Traffic to X (formerly Twitter) plummeted by 10%, from 6.4 billion to 5.8 billion visits in September, new figures show.

Analysis of SimilarWeb data reveals that 5.8 billion users visited the social network in September 2023. Visits have plummeted by 10% compared to August, from 6.4 billion.

The analysis by Venture Smarter reveals that X has now dropped to seventh place on global rankings behind Instagram.

Further analysis reveals of the 176 countries that accessed Twitter in September, over four-fifths (83%) saw a decline in month-over-month traffic to the website.

Google data reveals global searches for Twitter have dropped since Elon Musk’s takeover in September 2022, down from 14 million monthly searches to 11 million a year later, the lowest since November 2018.

Elon Musk, X’s CEO, announced a plan to charge new users $1 per year to access the platform to combat fake bot accounts, currently being trialled in two countries. 

A spokesperson at Venture Smarter commented on the findings:

“SimilarWeb traffic shows that Twitter is quickly losing traffic and has already slipped in global rankings. Since Musk took over, its popularity appears to be declining. It is staggering to see traffic drop from hundreds of countries, and it could well be Twitter’s behind-the-scenes efforts to combat bots.

"However, as Musk has said recently, the 1$ charge may be the ‘only way to fight bots,’ it looks more likely that users are switching off from the platform”. 

Data was gathered from SimilarWeb Pro and Google Trends.