Bluesky Sees Surge in New Users as Elon Musk Plans to Charge for X

Bluesky, the decentralized social media platform considered an alternative to Twitter, experienced its largest influx of new users in a single day after Elon Musk revealed plans to introduce a monthly fee for using platform X. Since its launch earlier this year, Bluesky has been an invite-only platform, but on Tuesday, September 19, the platform saw over 42,000 new users sign up, surpassing its previous record of 32,325 new users in a day. As of now, Bluesky has a total user count of 1,113,820.

Although it is uncertain if Musk’s payment comments directly influenced the surge in Bluesky’s user base, it is likely that it played a role. Musk had recently acquired Twitter and its subsidiary X, previously known as Twitter, and announced during a livestream with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that users would need to pay a “small monthly payment” to access X. This declaration came after Musk implemented other unpopular changes to Twitter that restricted content visibility for non-paying users over the July 4th weekend, leading numerous users to seek alternative social media platforms.

Bluesky, which operates independently from Twitter but has its support, was already funded with $13 million by Twitter before Musk’s acquisition. Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey backs the platform, although day-to-day management is overseen by Bluesky’s CEO Jay Graber.