On Tuesday evening, the U.S. midterm elections sparked a "blue wave" on Bluesky, with the microblogging platform recording its highest daily totals of posts, replies, and likes since 2026.
“We’re seeing more new users join and old friends returning,” Schneider posted.
According to Bluesky CEO Toni Schneider, during Tuesday’s U.S. midterm elections, the number of posts and likes doubled.
Chief Operating Officer Rose Wang told TechCrunch that usage began to peak between 8 PM and 10 PM Pacific Time, as many election results were being released. Compared to the 30-day average prior, daily posts and likes increased by 30% and 70%, respectively, while link clicks rose by 20%.
According to open data, Bluesky reached 44 million likes, 4.8 million posts, and 2 million new follows on November 4. This nearly matches Bluesky’s all-time daily record of 45 million likes set in November 2024.
This growth was particularly evident in Bluesky's data traffic, which surged 200% above normal levels, peaking at 35.8 GB/s.
Bluesky is sometimes tongue-in-cheek referred to as the "left-wing version of Twitter" because its user base appears to lean more liberal politically. This is no coincidence; Bluesky experienced its most significant user growth following Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election, making it unsurprising that these users were highly active in posting on the night of the Democratic Party’s decisive win.