Bluesky is making progress, but X remains dominant among news influencers

The Star

2 days ago

Bluesky is attracting more and more news influencers, especially progressive ones, looking for alternatives to X. According to a study by the Pew Research Center, their presence on the platform has doubled in just a few months. But despite this momentum, few are really giving up on X, which remains dominant in terms of usage and audience.
The social networking landscape is changing, but habits die hard. According to a study by the Pew Research Center, more and more news influencers are joining Bluesky, yet the vast majority are still actively posting on X.
The study is based on a panel of 500 news influencers: content creators who are followed by at least 100,000 people on at least one platform (X, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook or YouTube) and regularly post about current events and civic issues.
Between February and March 2025, 43% of them had created a Bluesky account, compared with just 21% before the 2024 US presidential election. A clear progression, but one that doesn't mean an abandonment of X, since 82% of influencers were still active on X at the start of 2025, a figure only slightly lower than in the summer of 2024 (85%).
Diversification, rather than an exodus
The doubling of the presence of news influencers on Bluesky shows a desire to diversify, but not to break away from the dominant platforms. For the time being, X remains the main tool for reaching a wide audience, despite criticism of its moderation and political leanings.
Bluesky mainly attracts progressive or liberal influencers, while conservative accounts are still relatively few and far between. The study shows that 15% of influencers on the panel who have a Bluesky account identify as conservative, Republican or pro-Trump, while 69% are liberal or pro-Harris, and 47% have no clear political affiliation.
The study suggests that news influencers are looking to expand their presence on new platforms, without giving up on older ones. Bluesky appeals for its decentralized moderation and "healthier' platform image. But X retains the audience, the habits, and the weight of public debate. The majority of influencers present on Bluesky have also kept their X account. Only 6% of the study panel use Bluesky exclusively. Conversely, 46% are active only on X, and 37% have an account on both platforms.
In other words, Bluesky is making progress, but still remains a secondary player in the influencer ecosystem. That said, the momentum is real: the platform founded by Jack Dorsey, co-creator of Twitter (now X), is attracting increasing engagement. In January 2025, 54% of news influencers had posted content there; by the end of March, the figure had risen to 66%.
Conversely, activity on X shows a slight decline. At the beginning of 2025, 92% of influencers in the sample were active there. By the end of March, only 87% were. This is certainly a modest decline, but it nevertheless bears witness to a shift in usage.
Despite this, X remains the platform where influencers are most active. In the first three months of 2025, 83% of influencers present on X posted, on average, at least four days a week, 6% posted between one and three days a week, while only 11% were not very active or inactive.
The contrast with Bluesky is clear: only 31% of influencers with an account posted regularly (at least four days a week), and 21% more occasionally. Nearly half (48%) posted nothing or very little.
"Among right-leaning influencers, 97% of those with an X account posted there at least four days per week during the study period. But too few of them have Bluesky accounts to reliably report on their posting frequency there," Pew Research Center concludes. – AFP Relaxnews