WordPress.org Themes of 2024: Reflections & Stats
It’s harder than ever for new WordPress themes to stand out. In this article, I dive into data from over 1,700 themes released on WordPress.org throughout 2024.
Between January 1, 2024, and January 1, 2025, I found 1,713 new themes published on WordPress.org. Despite the fact that these themes are active on 481,560 websites, it’s hard not to feel that meaningful visibility on WordPress.org is steadily eroding.
New developers and smaller authors, in particular, seem to face an uphill battle just to get their themes noticed. While this number might still sound impressive, it feels increasingly overshadowed by big-name themes that dominate the directory.
I also published a similar article analyzing themes from 2022, which further underscores this ongoing trend.
1. Data set
A few things before we look at the data.
- The data covers 1,713 themes published on the WordPress.org repository between January 1st, 2024 and January 1st, 2025.
- The Twenty Twenty-Five default theme is excluded from this analysis.
- All data was gathered from wordpress.org/themes/ on March 5th, 2025.
2. WordPress Themes Sorted by Active Installations
- All 1,713 themes are active on 481,560+ websites in total.
- Only 6 themes surpass 10,000 active installations.
- 8 themes exceed 5,000 active installations.
- 81 themes have more than 1,000 active installations.
- 188 themes are active on 500+ websites.
While these numbers may look sizable at a glance, the reality is that most new themes struggle to attract enough users to move beyond the lower tiers—further evidence of just how competitive and crowded the WordPress theme directory has become.
This isn’t surprising, but it’s still discouraging for new developers hoping to make a meaningful impact without a built-in audience.
3. WordPress Themes Sorted by Ratings (Reviews)
- 1,535 themes (89.61%) have zero ratings and are active on 327,460+ websites (68.00% of total).
- The remaining 178 themes have accumulated a total of 310 ratings.
- 127 themes have only one rating.
These numbers suggest that user engagement in the form of theme ratings remains exceptionally low, potentially making it tough for newcomers to gauge quality or trustworthiness.
| # | Theme | Actives | Ratings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hello Biz | 5,000 | 19 |
| 2 | VW Business Lounge | 60 | 13 |
| 3 | SaasLauncher | 3,000 | 12 |
| 4 | BlogHash | 10,000 | 7 |
| 5 | CentralNews | 3,000 | 6 |
| 6 | Greyd WP | 300 | 6 |
| 7 | Kubio | 40,000 | 6 |
| 8 | NewsBlogger | 10,000 | 6 |
| 9 | Link Folio | 1,000 | 5 |
| 10 | Pubnews | 2,000 | 5 |
| Rating | Ratings | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 269 | 86.77% | |
| 9 | 2.90% | |
| 1 | 0.32% | |
| 8 | 2.58% | |
| 23 | 7.42% | |
| Total | 310 | |
4. WordPress Theme Authors and Developers
- Total Authors: 300 individuals or teams uploaded new themes in 2024.
- 7 authors contributed 30 or more themes each.
- 56 authors have released at least 10 themes.
| # | Author | Themes | Actives | Actives per theme | Ratings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | automattic | 101 | 20,480 | 203 | 9 |
| 2 | cretathemes | 32 | 4,590 | 143 | 3 |
| 3 | vowelweb | 32 | 3,460 | 108 | 24 |
| 4 | ascendoor | 31 | 8,470 | 273 | 1 |
| 5 | pewilliams | 31 | 9,520 | 307 | 4 |
| 6 | themagnifico52 | 31 | 2,560 | 83 | 5 |
| 7 | bosathemes | 30 | 8,480 | 283 | 0 |
| 8 | classictemplate | 27 | 2,930 | 109 | 9 |
| 9 | creativthemes | 26 | 5,830 | 224 | 0 |
| 10 | omegathemes | 26 | 1,610 | 62 | 1 |
| 11 | themegrove | 26 | 5,760 | 222 | 4 |
| 12 | themespride | 24 | 2,030 | 85 | 0 |
| 13 | adorethemes | 24 | 7,290 | 304 | 5 |
| 14 | wpradiant | 23 | 3,030 | 132 | 2 |
| 15 | misbahwp | 22 | 1,180 | 54 | 0 |
| 16 | wpkoithemes | 22 | 920 | 42 | 0 |
| 17 | drakearthur | 22 | 1,540 | 70 | 3 |
| 18 | superbaddons | 22 | 21,500 | 977 | 5 |
| 19 | cozythemes | 22 | 12,460 | 566 | 13 |
| 20 | kantipurthemes | 21 | 5,400 | 257 | 0 |
| 21 | revolutionswp | 21 | 1,500 | 71 | 0 |
| 22 | themeignite | 21 | 1,240 | 59 | 1 |
| 23 | cawpthemes | 20 | 1,280 | 64 | 1 |
| 24 | wptexture | 20 | 3,000 | 150 | 2 |
| 25 | astertheme | 20 | 1,620 | 81 | 4 |
| 26 | wpelemento | 20 | 3,120 | 156 | 8 |
Interestingly, the “Actives per theme” metric is fairly consistent across most authors, indicating that uploading more themes doesn’t automatically yield a higher total of active installations. In other words, while a few standout developers dominate in volume, they don’t necessarily earn a proportionally larger user base for each additional theme.
Even automattic, which has flooded the directory with 101 themes, sees many of them barely break 50 active installs, suggesting sheer quantity doesn’t guarantee widespread adoption.
| Author | Themes | Actives | Actives per theme | Ratings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| extendthemes | 17 | 70,300 | 4,135 | 8 |
| themeansar | 16 | 23,300 | 1,456 | 6 |
| afthemes | 8 | 9,700 | 1,213 | 12 |
| superbaddons | 22 | 21,500 | 977 | 5 |
| blazethemes | 6 | 5,800 | 967 | 8 |
| desertthemes | 15 | 10,090 | 673 | 5 |
| cozythemes | 22 | 12,460 | 566 | 13 |
| candidthemes | 4 | 1,800 | 450 | 0 |
| mysterythemes | 11 | 4,940 | 449 | 0 |
| wpmoose | 7 | 2,700 | 386 | 0 |
| deothemes | 7 | 2,680 | 383 | 0 |
| blockskitdev | 7 | 2,500 | 357 | 0 |
| websiteinwp | 8 | 2,700 | 338 | 2 |
| crimsonthemes | 6 | 2,000 | 333 | 0 |
| themearile | 17 | 5,660 | 333 | 0 |
| codevibrant | 5 | 1,600 | 320 | 2 |
| themeeverest | 10 | 3,100 | 310 | 0 |
| pewilliams | 31 | 9,520 | 307 | 4 |
| adorethemes | 24 | 7,290 | 304 | 5 |
Conclusions & Takeaways
Despite hundreds of new themes, only a few gain meaningful traction or feedback. Quantity doesn’t guarantee success—many struggle to surpass a few dozen active installs, and user ratings remain scarce. This points to a tough market where newcomers find it increasingly hard to stand out.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on how the community can improve theme discoverability and feedback. Feel free to share your perspectives in the comments below.