Bluesky has overtaken?its flailing rival X in hosting posts related to new academic research, indicating the platform is fast becoming the go-to place for scholars to share their work.?

Analysis by found that while X still has a much larger volume of research posts overall, Bluesky hosted more posts linked to work published in 2025 for the first time in March.

Many have proclaimed?Academic?Twitter?¡°dead¡± after the takeover of the social media site by Elon Musk, with a clear alternative for researchers struggling to emerge.?

Mike Taylor, head of Data Insights at Digital Science, said the scholarly community on X has been incredibly important but ¡°it looks like the days of X¡¯s dominance are over¡±.

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While it remains an important venue to discuss and share academic research, Taylor told Times Higher Education that those who are leaving X have largely settled on Bluesky as an alternative ¨C instead of Meta-owned Threads or Mastodon.

¡°In my opinion, having a ¡®preferred venue¡¯ is a very good thing ¨C I have worried that we¡¯d see a fragmentation, with small communities trying to establish themselves on different platforms.

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¡°Bluesky appears to have more original content than X ¨C but the contrary position to this is that people who are creating content on X have potentially bigger audiences.¡±

Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, said that because researchers have limited time, it?was beneficial to have?a go-to platform for interactions.

¡°That used to be Twitter but now Bluesky is increasingly serving that role,¡± he said.

¡°I suspect that Bluesky will continue to grow as a gathering place for researchers. There are strong network effects and right now Bluesky seems to be benefiting from a virtuous cycle of positive feedback.¡±

But Claes de Vreese, professor of artificial intelligence and society at the University of Amsterdam, said fragmentation across X¡¯s rivals will continue and that Bluesky was not yet the ¡°central space¡± for researchers.

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However, he?agreed that one thing?was certain ¨C ¡°for most scholars, X is history¡±.

¡°The platform is no longer interesting for exchanges about science and research. And the platform has become a weaponised space that is entangled in the new Musk¨CTrump administration.

¡°On today¡¯s X, #AcademicTwitter is dead. And most scholars in the world do not want to be active on what the platform has become.¡±

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Digital Science?found that the posts linked to new research on Bluesky and X are of a similar quality, and that Bluesky seems to have a higher proportion of original posts.

Andy Tseng, director of information technology and digital strategy at the Whitehead Institute, warned that large-scale migration within the research community is a slow process as institutional communications, professional networks and long-established habits contribute to the inertia of existing platforms.

¡°Until Bluesky or another alternative reaches critical mass across all disciplines and professional networks, X will continue to play a role, albeit a diminishing one.

¡°The tipping point will come when the perceived benefits of migrating fully to Bluesky outweigh the practical challenges of maintaining dual engagement across platforms.¡±

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patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com