Want to see something really cool? It’s The Periodic Table of WordPress Themes!
Problem is, it’s wrong. Not “wrong” as in “I say it’s wrong”. Wrong as in the data that the table relies on doesn’t agree with the table. Take a look at WordPress.org’s data on popular WordPress themes as of this morning:
It … just … doesn’t … match.
No big deal, of course, and the truth is that unless you’re doing some statistical-based project you simply don’t need to know what the the most popular WordPress themes are. But wouldn’t it be nice if someone new to all this and with nothing to go by other than numbers and trying to make a decision had a tool they could rely on?
Source: wpthemetable.com
The Periodic Table of WordPress Themes is a cool idea, but … it’s wrongWe'll send a weekly email with the latest information, recommendations, quick WordPress tips and more. We're serious about privacy and won't spam you or sell your information.
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Comments
Pascal from SpinPress here! I’m reaching out after Jeff’s email and want to clarify on how the theme table currently works.
It fetches the ~100 currently popular themes from WordPress.org (which you have made a screenshot of above). Please note: This “most popular theme” list only shows the themes that are popular this week, a limitation by WordPress.org.
Together with the currently popular themes from ThemeForest, these themes are then ordered by their absolute download numbers
So while Twenty Twelve may have been the most popular theme last week, Twenty Eleven’s overall downloads are much higher. That’s why it’s ranked #1 on the site.
It’s hard to do this right and there’s not much room for explanation on the site. Of course I’m open to suggestions.
Pascal, I appreciate the explanation, and suspected “the data changes but our table isn’t necessarily in sync with that” might be the way it is.
More than anything, our goal here is to get people thinking, so I hope you understand that what we posted was less about being critical than about helping our readers keep their eyes open to exactly the vagaries you pointed out. Thanks for weighing in!