BlueSky now has more than 29 million users, more than three times the 9 million users recorded in September 2024. According to PC Magazine, BlueSky had about 3 million users in early 2024.
BlueSky’s growth can be linked to Elon Musk, whose far-right politics are linked to his social media platform and BlueSky’s rival X.
A survey conducted by the science journal Nature showed that the overwhelming majority (70%) of its readers have moved from X to BlueSky. Although the results do not represent the entire online science community, they are certainly in line with other studies that have found science researchers are leaving BlueSky and preferring it.
Likewise, a slew of journalists and others have been moving from X to BlueSky over the past few months, looking for a digital forum that isn’t filled with right-wing extremism, misinformation, and (too many) useless ads.
The subreddit has begun banning direct links to X, and according to WIRED, fans of mega popstar Taylor Swift—dubbed “Swifites”—have also moved away from X, citing Musk’s bizarre rhetoric.
Meanwhile, X has lost an estimated 80% of its value since Musk bought the company for $44 billion in October 2022. All the moves Musk has made since the purchase—firing three-quarters of the staff, monetizing the blue-check verification system, allowing hate speech and misinformation to run rampant, and offering ethically questionable image generators—have driven it even lower.
Since Musk’s purchase of X, users have continued to flock – and the rate has increased significantly since Musk officially endorsed Donald Trump a month before the presidential election and took over the @America handle on X.
While X has more than 500 million users worldwide, that number is suspect to researchers who question Musk’s definition of “active users.”
According to BlueSky User Count, the social media platform gains about 3 users every second. It probably won’t take long for it to overtake X now.
