Amid Twitter exodus, Bluesky tops Apple’s App Store

More and more people are apparently deciding they don’t want to keep using the social media platform run by the guy just tapped to co-lead President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency. (That’s right, Elon Musk was tapped this week, with Vivek Ramaswamy, to lead the DOGE.) That’s what the sudden surge in popularity of Bluesky, a new-ish Twitter (X) alternative, would suggest at least. 

As of this writing, Bluesky sits atop the Apple App Store’s list of free apps. CNBC reported earlier this week that the rival enrolled at least 1.25 million new users in the days since the presidential election, bringing its total user base to about 15 million. That’s still a fraction of Twitter’s user base, but an impressive bump for an app that really only launched last year regardless. The site has also been glitching a bit today, per The Verge, which is possibly a reflection of the surge in popularity. That outlet also notes that Threads, the Meta-owned Twitter alternative, has also been experiencing a new surge of users, having signed up more than 15 million this month alone.   

Musk, meanwhile, has been posting through it, as is his wont. Outside of his usual anti-DEI nonsense, the X boss has been gloating about the platform’s purported growth, retweeting one post about “platform usage reaching an all-time high” and claiming that the site will replace traditional news media. He also, bizarrely, shared a meme apparently comparing himself to Neil Patrick Harris at the end of Starship Troopers. There are two possible reads of this: either he doesn’t understand the movie at all, or he’s willingly comparing himself to the guy “in an SS uniform,” in the words of director Paul Verhoeven. Either way, not great!