Social networking startup Bluesky, which just announced a gain of half a million users in the past day, has now jumped into the top five apps on the U.S. App Store and taken the No. 2 position in the Social Networking category, from No. 181 a week ago, according to data from app intelligence firm Appfigures. We know, for example, the growth is fully organic as Appfigures confirmed that the company is not running App Store Search Ads.

Indeed, the growth isn't just in the U.S. market. Several countries are realizing four-digit growth in downloads, comparing it to last Wednesday, and has hence led Bluesky to 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.

Although it is taking some time for data on the app's growth on Google Play, early signs are that it is 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 is still rising.

Appfigures can't yet track the half a million new users that Bluesky said it was getting in just one day, but its estimates do reflect a monstrous growth spurt. Thus 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 United States. But that only adds to a larger context which includes Japan, too, with 53,000 installs (27%), and downloads growing in about 90 total countries, according to Appfigures, quoted by TechCrunch.

There are probably many things happening at once that are driving this current surge.

On X, people are understandably angry over the company's decision to alter how the block function works. Soon, those with public accounts will see their X posts available to view by anyone, including those they had blocked, while previously, these were virtually unheard of. Instead, those who blocked users will no longer be able to interact with such posts through liking, commenting, and reposting for instance. It does raise very serious safety concerns for many who use the platform but are exposed to harassment and abuse, and in many cases, served as the final straw.

In another development, X updated its Terms of Service and Privacy this week, which means it can share users' data with third parties, including companies that develop AI models.
X must also be still reeling from an earlier Brazil ban, though lifted, where some active users of the region switched to Bluesky, probably taking their followers along.

Moreover, Bluesky is actually gaining from the problems of moderation encountered in Threads. There are cases whereby users have accounts banned or their posts downranked for no apparent reason. Meta has mainly attributed the problem to internal software used by moderators with respect to Threads.

In any event, X hasn't been feeling the sting of the changes very much yet, having added 17,000 downloads between Tuesday and Thursday. The app is no longer in the top 10 of the U.S. App Store, though still at No. 29. The Elon Musk-owned app is experiencing a gentle decline, according to Appfigures, but that is within the overall dynamics of the news category in the U.S. App Store, which is down 8.4 percent this year.

It experienced big growth spurs before, like opening up to the public after the long waitlist period and most recently after Brazil banned X, which sent half a million new users to the social networking startup within the first two days of the ban and more days after.

Immediately after the launch, Bluesky reported that it had acquired 1 million new users, which nudges its total user count above 12 million.