Bluesky surges into the top 5 as X changes blocks, permits AI training on its data

Social networking startup Bluesky, which just reported a gain of half a million users over the past day, has now soared into the top five apps on the U.S. App Store and has become the No. 2 app in the Social Networking category, up from No. 181 a week ago, according to data from app intelligence firm Appfigures. The growth is entirely organic, we understand, as Appfigures confirmed the company is not running any App Store Search Ads.

In addition, the growth is not limited to the U.S. market, either. A number of countries are showing four-digit growth in downloads, compared to last Wednesday, leading Bluesky to enter the top 10 in countries like Japan, Thailand, and Taiwan, where it’s No. 1; Hong Kong, where it’s No. 2; Canada and South Korea, where it’s No. 4; and Singapore, where it’s No. 8.

While data on the app’s growth on Google Play is delayed, the early indications are that it’s rising there, too. At 4 a.m. EST, the app moved from No. 100 on the Android app store to No. 5 in the Social Networking category, and it is continuing to climb.

Appfigures can’t yet account for Bluesky’s claimed half a million new users over the course of a day, but its estimates do confirm a massive growth spurt. So far, the firm is seeing 197,000 new installs on the App Store on Thursday, up from just 3,400 the day prior. The majority of those — 80,000, or 40% — came from the U.S. Japan also contributed with 53,000 installs (27%), and downloads have grown by four digits in around 90 total countries, Appfigures tells TechCrunch.

As to what’s driving the surge, there are likely several factors working in combination.

On X, users are understandably upset over the company’s decision to change how the block function operates. Soon, users with public accounts can have their X posts viewed by anyone, including those they’ve blocked, unlike before. Blocked users will only be prevented from engaging with those posts by liking, replying, and reposting, for instance. That introduces a safety issue for many who use the platform but face harassment and abuse, and for some, it was the final straw.

In addition, X updated its Terms of Service and Privacy policy this week, giving it the right to share X user data with third parties, including those companies developing AI models.

X may also still be feeling the effects from the earlier Brazil ban, though lifted, which saw some active users from that region making the shift to Bluesky, possibly pulling their followers with them.

Plus, Bluesky could be benefiting from the moderation issues plaguing Threads, which saw users getting their accounts banned or their posts downranked for no reason. (Meta had partially attributed the problem to internal software used by Threads’ moderators.)

In any event, X isn’t yet feeling the impacts of the changes, adding 17,000 downloads between Tuesday and Thursday. However, the app is no longer in the U.S. App Store’s top 10, now sitting at No. 29. The Elon Musk-owned app is seeing a mild downward trend, Appfigures says, but this is in line with the entire news category in the U.S. App Store being down 8.4% this year.

Bluesky has seen big surges before, including when it opened its doors to the public after a long invite-only phase and more recently, when Brazil banned X, driving half a million new users to the social networking startup over the first two days of the ban, and more in the days that followed.

(After publication, Bluesky announced it had added 1 million new users, driving its total user count to over 12 million.)