Bluesky's Active User Base Shrinks 52% Over 18 Months, But Its Protocol is Spreading (techcrunch.com) 75
An anonymous reader shared this report from TechCrunch:
According to data from digital intelligence provider Similarweb, Bluesky's mobile app had 10.4 million monthly active users worldwide in June 2026, down 27.2% year-over-year. In addition, mobile daily active users continued to decline, falling 25.6% year-over-year in July to around 3 million... Bluesky's app has lost more than half its monthly active users from its late-2024 high... Its quarterly average was around 22.1 million monthly active users in the fourth quarter of 2024, Similarweb's data indicates, and it declined to 10.7 million in the second quarter of 2026. That's a decline of around 52%.
While Bluesky's numbers are down, those who stuck around are committed. Its smaller community remains relatively active, with a stickiness rate (the ratio of daily to monthly active users) of roughly 29% in June, about the same as Threads.
For Bluesky's new CEO, Toni Schneider, these numbers may not be as concerning. The company is not entirely focused on making Bluesky (the app) succeed, but on making it possible for the underlying protocol (AT Proto) to power a growing number of social apps, services, and communities. That's something that is now taking place, as projects like BlackSky and Eurosky are growing, while some AT Proto apps like the video-focused Skylight have found early traction, too. In addition, the company has launched new products, like the AI-powered research tool Attie, and is now working on adding support for private data to Bluesky. The latter could generate new interest in Bluesky from a different type of user — those less interested in the public square, and more interested in private networking and communities.
But on Threads in July of 2026, daily active users were up 21.3% year-over-year to 147 million, the article points out, and website visits were up 112% year-over-year to 471.6 million. And Threads now appears to have roughly 66% more monthly active users than X.
While Bluesky's numbers are down, those who stuck around are committed. Its smaller community remains relatively active, with a stickiness rate (the ratio of daily to monthly active users) of roughly 29% in June, about the same as Threads.
For Bluesky's new CEO, Toni Schneider, these numbers may not be as concerning. The company is not entirely focused on making Bluesky (the app) succeed, but on making it possible for the underlying protocol (AT Proto) to power a growing number of social apps, services, and communities. That's something that is now taking place, as projects like BlackSky and Eurosky are growing, while some AT Proto apps like the video-focused Skylight have found early traction, too. In addition, the company has launched new products, like the AI-powered research tool Attie, and is now working on adding support for private data to Bluesky. The latter could generate new interest in Bluesky from a different type of user — those less interested in the public square, and more interested in private networking and communities.
But on Threads in July of 2026, daily active users were up 21.3% year-over-year to 147 million, the article points out, and website visits were up 112% year-over-year to 471.6 million. And Threads now appears to have roughly 66% more monthly active users than X.
Oh No! (Score:3, Funny)
Anyway...
Everyone is saving their pennies so that they can buy a Truth Social subscription and get their stock tips firstest.
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Re: Oh No! (Score:2)
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Re: Oh No! (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
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I mean at this point everywhere on the internet that isn't Truth Social is a place to rant about Trump.
Except that on bluesky, that's basically all there is. If you look at the time periods where there's the most user activity, it almost always lines up perfectly with some event involving trump. This is something I've noticed ever since slashdot's editors first fell in love with bluesky and started posting about it every time it gained a new user account whose owner never really used it.
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Yeah but most places that's all there is. Just look at Slashdot. The most heavily discussed articles are the political ones, and the overwhelming amount of them are critical of Trump.
Editors aren't "in love" with Bluesky. Editors don't submit most articles. If you see too much talk about bluesky, maybe that's because it's the Slashdot readers who are submitting articles about it... which kind of also emphasises my point.
Re: Oh No! (Score:1)
Slashdot user activity isn't dependent upon trump news cycles, and while officially it's user submissions, it isn't really. Not only do editors ultimately decide what submissions get accepted, they put their own in. Msmash, for example, occasionally posts crap about tennis that nobody submitted or asked for.
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Well, I' glad to see that somebody somewhere rants about one of the most demented and dangerous people on the planet. I can only hope they manage to actually do something to oust him before it's too late.
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So, you're PRO allowing Iran to fully develop nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them balistically?
So, you're for open US borders to let most anyone in and you're against deporting those here illegally? (I mean, even Obama was for deporting illegals).
So you're against the drop in crime across the U
Re: Oh No! (Score:5, Insightful)
So, you're PRO allowing Iran to fully develop nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them balistically?
Literally nothing has changed about Iran's nuclear posture after 6 months of this bullshit, and previously "obliterating" their program in 2025. Keep chugging that kool-aid bro - they still possess every atom of U235 they had before, at the exact same enrichment level.
So, you're for open US borders to let most anyone in and you're against deporting those here illegally? (I mean, even Obama was for deporting illegals).
Trump's been in office for two years, and we still have "open US borders to let most anyone in" ? How is that not an abject policy failure when he controls both sides of Congress? Why is this still a problem when it was a major piece of his campaign?
So you're against the drop in crime across the US, especially in cities where the Nat'l Guard had to be deployed temporarily?
The deployment of the national guard has made ZERO DIFFERENCE statistically in violent crime. [nbcwashington.com]. More bullshit kool-aid.
BUT I very much appreciate many if not most of the actions and accomplishments he's managed to do since election
Here are his "accomplishments":
- higher inflation
- higher deficit spending
- higher energy prices
- another forever war in the middle east nobody asked for except Israel
- lower wage growth
- stagnant economic growth
- higher unemployment
- a war still going in Ukraine he said he'd end on day 1
- higher prices he said he would bring down on day 1
- locking up migrants that are only trying to build a life and work, instead of the "worst of the worst" that he can't seem to find to deport
Stop carrying water for this fucking incompetent liar. It's pathetic.
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Re: Oh No! (Score:4, Interesting)
So, you're PRO child sexual abuse?
So, you're for brazen corruption, market manipulation, insider trading, cronyism, pay-to-play and self-dealing? (I mean, even Carter sold his peanut farm.)
So, you support your government spending millions of dollars to deploy troops against its own citizens as an intimidation tactic? (Do you really not understand that the National Guard is not law enforcement and spent their time as little more than overpaid landscapers?)
Yeah... so demented, indeed.
Bro, anybody can play this stupid non sequitur game. I can be against a nuclear Iran and a corrupt president at the same time. (Note that Donald Trump has not effectively addressed this issue.) I'm not above giving any president credit where credit is due, but this administration is hands-down the most damaging of our lifetime, possibly for generations.
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Bad financial model as a trick that never works (Score:2)
Deservedly Funny, and I think a good opening joke is always a fun FP, but I already want to get serious. I think "Why?" is the question.
Personal anecdote needed? I'm still using Bluesky, but never used it much. It would be amusing if there was a tool to track my personal Bluesky usage stats over time--but I don't think I care enough to click on such a link even if it already exists. I think the federated approach is a good idea, and Bluesky is nicer than Mastodon, but the Bluesky trend has been towards feep
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In direct response to your mostly off-topic joke, I think it just shows again what a lousy businessman the YOB is, even when he's breaking new ground in corruption. To actually make it relevant to this story, we'd have to figure out how to get the YOB to run the scam over on Bluesky, and that can't happen. Or at least it's beyond the bounds of my imagination. However here's my "criminal mindset" scheme to maximize the loot from your joke:
Sell off early access to EVERY official government announcement. The f
The circle jerk intensifies (Score:1, Informative)
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"Healthy adults seek cognitive discomfort, not reinforcement"
I guess we found one of the Thanksgiving uncles
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The fact that she's right doesn't make it any better.
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Leave my Aunt out of this.
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those aunts only have cats to talk to
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If you feel the need to force other people to listen to your views regardless of whether they want to hear from you or not, you're the asshole [reddit.com].
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To be clear: anyone can join Bluesky, regardless of their views. But if your posts are mainly, say, calling black people monkeys, calling trans people groomers, things of that nature, yeah, a lot of people are going to block you on sight. That's not "censorship", that's just people finding you to be an arse and having better things to do with their time online than be forced to listen to you. Everyone has a right to show anyone else the door; nobody has an obligation to face harassment.
Re:The circle jerk intensifies (Score:4, Informative)
On the other hand if your posts are mainly screaming death threats at Jews [vimeo.com] then you'll fit right in on bluesky. Especially if you can prove you've been spraypainting swastikas on synagogues or taking other "direct actions".
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I'll take "Things I've Never Once Seen On Bluesky" for $1000, Ken.
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Have you ever gone to a corner bar? Same freewheeling mix of opposing ideas happens there. Even the drunks mostly remain civil even so. I saw this five nights a week when I was a bartender.
Wait, you never leave you mom's basement so I picked a bad example.
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And if someone at the bar thinks you're an asshole, they'll do the RL equivalent of "blocking" you.
Once again: nobody has an obligation to listen to you, and if you think you have a right to force other people to listen to your views, you're the asshole.
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You're one of the "words are violence" idiots, I take it?
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Both Truth Social and Bluesky have "community guidelines" that prohibit speech about violence, unlawful activity, and other things. There are some differences, but the point is that both platforms have rules about what you can and can't say.
However, Truth Social has a centralized enforcement structure run by the company, whereas Bluesky has a decentralized moderation structure administered by the individual users and third-party agents.
In short, users on Bluesky could be "dogpiled" and made to feel unwelcom
Re:The circle jerk intensifies (Score:5, Informative)
Meanwhile, here's the reality of Bluesky user numbers [jazco.dev] (drag the range to the full range). Funny how everyone always wants to truncate the timeperiod for the "user base" to have a start date of that last big spike.
The simple fact is that with any site, most people who visit don't end up sticking around, and there's a dropoff rate. The persistance rate at Bluesky is actually unusually high**. The reason for the spikes is that Bluesky's users joined in waves; you can track each wave to specific events. Those two big spikes in new users were the US election date and the US inauguration date, respectively. You can find various other spikes related to for example various things that happened with Twitter.
** The typical retention rate [mwm.ai] for a new "consumer-social" app is 40-50% for 1 day, 20-30% for 1 week, and 10-15% for 1 month. Compare that to the Bluesky data. Again: persistence has been very high; the new-user join pattern has just been extremely "spiky".
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Looking at the data, it seems that there was an influx when Musk bought Twitter and let the Nazis back in, and then as communities fragmented and people realized they could live without a micro blogging service the fell back down to the steady state it's in now.
I do spend less time on there because there are few Japanese users, and all the Japanese electronics and retro computing stuff is still on Twitter.
Re: The circle jerk intensifies (Score:2)
The Jew supporting nazis.* Not the Jew hating nazis. They are out screaming from the river to the seaâ¦
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What's actually happening is social media use has plummeted across the board. I don't know if I've seen anyone explain why yet but everybody's numbers are way way down.
In particular young people are giving up on social media. Which surprises me giving that urban sprawl and the high cost of cars kind of isolates them. Maybe there's so many people packed in single family homes now that's less of an issue in some ways. A buddy of mine used to talk about how in Vietnam y
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You Americans take everything to politics... not everything is related to politics and should not be linked to it in anyway... yet you are doing it all the time
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When a political asshat took over Twitter, it was inevitable that social media would balkanize around political identity.
The right-wing nut jobs have taken over Twitter, it's not surprising that the left-wing nut jobs would find a place they could not be constantly dogpiled by the newly allowed trolling, bot flooding, and bullshit.
Similarly, it should not be surprised that right-wingers don't want to similarly be dogpiled.
Nobody should be surprised about any of this as long as partisan identity rules over c
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It amazes me that people forget Donald Trump was elected in 2016 with a huge assist from his Twitter following. Twitter was always a shitshow, and having personally dealt with one of the executives responsible back then, I am not surprised.
That climate existed long before Elon. The main difference now is that they have 85% fewer employees to schedule endless meetings with. The site runs as badly as it eve
Not Comparing Apples to Apples (Score:1)
BlueSky and Threads are not the same user base. Their users have different interests, are usually at different stages of life, and come from different backgrounds.
Simple examination of their own data shows this.
I am not sure what the businesspeople care about but it sounds like they've all bought into Elon Musk's Sauron-like "One App To Rule Them All."
When did folks start thinking it was an intelligent commentary to say that BlueSky doesn't have enough political naifs to qualify as a "place for politics onl
They are all garbage is the problem (Score:1)
X is now cesspool of alt-right toxic hate, intermixed with silicon valley AI tech bros, and politicians and clueless legacy media folks. Those are the only groups who still use it.
Meanwhile, Threads is just full of people who like to argue about random crap.
BlueSky is like X, but the opposite... it is alt-left toxic hate and mind-numbing social justice warriors who wont just chill out.
Most people who use social media, the 99%, don't want any of this. They just want to relax and chill and talk about fun thin
Re: They are all garbage is the problem (Score:1)
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Mastodon COULD be fine, if it had better discovery systems, and anyone at all used it.
Re: They are all garbage is the problem (Score:1)
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Easy for me to find lots of interesting things on Mastodon. I think, despite what people say, they love the rage bait on the bigger networks. Mastodon is just normal people discussing normal topics.
Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person who ever posts in the tag for a particular toy line. Either I guessed the wrong tag, or I'm the only person on fedi interested in that topic. Which is more likely?
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Depending on the instance any post you make gets lots of views on mastodon. Follows and likes are overrated while most have no use for followers other than to stroke their ego.
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If likes and boosts are overrated, then is there a way to find others' posts about a topic or to get more replies to my posts?
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Now that said once you get tired of that crap it is really hard to get it out of your feed on most platforms. Reddit in particular is basically useless once it gets a whiff of you being interested in politics. YouTube at least what you just start blocking things and you can eventually get me
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Another great example of denying reality by a MAGATARD.
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That's the icon for Twitter (now X.)
You're thinking of this icon. [icon-icons.com]
It's not resorting to addictive tactics (Score:2)
May be It's not resorting to all the addictive, headline grabbing tactics like zuck's enterprise, so people are not glued to it. Name and shame female students for starters...
Huh?!?! (Score:2)
And Threads now appears to have roughly 66% more monthly active users than X.
I've heard almost nothing about Threads recently. Certainly no indication they were more popular than Twitter.
Is their user count some sort of trick with how they interface with Instagram? Or is Twitter just turning into a ghost town without people realizing it?
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> Certainly no indication they were more popular than Twitter
Twitter died a long time ago. Elon Musk bought it and replaced it with X which is a far right website that "inherited" the user base Twitter had. The reason Threads is increasing is because nobody wants to be bombarded with messages about how they, or their friends, or just people who have done nothing wrong, are subhuman vermin who need to be exterminated.
X's user numbers are inflated. Bluesky is a fraud and BS's users are catching on to that.
Its a dead site... (Score:2)
I suspect I was shadowbanned on twitter, but I saw far more interaction on that before I left than on bluesky.
You get a flurry in a couple of weeks and then nothing. Nada.
Your friends don't see your posts.
Oh yeah, and then I got the spam. Seemed to be loads of that. Crypto crap.
I suspect twitter was in a state before Herr Pluggs got it, and all bluesky did was repeat them.
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On The Register [theregister.com] they keep your msgs in moderation for days so as no one will see them.
Bluesky and private data :o (Score:2)
I suspect the spooks already have backdoor access to user msgs
Mobile Mobile Mobile, App App App (Score:1)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Finally (Score:1)
Wasn't decentralization the idea? (Score:2)
They decreased number may be due to Blacksky and Eurosky? Yeah Bluesky doesn't make federation as easy as Mastodon, but officially it was a design goal.
moved (Score:2)
I am one of those who moved to Eurosky, to have my data on European servers. But I am not an extremely active user. just posting pictures once in a while.
systematic (Score:1)