State of the Word 2024: Bridging Legacy and Innovation

by Vipe Team in WordPress Development; Published on 17.12.2024

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The 2024 State of the Word event took place in Tokyo, a city where the past and future meet seamlessly. This milestone marked the first time the annual keynote was hosted in Asia, attracting thousands of WordPress enthusiasts both in person and virtually. Tokyo’s vibrant energy and harmony with technology made it the ideal setting for this landmark event.

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Matt Mullenweg, WordPress Co-founder, opened the evening by highlighting a key philosophy: experience matters as much as functionality. Drawing inspiration from Kansei engineering, a Japanese design principle, WordPress continues to evolve not just as a platform, but as a user-driven experience that feels intuitive and personal.

Celebrating Japan’s contributions to WordPress, Matt revisited its history: Japan was the first country to localize WordPress nearly 21 years ago. The journey began humbly with a single request for translation assistance in the community forums. Today, the Japanese WordPress community stands as one of the most active and impactful worldwide.

Milestones of Growth in 2024

Matt revealed some remarkable achievements that underline WordPress’s dominance:

WordPress now powers 43.6% of websites globally with a staggering 62.3% CMS market share.
In Japan, the numbers are even more impressive: 58.5% of websites run on WordPress.
The platform’s multilingual growth saw non-English WordPress sites outpacing English ones, with German and Japanese leading.
Core downloads reached nearly half a billion this year, boosted by releases like 6.5 and 6.7.

Blocking Malicious IP Addresses in WordPress

The WordPress plugin and theme ecosystems flourished in 2024:

Plugins crossed 2.35 billion downloads, with updates expected to surpass 3.5 billion by year’s end.
Over 1,700 new themes were introduced, including more than 1,000 block themes for modern site designs.

Innovating the Future: Design, Writing, and Development

Matt, alongside lead architect Matías Ventura, showcased enhancements across key areas:

Improved Writing

Content creation in WordPress reached new heights with a distraction-free writing mode and improved drag-and-drop image handling. Experimental block-level comments also introduced more collaborative workflows.

Modern Design

New tools like the Style Book and zoom-out view allow designers to focus on content while maintaining design control. More than 1,000 new block themes make site building faster and more customizable.

Powerful Development

The introduction of Block Bindings connects blocks with dynamic data sources, minimizing the need for custom blocks. The Interactivity API enables near-instant experiences, improving search, pagination, and commenting without reloads.

AI and the Evolution of WordPress

AI integration emerged as a key theme, with Matt showcasing how AI tools can accelerate development and design workflows. However, he emphasized that AI is a collaborator—not a replacement—enhancing creativity while maintaining human oversight.

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Community at the Core

WordPress Executive Director Mary Hubbard reaffirmed the platform’s commitment to open-source principles, emphasizing the strength of its global community. From education initiatives in India and Uganda to reactivated meetups in Latin America, WordPress continues to foster collaboration across borders.

Mastering WordPress for Enterprise Success: Advanced Strategies and Tools

In Japan, WordPress’s impact reached new economic heights, now exceeding 100 billion yen. Leaders like Contact Form 7 creator Takayuki Miyoshi and other top contributors were celebrated for their dedication to WordPress core and community growth.

Data Liberation: Freedom in Content

Matt closed the event by sharing updates on WordPress’s vision of “data liberation.” Tools like the WordPress Playground simplify content migration and integration, ensuring WordPress remains the most flexible and powerful solution for the open web.

Looking Ahead

As the evening concluded, the sense of shared purpose was clear: WordPress continues to evolve through a global community driven by innovation, creativity, and freedom.

For those eager to explore more, WordPress has curated a State of the Word playlist on YouTube. Upcoming major events include:

WordCamp Asia 2025 (Manila, Philippines)
WordCamp Europe 2025 (Basel, Switzerland)
WordCamp US 2025 (Portland, Oregon)

From Tokyo, we look toward the future. Arigatou gozaimashita!