Typically, after a presidential election in the U.S., search queries about leaving the country spike as supporters of the losing candidate consider what to do next.
While physically moving out of the country may be a bit complicated, finding a new social media home is a much simpler task. And it appears that hundreds of thousands of people have decided to flee Elon Musk's X in the wake of the U.S. election results.
According to Bsky Stats, a website that tracks Bluesky signups, posts, and other analytics, the platform now has more than 14.6 million users. Bluesky user Jaz, who runs the stats website, says that Bluesky has seen more than 100,000 new user signups every day since the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5th.
Bluesky has officially confirmed to outlets like The Guardian and The Verge that the platform has seen more than 700,000 new signups in the past week.
Bluesky continues to grow
Bluesky has quickly become the alternative social media platform of choice for users looking to flee Elon Musk's X. While Meta’s Threads still leads among X alternatives with 275 million users, much of that user base is due to the platform’s close integration with Instagram. Bluesky isn’t backed by any Big Tech company, yet it has managed to grow organically. It currently ranks as the third most popular microblogging platform, following X and Threads.
Bluesky's growth spurts seems directly linked tied to decisions Musk has made regarding X.
In September, millions of users in Brazil flocked to Bluesky after the country's Supreme Court banned X due to Musk's refusal to follow Brazilian law. X has since played ball and paid a hefty fine, resulting in the platform being unbanned. However, Bluesky was able to enjoy a 50 percent growth in its user base as a result of the ordeal.
Just last month, Bluesky saw another surge in user growth after X officially announced it was changing how the block function worked on its platform. Within 24 hours of X's announcement, more than 500,000 new users joined Bluesky.
Social media researcher Axel Bruns speculates that Bluesky's user growth is sparked by X users seeking refuge in a new social media platform "without all the far-right activism, the misinformation, the hate speech, the bots and everything else." He added that the liberal side of the Twitter community have escaped and moved "en masse" to Bluesky.
Musk was a significant supporter and financial backer of Donald Trump’s campaign. While Bluesky’s recent user boost is smaller than past surges — like when Brazil banned X or when X changed its blocking feature — the platform may continue to grow as Musk is expected to be an influential figure in Trump’s administration.
