Elon Musk’s X has successfully drawn in new advertisers in recent months, with some big-name brands like Apple making a comeback, but the platform’s overall advertising revenue recovery remains uncertain, according to third-party data.
Business Insider reports that since Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter in 2022, the platform he renamed X has experienced a tumultuous period marked by significant changes in its advertising landscape. While X has managed to attract a new set of advertisers and welcomed back some major brands, the company’s advertising revenue recovery remains a complex picture, as suggested by an analysis of data from four independent sources.
According to Sensor Tower, a market intelligence firm, 46 of the top 100 U.S. advertisers on X in January 2025 were not spending on the platform in 2022. This indicates that X has successfully cultivated a new advertiser base. However, the data also reveals that the overall spending by these top advertisers in January 2025 was lower compared to the previous set of top advertisers in January 2024. Sensor Tower reports that the top advertiser on X in January was Chinese retailer Temu, with Shein also in the top 10. Breitbart News has reported extensively on the shoddy and dangerous products offered by both. Other top advertisers for the month include Amazon and DraftKings.
MediaRadar, a research firm that analyzed a panel of over 2 million U.S. users, estimated that X’s US advertising revenue in 2024 was $1.4 billion, a 28 percent decrease from the nearly $2 billion spent on the platform in 2023. Despite this decline in revenue, the number of companies advertising on X in 2024 increased by 15 percent year-over-year, possibly due to new deals X signed with adtech vendors to drive advertiser demand.
Some industry insiders suggest that X could benefit from Donald Trump’s November election win and Elon Musk’s increasingly influential role in his administration. This political environment has led some advertisers to contemplate whether spending on X might be a strategic move in 2025. Apple, for example, which had stopped spending on X in 2023, bought ads on the platform again this month.
However, data from Ebiquity, a marketing consultancy that works with 70 of the top 100 global advertisers, shows that only one of its clients was spending on X in December 2024, down from 13 clients in December 2023. This suggests that while there are isolated cases of advertisers returning to the platform, there are no signs of a mass return yet.
Elon Musk and X have filed an antitrust lawsuit including many brands alleging that major advertisers formed an illegal boycott campaign:
The lawsuit alleges that the World Federation of Advertisers, concerned about X potentially straying from its brand safety initiative called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), orchestrated a large-scale pause in advertising on the platform. As a result, at least 18 GARM-affiliated advertisers reportedly stopped buying ads on X either in the U.S. or globally in the weeks following Musk’s acquisition of the company in November 2022. Other GARM members are said to have “substantially reduced” their ad spending on the platform during this period.
X’s lawyers argue that the alleged boycott has deprived the company of billions of dollars in advertising revenue, with the ramifications continuing to be felt years later. They contend that in a competitive market, social media platforms should have the freedom to set their own brand safety standards that are optimal for their specific platform, without the collective action of advertisers dictating these standards and overriding consumer interests. This especially applies to woke companies trying to force social media platforms to toe the same political line.
Read more at Business Insider here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
