The Rise of Bluesky: A Pew Research Analysis
Recently, many prominent social media accounts with left-leaning views have made the move to Bluesky, a new platform that has been gaining popularity. A recent analysis conducted by the Pew Research Center aims to quantify this shift and understand its implications.
This analysis serves as an update to Pew’s previous report on news influencers released in November 2024. The earlier report focused on a select group of 500 influencers with large followings who regularly discuss current events on major platforms. However, Bluesky was not included in the initial study.
In their latest study, Pew revisited the same group of influencers to see how many had joined Bluesky. The findings revealed that 43% of these influencers had created an account on Bluesky by February/March, with over half of these accounts being established after the 2024 presidential election.
There is a noticeable disparity between left-leaning and right-leaning influencers when it comes to embracing Bluesky. While 69% of liberal influencers made the switch to Bluesky, only 15% of conservative influencers did the same.
The shift to Bluesky does not seem to have significantly impacted X (formerly Twitter). Despite Elon Musk’s association with former President Donald Trump attracting new users to Bluesky, 82% of the influencers analyzed by Pew still maintained an account on X, only slightly down from 85% in the summer of 2025.
It is important to note that most influencers continue to be more active on X than on Bluesky, with 87% of left-leaning influencers still using X alongside Bluesky. However, there has been a noticeable increase in activity on Bluesky, with the percentage of influencers actively posting on the platform growing from 54% in January to 66% in March.