Fast-growing X alternative Bluesky is still figuring out how best to generate revenue, but it’s becoming an increasingly important part of the news landscape—at least in some quarters.

The percentage of “news influencers” with a Bluesky account almost doubled in the four months after Election Day, jumping from 21% in November to 43% by March, according to a new analysis from the Pew Research Center.

Bluesky’s adoption is far higher on the left than the political right. While 75% of influencers identifying as left-wing had a Bluesky account, this number falls to just 15% on the right.

Pew considers someone a news influencer if they have over 100,000 followers and post regularly about current events. These are private individuals who post about news, not media outlets like The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal.

These numbers aren’t totally surprising. Bluesky saw a huge uptick in followers last year because many left-leaning people were fleeing X, owned by one of President Trump’s biggest supporters, Elon Musk.

X remains a strong force in the world of news commentary. Three-quarters of left-leaning news influencers still have an X account, Pew says, while 87% of right-leaning news influencers and 83% of those without a clear political orientation have one.

Still, X is showing small signs of decline among this group. In 2025, the number of influencers posting on X weekly fell from 92% to 87%. Meanwhile, those posting on Bluesky grew from 54% in the first full week of January to 66% by the end of March.

But it’s still more common for news influencers to be highly active on X than on Bluesky. In the first three months of 2025, 83% of news influencers on X posted over four days a week on average. However, only 31% of Bluesky users did so.

It’s not just politics driving Bluesky’s burgeoning popularity. The platform has been consistently rolling out features that high-profile figures have requested, including tools to keep unwanted DMs at bay and new “Blue Checks” for verified users.

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About Will McCurdy

Contributor

I’m a reporter covering weekend news. Before joining PCMag in 2024, I picked up bylines in BBC News, The Guardian, The Times of London, The Daily Beast, Vice, Slate, Fast Company, The Evening Standard, The i, TechRadar, and Decrypt Media.

I’ve been a PC gamer since you had to install games from multiple CD-ROMs by hand. As a reporter, I’m passionate about the intersection of tech and human lives. I’ve covered everything from crypto scandals to the art world, as well as conspiracy theories, UK politics, and Russia and foreign affairs.

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