Twitter Blue Signups Rose 138% in March

In March, the Twitter Blue signup page recorded 2.6 million visits, but only about 116,000 confirmed signups

Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s stated policy of sunsetting legacy blue checkmark verified account status for public figures in favor of paid subscribers indeed seems to have driven increased signups to the Twitter Blue subscription program. About 4.5% of Twitter users who thought about subscribing – visited the Twitter Blue pricing and benefits page on the website – made it through to the paid subscriber confirmation page, according to Similarweb estimates.

Key takeaways

• Visits to the Twitter Blue pricing and benefits page reached 2.6 million in March, up 5.7% from the month before. Twitter Blue does offer other benefits, such as the ability to edit posts, but its role in determining verified status is its most newsworthy feature at the moment.
• Twitter Blue had about 116,000 confirmed signups on the web in March, up 138% from the month before. Subscribers pay $8 per month or $7 per month paid annually ($84 per year).
• That’s a healthy conversion rate of shoppers to buyers of about 4.5%, up from about 2% in January and February.

This analysis is based on desktop web traffic to twitter.com and does not include signups through a mobile app or bulk purchases, such as those Twitter has been pushing on publishers who want their reporters to be verified. However, given that signing up through an app costs more because of app store surcharges, website activity likely represents the majority of signups by consumers and business thought leaders seeking verification.

Legacy checks in limbo

Some of this signup activity was apparently driven by Elon Musk’s proclamation that users who originally got their blue checkmark for free would be losing it unless they agreed to pay the $8 per month fee. However, the mass disappearance of blue checks that was expected to happen over the weekend failed to materialize, with the notable exception of Musk ordering the checkmark for the New York Times removed.

Instead, other odd changes like the replacement of the Twitter bird logo with the Dogecoin “doge” left some observers wondering if Musk was trying to degrade the Twitter experience for everyone but paying customers.

Twitter users thinking about subscribing

This chart represents the Twitter users visiting the page detailing Twitter Blue pricing and benefits, with traffic tending to increase since Musk’s takeover of Twitter in October and the relaunch of the Twitter Blue program in November.

Confirmed signups jumped sharply in March

The number of Twitter users signing up for the program on the website jumped sharply in March after having dropped between January and February. Note that the numbers for November are thrown off by the fact that when the program initially re-launched, users could only enroll through the iOS app for Twitter.

However, once signup over the web was possible, Twitter encouraged it by charging a higher price for app signups to offset app store surcharges.

Twitter finds some users willing to pay

Despite the many celebrities who loudly proclaimed that they would not, on principle, pay for verification, another subset of Twitter users decided they either didn’t want to lose that status or were willing to pay to get it.

Whether there are enough of them to generate significant revenue for the company is another question. Although Twitter is no longer a public company, its monthly revenue from advertising is still estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Even if every one of the approximately 116,000 signups we estimate Twitter secured in March was for an $84 one-year commitment, that would translate into about $9.8 million. Twitter would have to continue to expand that pool of subscribers and win their continued renewals to make a significant transition away from the ad-supported business model Musk inherited.

The Similarweb Insights & Communications team is available to pull additional or updated data on request for the news media (journalists are invited to write to press@similarweb.com). When citing our data, please reference Similarweb as the source and link back to the most relevant blog post or similarweb.com/blog/insights/.

Methodology

Disclaimer: All names, brands, trademarks, and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The data, reports, and other materials provided or made available by Similarweb consist of or include estimated metrics and digital insights generated by Similarweb using its proprietary algorithms, based on information collected by Similarweb from multiple sources using its advanced data methodologies. Similarweb shall not be responsible for the accuracy of such data, reports, and materials and shall have no liability for any decision by any third party based in whole or in part on such data, reports, and materials.

by David F. Carr

David covers social media, digital advertising, and generative AI. With a background in web trends since the 1990s, he’s also the author of "Social Collaboration for Dummies".