Bluesky growth normalises after post-election surge

Social network Bluesky, a competitor to X, experienced a significant slowdown in growth in December 2024 after a period of rapid expansion earlier in the year. Analytics firm Similarweb reported that Bluesky's user base grew by less than 10% month-over-month in December, a sharp decline from November’s 189% growth. Daily active users of the Bluesky mobile app in the U.S. rose just 12% in December, compared to a staggering 284% growth in November.

As of now, Bluesky has 26.44 million users and has started integrating features like Trending Topics. Its earlier surge in popularity was fueled by a migration of users from X, formerly Twitter, after Elon Musk aligned closely with incoming president Donald Trump and used the platform to promote Trump’s campaign. Dissatisfied with X’s direction, users flocked to Bluesky, propelling the app to the top of the U.S. App Store charts in November and attracting a wave of celebrities, journalists, and authors.

However, recent data indicates Bluesky's explosive growth is tapering off and normalising. Despite the slowdown, Bluesky continues to grow faster than rivals like Instagram Threads. In December, U.S. desktop and mobile web visits to Bluesky rose 9.6% month-over-month, outperforming Threads’ 1.6% decline. Globally, Bluesky’s website visits increased by 9.5%, ahead of Threads’ 5.7% and X’s 2.4%.

Bluesky’s rapid expansion has brought challenges, including user discontent over moderation policies, bot activity, impersonation, and username squatting. The company has attempted to address these issues in recent updates. Despite the December slowdown, Bluesky achieved extraordinary growth in 2024, with a 930% year-over-year increase globally and two-year growth of over 30,000%.