Fledgling social media platform Bluesky has seen a massive influx of users in the wake of the presidential election, fetching 20 million users while trying to compete with X and Threads.
While Bluesky’s milestone is far below the user bases of its rivals, the site’s growth since Nov. 5 could see it pushing its competitors faster than expected. According to new data from Similarweb, usage of Bluesky since the election is up 519% compared with the first 10 months of the year.
Bluesky’s daily active user base has grown as well. Before the election, Threads had five times more daily active users than Bluesky. As of Friday, Bluesky had significantly closed the gap, with Threads boasting only 1.5 times as many daily active users.
Bluesky dominates in app downloads, snagging the top spot on Apple’s App Store on Nov. 13, and has held the position for nearly a week. That means Bluesky is beating not only Threads and X in downloads, but also other social media apps like Reddit, Instagram and Truth Social.
Hints of Bluesky’s growth were apparent in the week following the election. On Nov. 12, the social media platform announced it added around 1 million users over the previous week, welcoming 100,000 new users daily.
Bluesky’s record growth comes after former President Donald Trump soundly defeated Vice President Kamala Harris. His victory sent shockwaves through social media, particularly on X, which is owned by Trump ally Elon Musk.
While many X conservatives cheered Mr. Trump’s triumph, some left-leaning users saw Mr. Trump’s election and Mr. Musk’s endorsement of him as the final straw and announced they were leaving the top social media platform. Former CNN host Don Lemon and U.K. news outlet The Guardian both said they were trading X for Bluesky.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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