November 2026 opened with the biggest scheduled news event of the year – the US midterm elections on November 3 – and, two days later, the biggest game launch of the fall so far, Nintendo's Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake. Both dominated Bluesky's trending list in the first week of the month.
The numbers below come straight from Bluesky's Trending Topics (the list in the Explore tab), captured on November 8, 2026. Post counts are Bluesky's own figures for each topic. For hashtag-level trends, see our live trending hashtags tool.
Top Bluesky Trends, First Week of November 2026
| Topic | Category | Posts | Trending since |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trump orders DOJ to investigate Democrats | Politics | 9,814 | Nov 4 |
| Ocarina of Time remake release | Entertainment | 8,715 | Nov 4 |
| US data center ban votes | Politics | 5,212 | Oct 29 |
| Films watched more than six times | Entertainment | 4,469 | Nov 5 |
| Google cuts search for AI-banning schools | Science & tech | 3,916 | Nov 3 |
| Israel's war in Gaza | Politics | 3,737 | Oct 30 |
| Godzilla Minus Zero opens | Entertainment | 3,535 | Nov 3 |
| Democrats urge ICE to unmask agents | Politics | 2,698 | Nov 5 |
| Democratic congressional leadership push | Politics | 1,578 | Nov 7 |
| Report on Texas men's Bible study | Politics | 1,118 | Nov 7 |
| Veterans Day observances | Culture | 1,016 | Nov 6 |
| Ruin a band by adding a famous person | Entertainment | 1,007 | Nov 8 |
| The "Mamdani lesson" for Democrats | Politics | 940 | Nov 6 |
| Popular vote compact nears 270 threshold | Politics | 610 | Nov 5 |
| Autumn foliage photos | Culture | 521 | Nov 7 |
| Diwali celebrations | Culture | 464 | Nov 6 |
Counts are a snapshot and keep growing while a topic is trending, so a topic that started earlier will naturally show more posts.
The Big Stories
The midterm aftermath
Election night itself trended, of course, but what stands out a week later is how many post-election topics made the list: the push for new Democratic congressional leadership, Hakeem Jeffries setting the House Democrats' agenda, the "Mamdani lesson" for Democrats, and the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact nearing the 270-electoral-vote threshold. Bluesky's politically engaged base doesn't log off after election night – it moves straight on to what happens next.
We break down the results and how to follow the remaining races in 2026 Midterm Election Results on Bluesky.
Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake
The top non-political trend of the month so far, with more than 8,700 posts. Nintendo's Switch 2 remake launched on November 5, and the conversation started the day before as early copies and reviews appeared. Full breakdown: Ocarina of Time and Godzilla Minus Zero on Bluesky.
Godzilla Minus Zero
Toho's follow-up to the Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One opened in Japan on November 3 and in North America on November 6, and it trended from its Japanese opening day onward with more than 3,500 posts.
Data center ban votes
The story that carried over from October. Local fights over AI data centers trended in late October and grew into a "US data center ban votes" topic with more than 5,200 posts, as several places voted on restrictions. It has been on the trend list for well over a week – a sign it's become a lasting issue rather than a one-day story.
The fun stuff
As always, Bluesky's prompt trends filled the gaps: "Films watched more than six times" (nearly 4,500 posts of people listing their comfort movies), "Ruin a band by adding a famous person", and photo trends for autumn foliage, Diwali and Veterans Day. These prompt-and-share threads are some of the best places on Bluesky to find new people to follow.
Also trending at the start of the month
In the week leading into November, Bluesky's trend list also included UK plans for tighter permanent residency rules, an extended AO3 outage, the NHL's "Hometown Remix" jerseys, Canadian provinces skipping the clock change, and a "songs over six minutes long" prompt.
How to Follow Bluesky Trends Yourself
- Check the Trending list in Explore. This is the source of the table above. Tap any topic to see the posts behind it.
- Track hashtags separately. Bluesky's topics are summaries and don't map neatly onto hashtags. Our trending hashtags tool shows which actual tags are spiking in 1-hour and 24-hour windows.
- Search with Latest. For a live story, search the term and switch to Latest. Our advanced search guide shows how to filter by account, date and language.
- Get alerts. If you care about a topic but don't want to watch the timeline, set a Keyword Alert and you'll hear about it when it takes off.
Developers can pull the same data programmatically: Bluesky's public AppView exposes trending topics through the app.bsky.unspecced.getTrends endpoint, which is what we used for this post. If you'd rather not run it yourself, we offer a trending hashtags API.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is trending on Bluesky in November 2026?
In the first week of November 2026, the top trends were the midterm election aftermath, the Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake, US data center ban votes, Godzilla Minus Zero, and prompt trends like "Films watched more than six times".
How does Bluesky decide what's trending?
Bluesky groups posts about the same subject into topics, gives each a short label and a category, and surfaces the ones gaining momentum. Topics can trend for anywhere from a few hours to several weeks.
Can I see trending topics without the Bluesky app?
Yes. Bluesky's public API exposes trending topics, and Skyscraper's free trending hashtags tool works in any web browser.
What was trending on Bluesky last month?
See our October 2026 Bluesky trends recap, led by the midterm run-up, Halloween streams and the World Series.
Keep Up with Bluesky
- Skyscraper for iOS – pin hashtags and lists, temporary mute, five languages
- Trending Hashtags – live hashtag trends
- Keyword Alerts – never miss the topic you care about