From 0.5 to 2.5 users per second: Bluesky thrives in X outage fallout

Social media platform Bluesky experienced a significant spike in user growth yesterday, capitalizing on yet another tumultuous moment for its rival, X. The surge coincided with a widespread outage on X, which Elon Musk, the platform’s billionaire owner, attributed to a massive cyberattack orchestrated by a large, coordinated group and/or a country. As X grappled with hours of intermittent service disruptions, Bluesky’s user base swelled, reinforcing its position as a prime beneficiary of X’s ongoing instability.

Data from bcounter.nat.vg, a website tracking Bluesky’s user count in real-time, revealed a dramatic uptick in sign-ups during the outage. In February, Bluesky’s growth rate averaged around 0.5 new users per second. However, as X faltered yesterday, that figure allegedly skyrocketed to approximately 2.5 new users per second, according to observations first noted by a Redditor. Though as I pen this, the growth rate had returned to its baseline of 0.5 users per second, but not before Bluesky edged closer to a staggering 33 million users — a remarkable feat for a platform that wasn’t known to the public until a year ago.

The X outage, which unfolded in three distinct waves starting early Monday morning, left tens of thousands of users worldwide unable to access the platform. Downdetector reported a peak of 40,000 outage complaints in the U.S. alone around 10 a.m. ET, with issues persisting intermittently into the afternoon.

Musk took to X to address the disruption, claiming it stemmed from an unusually resource-intensive cyberattack. “We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources,” he wrote, hinting at possible involvement by a sophisticated entity, potentially even a nation-state. In a Fox News interview, Musk speculated that the attack’s IP addresses may have originated in Ukraine, though he provided no concrete evidence.

This isn’t the first time Bluesky has reaped the rewards of X’s turmoil. Since Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter (now X) in 2022, the platform has faced multiple crises — staff cuts, policy shifts, and prior outages — that have driven users to seek alternatives. Bluesky, founded as a decentralized project by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and opened to the public in February 2024, has steadily gained traction. Its user base doubled from 9 million to over 20 million in the U.S. alone between September and December 2024, fueled by an exodus following the U.S. presidential election and Musk’s vocal support for President-elect Donald Trump. Yesterday’s outage only accelerated this trend, underscoring Bluesky’s growing appeal as a haven for those disillusioned with X.

While Bluesky’s 33 million users still pale in comparison to X’s reported 250 million daily active users (as of March 2025), its rapid ascent signals a shift in the social media landscape. The platform’s ad-free environment, customizable feeds, and echoes of Twitter’s pre-Musk era have drawn journalists, celebrities, government officials, and everyday users alike. Yesterday’s bump, though temporary, highlights how quickly Bluesky can capitalize on X’s missteps.

Musk’s cyberattack claim has sparked debate. Some experts suggest the outage aligns with a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, a tactic that overwhelms servers with traffic. A group called Dark Storm, identified as pro-Palestinian hacktivists, later claimed responsibility via Telegram, though their involvement remains unverified.

For now, X appears to have stabilized, but the incident has once again exposed its vulnerabilities under Musk’s leadership. Meanwhile, Bluesky’s meteoric rise continues, fueled by X’s chaos — whether self-inflicted or, as Musk contends, the work of external forces. As of this writing, Bluesky’s counter ticks ever upward, a testament to its knack for turning X’s misfortunes into its own gains.