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X rival Bluesky has reached a new milestone, crossing 20 million users following a surge of "sustained" growth in the US, according to traffic analyzer Similarweb.
Bluesky reached 20 million users on Tuesday morning, up from 12 million a month ago. The platform has rapidly gained users amid an apparent exodus from Elon Musk's X following his public support for President-elect Donald Trump.
Similarweb says Bluesky's growth is more than a short burst but the “most sustained growth” it’s seen since the Twitter alternative came out of its invite-only beta phase in February. “This wave of new users marks a turning point for the platform."
(Credit: Similarweb )The company’s report adds that Bluesky app usage in the US last week soared by 519% compared with the first 10 months of the year. In the UK, the growth has also followed a similar trend, increasing by 352% during the same period.
"The growth is linked to users either leaving X or investing more time in exploring a promising alternative," Similarweb added.
Bluesky still trails Meta's Threads, another Twitter alternative that gained 15 million users in November alone. However, Similarweb says the "explosion of use of Bluesky in the US is more sudden and dramatic," as website visits to Bluesky in the US and UK surge ahead of visits to the Threads site.
(Credit: Similarweb)“Bluesky’s audience is still much smaller than that for Threads, let alone X – but could catch up with Threads if it keeps growing at this rate,” Similarweb adds. Threads recently reached 275 million monthly active users.
X reportedly had 250 million daily users in July. But despite the apparent exodus of users, X CEO Linda Yaccarino says usage of the app "is at an all-time high and continues to surge." Musk also says some big brands have resumed advertising on X.