While looking over my stats for the Hybrid theme on the WordPress theme directory, I realized Hybrid was exactly tied with the theme that was currently the 15th most popular theme on the directory at 1,788 downloads. I refreshed the page a few moments later, and the theme had gained a few more downloads.
Hybrid finally cracked the top 15 themes on the theme directory, which I consider a great achievement.
Just in case it gets pushed out of the top 15 and never makes it back again, here’s a screenshot, so we can savor this moment:
Hybrid breaks into the top 15 themes on the theme directory
Three theme frameworks in the top 15
Hybrid isn’t the first theme framework to break into the top 15 though. Ian Stewart’s Thematic and Alex King’s Carrington Blog (built off the Carrington framework) have both been in the spotlight for a while.
Earlier this year, I said it would be The Year of the Theme Framework, and it’s looking like that prediction is coming true.
What are the benefits of the theme being in the top 15?
While it’s obvious that we might get more converts to the theme club, there’s ways you all benefit too. More people see the top 15 themes, which means we get more people using it. More people using it creates:
- More people to catch bugs I overlook.
- More ideas on how to make the theme better.
- More people that might be willing to help others on the support forums.
- More sites on the showcase blog to use for inspiration.
Anyway, I’m going to enjoy this moment.
Well done Justin, should be a constant in higher end of the top 10…
It would be great to be in the higher end.
Congrats! We tell everyone we can about what you are doing here at Theme Hybrid and how lucky we were to find you. Lightin’ up the twitter tonight – spreading the word. Thank you for your great service!
Thanks for the tweets and letting folks know about the site.
Congrats!
Honestly I hadn’t realized that Hybrid was that popular. Probably there are plenty child themes around and it is not as recognizable as regular popular themes.
Back to my painstakilngly slow making of child theme (I probably bore you with that already).
It’s always in the top 20, usually the top 15, just kind of sitting there in that one place. So, it was a pleasant surprise to see it jump into the top 10.
Nice job, Justin. Your hard work is appreciated.
Thanks. Now, let’s see about keepin’ it listed there on the front page of the themes directory.
[...] After I posted this, I found out Justin had just cracked the top ten downloaded themes at Wordpress.org. Congrats [...]
Hi Justin,
That is definitely a wonderful achievement… Congratulation and I really like your work…
Thank you. It even got bumped up to #9 earlier today, but it’s back to #10 now.
Congrats, Justin. I’m sure Hybrid will soon be #1.
That’ll be the day.
Only about 8,000 more downloads a week to go.
Congratulations, Justin!
Thanks. And, in case I forgot to tell you, congrats on getting Thematic in the top 10 too.
That’s so awesome…YaY for your SmartThemes! Congrats Justin! That top ten number isn’t taking into consideration the installs that occur when people use one click installs like on dreamhost.com. Hybrid is one of the ones that comes pre-loaded with the one click install. All users have to do is activate it in those cases.
Let us know when you get to #1!
I didn’t realize Dreamhost added my theme. That’s really awesome.
Whatever became of Structure? A very popular theme a year or two ago, sort of like proto-Hybrid without the framework extensibility.