memo – Theme emulsion

Current Default Theme Usage

Another important factor to consider before making any changes to a support policy is overall usage. Here is a rough breakdown of the active install counts for the “Twenty” default themes (according to WordPress.org) as of April 26, 2023 (note: this does not include sites running child themes of any “Twenty” themes):

Twenty Ten: 90,000+ installs (~0.3%)

Twenty Eleven: 100,000+ installs (~0.4%)

Twenty Twelve: 90,000+ installs (~0.3%)

Twenty Thirteen: 50,000+ installs (~0.2%)

Twenty Fourteen: 100,000+ installs (~0.35%)

Twenty Fifteen: 100,000+ installs (~0.45%)

Twenty Sixteen: 100,000+ installs (~0.7%)

Twenty Seventeen: 700,000+ installs (~2.5%)

Twenty Nineteen: 200,000+ installs (~1%)

Twenty Twenty: 600,000+ installs (~2%)

Twenty Twenty-One: 800,000+ installs (~3%)

Twenty Twenty-Two: 800,000+ installs (~3%)

Twenty Twenty-Three: 1M+ installs (~3.5%)

Some interesting findings:

Twenty Thirteen is the least used default theme at roughly 50,000 installs (0.2%).

Twenty Fifteen and older are all active on less than 0.5% of all WordPress sites each. Cumulatively they account for slightly more than 2% of all sites.

Twenty Sixteen and older all have less than 1% of all installs.

Twenty Twenty-Three is currently the most used default theme active on 1M+ sites.

Twenty Twenty through Twenty Twenty-Three all have roughly 2% of all sites or more each, cumulatively accounting for nearly 12% of all sites.

Twenty Seventeen through Twenty Twenty-Three accounts for 15% of all sites.

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/05/16/proposal-retiring-older-default-themes/