops engagement, which makes it harder to monetize. Is your experience different?

When Twitter rolled out its paid subscriptions I thought it'd be a breakthrough for an industry that couldn't monetize. And it was, but for everyone who copied it and not Twitter or X.

It's still possible, but it's a real uphill battle.