599 followers, one 26-second video, 186 stars in a day: BiliDesk took off on Bilibili, not on GitHub

BiliDesk is an open-source Windows third-party Bilibili client written by one person, which shipped 21 versions in 36 days. Its stars didn't come from GitHub Trending, X or Hacker News. The author posted promo videos on Bilibili, and Bilibili recommended them to tens of thousands of people who were already scrolling Bilibili every day. Below: what it is, how that video drove the traffic, who it competes with, and how to get stars for your own open-source project the same way.

A video whose description just says "some new stuff"

In the morning of Nov 2026 2 10:19, Bilibili UP host "_ABing_" posted a 26-second video titled "Lightweight refactor, smooth evolution", with a description of just five words: "Some new stuff." At the time the account had 599 followers and 7 videos.

By Nov 6, the video had 65.7k plays, 3,238 likes, 4,917 favorites, 644 coins and 427 comments (Bilibili video page, 11-06). Plays were 100× his follower count, and the favorite rate was about 7.5%. Bilibili pushed it to lots of people who had never heard of him.

The video covered the new version of BiliDesk, his software. The same day, v1.5.2 went up on GitHub; from 11-02 to 11-03, three minor versions were downloaded 670 + 1,394 + 1,148 times. 11-04, the repo's stars jumped from 246 to 432, +186 in one day. Before that it had been gaining only a few a day: 10-17, then 147,11-02, then 228 (GitHub daily star counts). 11-06 it reached 523, and the live value that day was already 545.

The top-liked comment wasn't about BiliDesk but about the official client: "The Google Store version of Bili was the most comfortable to use, and then they quietly pushed an update to the backend" (108 likes). Second: "Looks good, the official PC client has too many problems", and someone replied: "On my 2000 Mbps broadband, the official PC client stutters and buffers every day." 11-04 someone reported a bug where the sound cuts out in the last few seconds, and the author replied: "Fixed, new version coming later."

What it is

A Windows-only Bilibili desktop client written in WPF / .NET 10, using LibVLC as the playback core, with a portable build that runs after unzipping. Licensed under GPL-3.0, and the first paragraph of the README states it's unofficial and non-commercial.

What it offers users is what the official client lacks or does poorly: watch 1080P without logging in, up to 4K / HEVC; SponsorBlock skips sponsored segments in videos; an "audio only" mode that treats Bilibili like a podcast; hold the left mouse button for temporary speed-up; block UPs and title keywords; live in the system tray; and Windows 11 Mica and Acrylic window materials. In short: cleaner, lighter, and more like a native Windows app.

Where the stars came from: the author posting videos on Bilibili himself

Searching "BiliDesk" on Bilibili returns videos from the author's own account. Four promo videos (Bilibili search, 11-06):

Two details are worth noting.

First, the video came before the repo. The first video went up in Sep 19, and the GitHub repo wasn't created until Oct 1. For him, GitHub was just a download site and feedback channel. Users first met the software on Bilibili. Promoting "a better Bilibili" to heavy Bilibili users means the viewers and the users are the same people, and they can download it right after watching.

Second, the download peaks followed the videos closely. After the 10-05 video, the v10-06 released by 1.2.5 was downloaded 1,444 times; after the 11-02 video, over 3,200 times in two days. Across 21 versions, cumulative downloads were about 9,000 (GitHub Releases, 11-06), which includes repeat downloads by existing users upgrading, so the real user count is estimated in the thousands. Stars lagged the downloads by about a day and then surged; this may be Bilibili ramping up exposure gradually, or people downloading to try it first and coming back to star it once they liked it (inference; we couldn't get hourly star timestamps).

Beyond that, almost no other channel: X has nothing on it in the last 30 days, no media outlet or big account has written about it. Only a couple of open-source navigation sites (git.hiwiki.org's Bilibili client chart and open-source chart) auto-listed it. 11-05 On linux.do someone posted asking "what good third-party Bilibili clients are there for Windows?" The top reply recommended a different project, BiliSail, not this one. 11-04 Whether those 186 stars came from a second source like QQ groups or WeChat Official Accounts, I can't tell.

Why now: the old leader stopped updating, and the official client has been annoying people

The native Windows Bilibili client used to be led by Richasy's Bili.Copilot, 5,218 stars, but its last release was in Nov 2025 26, and it now gains only 1 stars a week. Earlier UWP-based clients stopped updating long ago. The official PC client gets complaints about too many ads, pushing membership, and lag; the comment sections are the evidence. People who want a clean native desktop client had nothing usable.

BiliDesk caught these users with its update pace: 36 versions in 21 days, 11-04 released 3 in one day. The author has made 181 commits; only two outside contributors, three or four commits each. Most of the 50 issues are feature requests: subtitles, sending danmaku, upscaling, always-on-top mini window, a Mac version. From 11-03 on, 3 to 6 new issues arrive each day, which means people are actually using it, not just clicking star. The release notes read like product copy, and the video titles read like a launch event ("Clean is the base; clarity is this release's new look").

Who else is competing: this category is already crowded

Third-party Bilibili clients are so numerous that someone built a repo just to list them (bilibili-client-software-collection, 216 stars). 2026 8 through October, a new batch appeared, many labeled "AI-built." Some are already riding the name: a Compose multiplatform client created as BiliDesk 10-17 (now renamed ailiaili, 3 stars), and 11-05 BiliDesk-Android followed (1 stars).

So BiliDesk's features are not scarce. It and BiliSail each picked up about 500 stars in the same month using the same playbook, which shows the playbook can be copied and that BiliDesk doesn't own it.

If it were you

One line: what's worth copying is the playbook, not this project. "Build a third-party tool for a platform whose users are heavily invested and whose official client draws complaints, then make videos on that platform promoting it yourself." BiliDesk and BiliSail both used this to go from zero to about 500 stars in a month. Building another Windows Bilibili client now is too late.

Who it fits: developers who can build a desktop or mobile client usable day to day on their own, and who are willing to cut 20 to 70 second short videos and show up on the target platform, or at least show the product. A small following is fine; BiliDesk's author has 599 followers.

Who it doesn't fit: people who only want to write code and not make content; anyone counting on GitHub trending, X, or Hacker News to bring traffic naturally (these projects get almost no attention there); anyone aiming for thousands or tens of thousands of stars. At this playbook's scale the numbers are in the hundreds. The leaders, PiliPlus and BBLL, grew on years of accumulation and the phone and TV markets.

How to do it, three ways to follow, from most to least confidence:

1. Switch platforms: move the same playbook to other platforms where users are heavily invested and the official client gets criticized: Douyin, Xiaohongshu, Zhihu, NetEase Cloud Music, the desktop side of Steam or its third-party tools, and promote to that platform's users on that platform. First check whether that platform has a stalled veteran third-party client leaving a gap.
2. Build what's missing: the Bilibili client gap still open is a native Mac version. BiliDesk's issues already include people asking for a Mac build, and the existing SwiftUI projects have only dozens to 96 stars. BiliSail is cross-platform Flutter, and people complain its interactions feel counterintuitive. A native Mac version is the last credible spot in this track, but it would compete head-on with BiliSail.
3. Copy the features: high-quality playback without login, SponsorBlock, audio-only playback, blocking UPs. These come up again and again in comment sections and issues, and any competing client should have them.

How to get users: you can post videos before building the repo. Keep videos short (the 26-second one worked best), write titles like a release announcement, and make one for every major version. Put the download link in the description and a pinned comment, pointing to GitHub Releases so downloads and stars land in the same place. Personally reply to bug reports in the comments, say "new version coming later", then actually ship it the same day.

When to move: the sooner the better. This Bilibili track saw a big wave from 8 to October; the more often the same playbook is used, the less the platform recommends "yet another third-party client". For the switch-platform route, the window depends on whether someone on that platform has already tried it.

Signs you misjudged: ① Over the next month BiliDesk or BiliSail posts a new version video, views fall to ten or twenty thousand, and stars stop rising with it. That would mean Bilibili's recommendations for these videos are saturated. ② Bilibili changes its APIs or adds risk controls, third-party clients broadly stop working (BiliDesk v1.5.0 specifically built a "login-free search risk-control bypass"), or it starts throttling promo videos for third-party clients. ③ Conversely, someone uses the same playbook on Douyin or Xiaohongshu to get a few hundred stars for a third-party tool for that platform. That would show the switch-platform route works, so move fast.

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Data and sources: the README, Releases downloads, issues and contributors of GitHub repo ABING1111/BiliDesk (11-06); GitHub daily star counts (10-17 to 11-06); Bilibili search and UP profile pages (11-06); video BV18V4w6xEhW's plays, engagement and comments (11-06); GitHub pages for competitors Bili.Copilot, BiliSail, PiliPlus, BBLL, Bilibili-Evolved and Bilibili-NEXT (11-06); the linux.do recommendation request post (11-05); listing pages on git.hiwiki.org and kaiyuanbang.cn. Real user counts are estimated from download counts; the one-day lag between downloads and stars is an inference.