Highlights
- Bluesky hits 20 million users, with 1M joining in just one week
- Platform saw 500% surge in usage after the US election
- Bluesky emerges as popular alternative for users leaving X
Bluesky, the decentralized social media platform, is gaining momentum as users flock to alternatives in response to X’s controversial direction under Elon Musk.
Launched in early 2023, Bluesky has reached a significant milestone: surpassing 20 million active users. This growth coincides with an increasing demand for alternatives to Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter), especially following the U.S. presidential election.
In the week following the U.S. election, Bluesky saw a surge of over 1 million new sign-ups, bringing its user base to nearly 15 million. As the political climate intensifies, many disillusioned X users are flocking to Bluesky in search of a more neutral, less divisive social media space.
Bluesky’s growth isn’t just statistical. It’s attracting a growing number of high-profile figures, including comedian Ben Stiller, author Stephen King, and pop star Lizzo. The influx of celebrities and influencers has drawn attention to the platform, positioning it as a serious contender in the social media race.
Bluesky now has over 20M people!! 🎉 We've been adding over a million users per day for the last few days. To celebrate, here are 20 fun facts about Bluesky:
— Jay 🦋 (@jay.bsky.team) November 19, 2024 at 11:19 PM
What is Bluesky?
Bluesky is a text-first social media platform where users can share posts of up to 300 characters. Like X, posts are displayed in a newsfeed, but Bluesky differentiates itself with a focus on decentralization, allowing users to engage with content hosted on a server tailored to specific interests or communities. This decentralized model is similar to platforms like Mastodon and Discord, which prioritize user control over content and governance.
Launched in 2023, Bluesky was conceived as a project within Twitter back in 2019. The initiative was spearheaded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, with the aim of creating an open-source, decentralized alternative to traditional social networks. Dorsey announced the project in a 2020 tweet, promising to fund the development of Bluesky. After his departure from Twitter in 2021, Bluesky spun off as an independent company, with its team continuing to build out the platform. Though Jack Dorsey funded Bluesky, as distanced himself from the platform and and no longer sits on the company’s board.
Who owns Bluesky?
Bluesky’s leadership reflects its focus on decentralization and user control. The CEO of Bluesky is Jay Graber, who previously founded an events-focused social platform called Happening and worked as a software engineer on the Zcash cryptocurrency project.
While Bluesky is privately owned by its team, the platform’s overarching mission is to decentralize control away from a single authority. In its vision, power is shifted from centralized entities like X and Facebook, back into the hands of creators and users.
“Traditional social networks are often closed platforms with a central authority,” Bluesky’s website states, “there’s a small group of people who control those companies, and they have total control over how users can use the platform and what developers can build.”
In October 2024, Bluesky raised $15 million in Series A funding, led by Blockchain Capital, to expand its user base and develop its platform. The round also saw participation from Alumni Ventures, True Ventures, SevenX, and prominent investors including Joe Beda and Amir Shevat of Darkmode.
What’s behind the exodus from X?
The day after the U.S. presidential election, the social media landscape saw a major shift. Over 115,000 users deactivated their accounts on Elon Musk’s X, marking the platform’s largest-ever mass exodus. Meanwhile, Bluesky, a smaller competitor, saw a 500% surge in daily traffic in the U.S., according to Similarweb data.
Bluesky CEO Jay Graber told NPR that the platform has been gaining about a million users daily. She explained that this growth validates their model, which emphasizes giving users more control over their experience, leading to a better social media environment.
2. Here's an image from a presentation I gave to Twitter, representing the Twitter bird freed from a closed platform to fly in Bluesky's open ecosystem.
— Jay 🦋 (@jay.bsky.team) November 19, 2024 at 11:19 PM
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“Journalists are migrating there en masse. Celebrity actors and musicians are flooding in. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has joined the party, and the New York City mayor’s office is ordering agencies to set up camp. They’re calling it the #Xodus, and it’s happening fast,” Zeeshan Aleem said in an MSNBC opinion piece.
Bluesky’s decentralized, open-source approach combined with its user-friendly interface has made it an attractive alternative for those dissatisfied with X. Critics of Musk’s leadership on X point to increasing concerns over misinformation, the rise in hate speech, and the platform’s focus on right-wing political figures like Donald Trump.
With 20 million users, Bluesky is still a fraction of the size of X, which reported 229 million daily active users in 2022. That number has likely changed since Musk took X private, and the company stopped disclosing official user data. Meanwhile, Meta’s Threads app, another emerging social media platform, has surpassed 175 million monthly active users.
Why is Bluesky gaining popularity among Ex-Twitter users?
Bluesky is rapidly gaining popularity among former Twitter (now X) users for several key reasons:
- Decentralized and Open-Source Model: Bluesky operates on a decentralized network, similar to Mastodon, allowing users more control over their data and enabling them to set up their own servers. This reduces the risk of platform failure and ensures that content can be integrated with alternative apps in the future.
- Familiar User Interface: Bluesky’s interface resembles X’s, making it easy for users to transition with minimal learning curve.
- Engagement and Community: Bluesky offers a more engaging user experience, particularly for free users, who often feel sidelined on X due to algorithm changes and paid subscriptions.
- Better Engagement: Users report higher engagement on Bluesky, especially compared to the decline in interaction many experience on X following the introduction of X Premium.
- Perceived Algorithmic Bias: Many users feel that X’s algorithm prioritizes negative content and irrelevant ads. Bluesky, by contrast, is seen as offering a more organic, user-friendly experience.
“People have been saying for years that it would be great if users could own their data and their relationships; if we could have transparent algorithms and algorithmic choice; if there could be more accountability and user control over how social platforms are moderated,” Graber wrote in a blog post last month. “We’ve now designed and built a system that we think achieves the goals stated above.”
How do you join Bluesky?
Initially, Bluesky operated on an invite-only basis, which limited access while the platform was in its early testing stages. However, in February 2024, Bluesky opened its doors to all users, making it easy for anyone to join. To join, users can visit the Bluesky website or download the app on iOS or Android, follow the prompts, and create an account.
