X.com surpassed TikTok in global website visits last month, recording 4.20 billion visits in May 2026 a milestone that caught the attention of Elon Musk, who reposted the data to his hundreds of millions of followers. The figures, drawn from Similarweb’s traffic analytics and shared by researcher @cb_doge on June 8, show X pulling ahead of TikTok’s website traffic during the month a notable shift in the social media landscape that few would have predicted a year ago.
Musk’s repost came with a single line of commentary: “FSD approved in Denmark” posted separately just hours before. For this story, the numbers tell their own tale.
What the Similarweb Data Actually Shows
According to Similarweb’s own summary of the May 2026 top 10 websites by total visits, the global ranking remained unchanged from the prior month, TikTok held its place in the top 10 for the second consecutive month, and notably after TikTok had been the only website in the top 10 to grow in April, all 10 websites in the list grew in May.
The viral chart, showing X’s traffic line tracking above TikTok’s throughout the second half of May, gives visual weight to what those numbers mean in practice. For context, X (formerly Twitter) pulls around 3.8 to 4.2 billion monthly website visits, while TikTok shows approximately 2.1 billion on web alone though TikTok’s real usage through its mobile app is many times larger, since the majority of its audience never touches a desktop browser.
That last point is important context. Traffic figures from Similarweb and Semrush track web traffic only and do not account for app-based activity, which now represents the largest share of overall internet traffic. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram have significantly higher combined usage than their web rankings alone suggest. TikTok is, by almost every measure, a mobile-first platform the website comparison captures only a slice of its actual audience behaviour.
X’s Trajectory Versus TikTok’s Broader Dominance
The X.com traffic milestone lands against a complicated backdrop for both platforms.
By monthly active users, X is the seventh-largest social media platform globally, sitting behind Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, and WeChat. X’s reach has also declined in Western Europe by 14% between 2023 and 2026.
TikTok, meanwhile, leads all major platforms in engagement rates by a significant margin with an average engagement rate of 3.70% in 2026, compared to Instagram at 0.48%, Facebook at 0.15%, and X at 0.12%. On that measure, there’s no contest.
Where X does perform strongly is in session depth. X.com recorded 10.35 pages per visit, edging out TikTok at 10.16 and YouTube at 8.92 suggesting that when users arrive on X’s website, they tend to go deep, scrolling through multiple threads and conversations before leaving. Both platforms’ high pages-per-visit figures reflect algorithmic feeds designed to keep users engaged rather than navigating to a specific destination.
Why This Moment Matters for X
The traffic crossing point arrives at a moment when X has been working hard to position itself as more than a social network. Under Musk’s ownership, the platform has pushed aggressively into video, audio rooms, payments infrastructure, and AI features through its Grok integration all aimed at increasing the time users spend on the site rather than cycling through the app briefly.
May 2026 was also a strong month for web traffic broadly all 10 of the world’s most-visited websites grew in May, reversing April’s pattern where TikTok had been the sole grower in the group. That rising-tide context means X’s gain needs to be weighed against an environment where most platforms were recovering ground at the same time.
Still, for a platform that has faced years of advertiser exits, user departures to rivals like Bluesky and Threads, and persistent questions about its long-term direction, crossing above TikTok even in web-only traffic is a data point worth noting.
For the full global website ranking picture, Similarweb’s monthly most-visited websites report is updated each month with detailed breakdowns.
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The web traffic comparison doesn’t capture TikTok’s full reach not even close. But as a signal of where X.com’s desktop and mobile web audience is heading, May 2026 was a meaningful month for the platform Elon Musk has spent the last three years trying to reshape.
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