State of the Phrase 2025 Recap: The Best Highlights

On December 2, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, Government Director Mary Hubbard, and Lead Architect Matías Ventura took the level in San Francisco — joined by means of individuals and visitors from world wide.

And for the primary time, a significant WordPress unencumber introduced are living all over the keynote — WordPress 6.9 went out to the sector because the target audience watched.

When you overlooked the livestream, you’ll be able to watch the total recording under:

Our favourite highlights from 2025

2025 used to be a milestone yr for WordPress. The undertaking shipped two primary releases, welcomed document numbers of first-time individuals, and noticed world adoption boost up — particularly in non-English markets. 

Right here’s what stood out:

• WordPress continues to energy the open internet. About 43% of all web sites run on WordPress, with kind of 60% CMS marketplace proportion. Some of the most sensible 1,000 websites, adoption grew to 49.4% — up 2.3% from ultimate yr.

• A actually world network. For the primary time, over 56% of WordPress websites are in languages instead of English. Jap changed into the second-most-used language, with Japan attaining 58.5% web page proportion and 83% CMS proportion.

• A thriving ecosystem. Over 60,000 plugins are actually to be had, with downloads on course to hit 2.1 billion by means of yr’s finish. Block theme adoption grew over 40%, passing 1,000 subject matters.

• File contributor numbers. WordPress 6.8 had 921 individuals. WordPress 6.9 introduced over 900, together with 230 first-timers.

• WordPress 6.9 introduced live to tell the tale level. By way of the tip of the keynote, over 700,000 websites had already been up to date. 

Tip: Be informed extra about essentially the most thrilling WordPress 6.9 options for web page homeowners and builders.

AI takes heart level

This yr’s AI panel featured James LePage (Automattic), Felix Arntz (Google), and Jeff Paul (10up).

And right here’s one of the vital central subject matters from the keynote: AI is turning into foundational to WordPress.

Matt Mullenweg introduced {that a} devoted AI staff used to be shaped previous this yr. In simply six months, they shipped all 4 deliberate “development blocks”:

• Talents API: Exposes the functions of plugins, subject matters, and WordPress core to AI brokers in a standardized, machine-readable layout.

• WP AI Shopper: An abstraction layer for speaking with any generative AI style — OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or others — so builders can write activates with out locking into one supplier.

• MCP Adapter: Bridges the Talents API with AI suppliers throughout the Fashion Context Protocol, letting AI assistants perceive and act inside WordPress.

But even so, the keynote featured a demo of Telex, a device that generates Gutenberg blocks from herbal language. 

Right through the keynote, Mullenweg confirmed how Nick Hamze used it to construct a Lego worth calculator and Google Calendar integration — with out writing any code.

A majority of these development blocks set the level for what the AI panel previewed for 7.0: a Workflows API for stringing skills in combination, collaborative enhancing with AI help, and the WP AI Shopper transferring into core. 

AI options aren’t visual within the interface but, however WordPress is now intelligible to AI methods — and the groundwork is laid for what comes subsequent.

Tip: WordPress.com customers too can discover our AI web page builder, which is helping you create, design, customise, and release your website online a lot sooner and extra simply.

WordPress world wide

The keynote additionally highlighted the increasingly more world nature of WordPress:

• 81 WordCamps — community-organized meetings for WordPress customers and individuals — came about throughout 39 international locations this yr. Over 5,200 volunteers arranged them, attaining greater than 100,000 folks in particular person. And there are nonetheless 16 extra scheduled prior to yr’s finish.

• Be informed.wordpress.org served over 1.5 million customers, with reasonable engagement time up 32% after WordCamp US 2025.

• Teaching programs are increasing, too. Campus Attach is bringing WordPress into universities — Stephanie Garita Johnson from Universidad Fidélitas in Costa Rica spoke about how scholars there now earn educational credit score for contributing to open supply.

• And in Nicaragua, Formative years Day introduced in combination 75 children ages 8 to twenty to construct their first WordPress websites — with youngsters instructing youngsters.

Ecosystem and infrastructure updates

WordPress may be getting sooner to send, more uncomplicated to check, and more secure to replace. 

This yr’s enhancements all for lowering friction for plugin builders and making it more uncomplicated to spin up new websites and migrate current ones:

• Plugin critiques now take beneath 7 days due to AI-assisted assessment processes. The staff may be dealing with about 100 extra submissions every week than ultimate yr.

• A brand new 24-hour protection window for auto-updates provides builders time to catch problems from early adopters prior to updates roll out extensively.

• WordPress Playground hit 1.4 million customers from 227 international locations this yr. It now features a record browser, a visible gallery of blueprints, and a strong CLI.

Q&A consultation

The network Q&A touched on a number of subjects:

On domain names and proudly owning your on-line presence

Mullenweg emphasised {that a} area is “your actual property on the net” — the article that actually belongs to you. He inspired everybody to get their very own area, even purchasing one for youngsters at beginning. With out one, “you’re more or less like a virtual sharecropper.”

At the “agentic internet” and AI

As AI gear get started surfing and performing on web sites, Mullenweg shared concepts about serving markdown variations of pages for more uncomplicated AI intake and embedding micropayments for content material attribution.

On open social platforms

He pointed to Bluesky as a good instance — the place you’ll be able to use your individual area as your username — and famous that X has advanced its dealing with of exterior hyperlinks.

Discover WordPress 6.9 on WordPress.com

This yr’s State of the Phrase made something transparent: WordPress is evolving rapid — with AI foundations in position, a rising world network, and gear that make development and taking part more uncomplicated than ever.

WordPress 6.9 may be live to tell the tale WordPress.com. Discover the brand new options in our detailed posts:

And in the event you overlooked the livestream, the total recording is to be had above.