Bluesky Social Network and Starter Pack Dataset from October 2025

A collection of the directed following network of the Bluesky social platform and associated user-created starter packs from late October 2025. Starter packs are curated lists of 6 to 150 users, with anonymized identifiers for users, creators, and packs. It is intended for computational analysis of network structures and the influence of starter packs.

Use Cases

• Analyze the structure of the directed following network using anonymized user DIDs to identify influential nodes and communities.
• Study the composition of starter packs by examining the relationship between hashed creator DIDs and the hashed DIDs of included users.
• Model the influence of starter packs on network growth by comparing following relationships with starter pack membership data.
• Investigate the distribution of starter pack sizes, which range from 6 to 150 users, to understand curation patterns.

Strengths

• Captures a complete snapshot of the Bluesky following network from a specific point in time (late October 2025).
• Includes starter pack data with a defined size range of 6 to 150 users per pack.
• Uses non-reversible hashing for user and starter pack DIDs, providing privacy-preserving anonymization.

Limitations

• The dataset is a static snapshot from late October 2025 and does not capture network dynamics over time.
• Anonymization via hashing prevents linking users to their real identities or external data sources.
• The dataset's size, row count, and specific file formats are unknown, which may complicate handling and integration.

Provenance

Source

Bluesky social platform.

Collection Method

Data harvested from Bluesky, including all available following relationships and user-created starter packs. All identifiers were anonymized with a non-reversible hash function.

Time Range

Late October 2025.

Freshness

Data reflects the state of the network as of late October 2025; the record was last updated in February 2026.