Bluesky Growth Slowing: User Acquisition Trends

Bluesky's User Growth Decelerates After Rapid Expansion

The expansion of Bluesky, a social network positioned as a competitor to X (formerly Twitter), experienced a noticeable deceleration in user acquisition within the United States during December. This followed a period of substantial growth, increasing from over 9 million users in September to more than 20 million by November.

Growth Rate Analysis

An analysis conducted by the analytics firm Similarweb, focusing on web traffic and daily active users of the mobile application, revealed the slowdown. Bluesky’s month-over-month growth in December 2024 was less than 10%, a significant contrast to the 189% growth observed in November.

The daily active user count for the Bluesky mobile app in the U.S. also demonstrated a reduced growth rate, increasing by 12% in December compared to the 284% growth recorded in November, according to Similarweb’s findings.

Current User Base and Feature Adoption

As of the latest data available, Bluesky boasts a total user base of 26.44 million. The platform is actively incorporating features previously associated with X, such as Trending Topics.

Factors Influencing Initial Growth

Late in the previous year, Bluesky benefited from a migration of users leaving X following the U.S. presidential election. Increased alignment between Elon Musk and incoming president Donald Trump, coupled with the use of X to promote the Trump campaign, prompted users dissatisfied with the platform’s evolving direction to seek alternatives like Bluesky.

This influx propelled Bluesky’s application to the top of the U.S. App Store charts in November, maintaining the No. 1 Overall position from November 13th through November 21st, 2024, as reported by Appfigures.

Celebrity Adoption and Mainstream Attention

The surge in popularity attracted attention from a wider audience, resulting in a wave of sign-ups from prominent figures in Hollywood, music, literature, and journalism during November.

Normalization of Growth

Current data suggests that the peak growth period for Bluesky has passed, and the platform’s expansion is now returning to more typical levels.

Comparison with Instagram Threads

Despite the slowdown, Bluesky continues to grow. Similarweb data indicates that Bluesky outperformed another X competitor, Instagram Threads, in the U.S. during December. U.S. desktop and mobile web visits to Bluesky increased by 9.6% month-over-month, while visits to Threads.net decreased by 1.6%. It's worth noting that Meta owns the Threads.com domain, which currently redirects to Threads.net.

Global Performance

Globally, website visits to Bluesky’s application rose by a comparable 9.5% month-over-month in December 2024, largely driven by growth in the U.S. This surpasses the growth rates of Threads (5.7%) and X (2.4%), as shown by Similarweb’s data.

Challenges with Scale

With a larger user base, Bluesky is now confronting challenges inherent in scaling a social network. These include user concerns regarding moderation policies, the presence of automated bots, and malicious activities such as username squatting and impersonation, issues the company addressed in a recent application update.

Overall Growth in 2024

Despite the December slowdown, Bluesky experienced substantial growth throughout 2024. Website visits worldwide increased by 930% year-over-year, and by 30,564% over the past two years, according to Similarweb’s analysis.