Bluesky exploded in popularity after the 2024 presidential election as millions of users sought an alternative to Elon Musk’s X, where changes under Musk — including a revamped verification system and algorithmic shifts — had alienated some users. But nearly two years later, that momentum has faded with usage seeing stunning drops.
Bluesky’s mobile app had 10.4 million monthly active users worldwide in June, down 27.2% from a year earlier, according to Similarweb estimates. In comparison, X boasted 302 million users in the same period, and saw a 3% decline over the same period, the firm said.
The Bluesky backslide has renewed a debate over whether the app’s culture could be limiting its appeal, as critics argue that frequent blocking, pile-ons and disputes over who belongs could make it harder to retain a broader audience. Bluesky, which has developed a reputation as a left-leaning alternative to X, has made giving users greater control over what they see — through blocking, moderation lists and customizable feeds — central to its approach, but that feature appears to have morphed into a bug for some.
Bluesky was among several social media platforms that emerged in late 2022 to 2023 as a haven for those seeking to escape from X’s increasingly toxic feed, a group that included Meta’s Threads, Mastodon, Post News and Pebble. Bluesky’s post-2024 boost had some wondering if it could overtake X as “the next Twitter,” but the social media platform is now bleeding the very users it won over.
Some retreat from that surge was unsurprising. But Bluesky now faces a larger challenge: whether a platform that developed a highly engaged community can expand beyond it enough to compete with X and Threads.
The question over whether its culture is to blame resurfaced Monday after conservative writer Sohrab Ahmari highlighted an UnHerd essay arguing that a “noxious atmosphere” of left-wing infighting and ideological denunciation has become particularly concentrated on Bluesky, potentially contributing to its declining relevance.
Among Android users, Bluesky also has the weakest 30-day retention rate compared with X and Meta’s Threads, according to Similarweb estimates provided to TheWrap. David Carr, Similarweb’s editor of insights news and research, cautioned that Threads gets an “artificial boost” from its integration with Instagram and Facebook.
Bluesky’s own data shows daily active users peaking in early 2025 before declining through much of the year. But the company said that decline has slowed each quarter, with the past three months the flattest yet, while it said monthly active users ticked up slightly in August.
Bluesky said usage is stabilizing and expects growth to resume as it focuses on better onboarding and helping users find relevant accounts, feeds and communities.
The decline also comes from an unusually high starting point. Bluesky’s daily active users jumped 62% in the week after the 2024 election as users flocked to the platform amid dissatisfaction with X.
The tension among its users became particularly visible after journalist Jesse Singal joined Bluesky in late 2024. A Change.org petition calling on Bluesky to enforce its community guidelines against him attracted more than 28,000 verified signatures, with organizers accusing Singal of sharing private medical information without a patient’s consent. Singal disputed that the material violated the platform’s rules, arguing that it was not personally identifying. Bluesky did not ban Singal, saying he had not violated its policies.
But research into Bluesky’s moderation system complicates the idea that blocking itself is creating an ideological bubble.
Michał Król, an associate professor in cybersecurity at City, University of London who has studied moderation activity across 34 million Bluesky users, told TheWrap that blocking rates were “almost identical” among left- and right-leaning users and were more closely associated with having strong opinions than political affiliation.
While Król said the researchers found no strong evidence connecting Bluesky’s moderation culture to its growth, which he said has been heavily influenced by outside events including the U.S. election and X’s temporary ban in Brazil, he did identify one potential risk: the centralization of community blocklists. A small number of people manage popular lists that can affect large amounts of content without subscribers being notified when accounts are added.
Bluesky CEO Toni Schneider has rejected the idea that the platform should remain a political bubble. In an August interview with The Verge’s “Decoder,” Schneider said Bluesky wants to change its reputation as a progressive enclave and attract a broader range of users.
“We’re an open network for anyone and we don’t want to serve just one type of user base,” Schneider said, while also defending the tools Bluesky gives users to control their own experience and prevent conversations from becoming “a shouting match.”
Bluesky’s post-election peak may never have been a realistic baseline, and the recent flattening in its own data suggests the steepest declines could be behind it.
But nearly two years after Bluesky briefly emerged as the buzziest challenger to X, its challenge has changed: It no longer needs to prove that it can attract millions of people unhappy with another social network. It needs to prove it can persuade them to stay.
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