Trump's Truth Social downloaded 170k times on Apple App Store

Donald Trump's Truth Social app was downloaded 170,000 times on Apple Inc's App Store since its launch last Sunday evening, according to research firm Apptopia.

The app created by the company run by the former US president was the most downloaded app on Apple's store shortly after it was made public.

High anticipation and pre-orders of the app likely accounted for the high volume of downloads, Apptopia said.

Trump is hoping Truth Social will attract the millions who followed him on Twitter as he hints at a third presidential run, triggering a wave of other subscribers to justify the billions of dollars that investors have bet on the venture. Shares in a company that plans to buy Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent of Truth Social, have soared in recent months.

According to Apple’s rankings, Truth Social was the top free app in the U.S. on Monday morning, besting the “Talking Ben the Dog” children’s game, streaming service HBO Max, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.

The partial launch Monday follows an experimental “beta” launch to test the platform last week.

Trump was banned from top social media platforms following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot last year that critics accused him of inciting. The ban has raised difficult questions of free speech in a social media industry dominated by few tech giants, an issue that Trump and conservative media have seized upon.

Republicans were quick to use the launch of Truth Social to raise money for their election efforts.

“After over A YEAR of muzzling by the Liberal Big Tech Tyrants: TRUMP. IS. BACK,” wrote GOP House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in a fundraising email appeal Monday.

Groups like the Republican National Committee and the Congressional Leadership Fund also have been fundraising off the launch.

“Our main goal here is to give people their voice back," Trump Media CEO and former GOP Congressman Devin Nunes said Sunday on Fox News. He added that the app offers "the opposite of some Silicon Valley tech oligarch freak telling people what they want to think and deciding who can or cannot be on the platform.”

Trump is hoping to tap into outrage over the social media bans to attract a broad audience to keep the stock rising — and possibly hand him hundreds of millions of dollars personally — but he faces significant challenges.

None of alternative messaging platforms already open to public, such as Gettr and Parler, have been able to move beyond an echo chamber of conservative political commentary.

Trump's company, Trump Media, also faces financial hurdles. It has been promised nearly $300 million from a publicly traded company that plans to merge with it and got pledges from dozens of private investors for an additional $1 billion to fund its operations, but it still needs approval from regulators for the deal before it can access the cash.

Reuters contributed to this report.