Imagine a digital universe where more than a billion unique projects now exist, a testament to the explosive, 15% year-over-year growth that saw GitHub’s public repositories surge to 420 million by the end of 2023.
Key Takeaways
- As of October 2023, GitHub hosts over 420 million public repositories, marking a 15% year-over-year growth from 365 million in 2022
- In 2023, developers created 28 million new repositories on GitHub, averaging 76,712 new repos per day
- GitHub saw 100 million new repositories forked in 2023, up 20% from the previous year
- As of 2023, GitHub has 100 million developers using the platform monthly
- GitHub user base grew 12% YoY in 2023 to 100 million
- Over 90 million developers contributed code in 2023, up 10% from 2022
- In 2023, JavaScript was the most used language on GitHub with 30% of repositories
- Python repositories grew 22% YoY in 2023 to 15 million
- Java held 12% market share in GitHub repos in 2023
- In 2023, GitHub saw 2 billion contributions across all repositories
- Pull requests merged: 150 million in 2023, up 14% YoY
- Commits pushed: 1.5 billion in 2023, averaging 4 million daily
- As of 2023, GitHub's growth rate for developers was 50% since 2020, reaching 100 million
- AI-related repositories grew 88% in 2023
- Copilot adoption: from 0 to 1.3 million users in 3 years by 2024
GitHub's immense growth reached one billion repositories by mid-2024.
Activity and Contributions
- In 2023, GitHub saw 2 billion contributions across all repositories
- Pull requests merged: 150 million in 2023, up 14% YoY
- Commits pushed: 1.5 billion in 2023, averaging 4 million daily
- Issues created: 100 million on GitHub in 2023
- Code reviews performed: 80 million in 2023
- Forks created: 120 million in 2023
- Stars awarded: 500 million new stars in 2023
- Releases published: 60 million across repos in 2023
- Dependabot PRs opened: 40 million in 2023
- GitHub Actions minutes used: 10 billion in 2023
- Discussions posts: 50 million in 2023, new feature growth
- Wikis edited: 20 million updates in 2023
- Projects (kanban) boards: 15 million active in 2023
- Security alerts resolved: 30 million in 2023
- Copilot suggestions accepted: 300 million in 2023
- Sponsors pledges: 100 million USD in 2023
- Hackathon participations: 1 million devs in 2023 events
- Codespaces sessions: 100 million hours in 2023
- API requests to GitHub: 50 billion daily average in 2023
Activity and Contributions Interpretation
In 2023, the global software engine roared to life with two billion contributions, a symphony of 150 million merged ideas, 500 million digital high-fives, and 300 million AI-assisted nudges, all fueled by 10 billion automated minutes and a collective caffeine drip worth 100 million dollars.
Growth and Adoption
- As of 2023, GitHub's growth rate for developers was 50% since 2020, reaching 100 million
- AI-related repositories grew 88% in 2023
- Copilot adoption: from 0 to 1.3 million users in 3 years by 2024
- Enterprise customers doubled to 100,000 since 2020, 2023 data
- Open source contributions up 20% post-COVID in 2023
- Mobile contributions grew 30% with GitHub Mobile in 2023
- Emerging markets like Africa: 5 million new devs 2020-2023
- GitHub acquired by Microsoft in 2018, user base tripled since then by 2023
- Codespaces usage up 500% YoY in 2023
- Security features adoption: 90% of orgs using Advanced Security in 2023
- Sponsors program grew to $100M payouts in 2023 since 2019 launch
Growth and Adoption Interpretation
The feverish growth of GitHub, fueled by AI, cloud coding, and global expansion, reveals a platform so dominant that its own metrics—like tripling its user base, driving $100M to open source, and seeing security adopted by 90% of enterprises—read like the ambitious roadmap of a company that already owns the map.
Language Distribution
- In 2023, JavaScript was the most used language on GitHub with 30% of repositories
- Python repositories grew 22% YoY in 2023 to 15 million
- Java held 12% market share in GitHub repos in 2023
- TypeScript repos increased 35% in 2023, fastest growing language
- Go language repos: 5 million in 2023, up 18%
- C# repositories: 8% of total GitHub repos in 2023
- Rust repos grew 60% YoY to 2 million in 2023
- PHP still used in 7% of repos despite decline, 2023 data
- Shell scripts in 4 million repos, 3% share in 2023
- C++ repos: 6 million, steady at 5% in 2023
- Ruby repos declined 5% to 3.5 million in 2023
- HTML/CSS only repos: 2% of total, 8 million in 2023
- Jupyter Notebooks: 1.5 million repos, AI boom driven, 2023
- Kotlin repos up 25% to 1.2 million in Android dev, 2023
- Swift: 1 million iOS repos, 2% share in 2023
- Vue.js frameworks in 10% of JS repos, 2023 stats
- React dominates JS with 40% of frontend repos in 2023
- Dockerfiles in 20 million repos, containerization trend 2023
- Markdown files primary in 50 million repos for docs, 2023
- AI/ML languages like Julia: 500k repos, growing 50%, 2023
Language Distribution Interpretation
It seems the developer ecosystem is having an identity crisis, as JavaScript holds court with its 30% share while TypeScript and Rust sprint ahead yelling "we're coming for your jobs," Python quietly builds its AI-powered empire, and poor old PHP still can't quite get anyone to help it move out.
Repository Growth
- As of October 2023, GitHub hosts over 420 million public repositories, marking a 15% year-over-year growth from 365 million in 2022
- In 2023, developers created 28 million new repositories on GitHub, averaging 76,712 new repos per day
- GitHub saw 100 million new repositories forked in 2023, up 20% from the previous year
- By mid-2024, total repositories including private ones exceed 1 billion, with public ones at 450 million
- In 2022, GitHub's repository count hit 365 million public repos, with 95 million added that year
- Forks accounted for 25% of all new repository creations in 2023 on GitHub
- GitHub repositories doubled from 200 million in 2020 to 420 million in 2023
- Enterprise repositories on GitHub grew 30% YoY in 2023 to over 50 million
- Open source repositories represent 70% of GitHub's public repos as of 2024, totaling 315 million
- In Q1 2024, daily new repository creations averaged 80,000 on GitHub
- GitHub's archived repositories number over 10 million as of 2023
- Repositories with over 1,000 stars grew 18% in 2023 to 150,000
- Public repository deletions averaged 5,000 per day in 2023 on GitHub
- By 2024, GitHub has 500 million repositories in total across public and private scopes
- New repositories in 2023 were 60% forked from existing ones
- GitHub repositories per user averaged 10.5 in 2023, up from 9.2 in 2022
- Repositories using GitHub Actions workflows reached 40 million in 2023
- In 2024, repositories with Dependabot alerts fixed automatically hit 20 million
- Historical peak: GitHub reached 100 million repos in April 2018
- Repositories migrated from GitLab to GitHub increased 25% in 2023, totaling 2 million
- GitHub's repository stars totaled 2.5 billion across all repos in 2023
- Repositories with issues open averaged 5 million daily in 2023
- Private repositories grew to 600 million by 2024
- Repositories using Codespaces launched 15 million times in 2023
- In 2023, 35% of new repos were created via GitHub CLI
- Repository wikis enabled in 25 million repos as of 2024
- GitHub Pages sites hosted from repos reached 12 million in 2023
- Repositories with release tags published 50 million releases in 2023
- Template repositories used to create 10 million new repos in 2023
Repository Growth Interpretation
The GitHub ecosystem is not just growing, it's fundamentally evolving, with forking becoming the dominant form of creation and automation now underpinning the life cycle of tens of millions of repositories, suggesting that the future of code is less about writing from scratch and more about collaborative iteration at a truly planetary scale.
User Metrics
- As of 2023, GitHub has 100 million developers using the platform monthly
- GitHub user base grew 12% YoY in 2023 to 100 million
- Over 90 million developers contributed code in 2023, up 10% from 2022
- GitHub organizations number 7 million as of 2024, hosting 40% of all repos
- In 2023, 4 million new users joined GitHub, averaging 11,000 per day
- Verified users on GitHub reached 2.5 million in 2023
- Student developer pack users: 5 million active in 2023
- Enterprise users grew 25% to 50,000 organizations in 2023
- Female developers on GitHub: 15% of total users in 2023, up from 12% in 2021
- Users from India: 12 million, the largest country base in 2023
- Average repositories per user: 12.3 in 2024
- GitHub sponsors users: 1 million monthly active in 2023
- Developers using GitHub Copilot: 1.3 million paid subscribers in 2024
- Organizations with 1,000+ members: 5,000 in 2023
- New user signups via SSO increased 40% in 2023
- Active student users: 2 million via GitHub Education in 2023
- Users contributing to open source: 28 million in 2023
- GitHub Mobile app users: 5 million MAU in 2024
- Pro users (paid individuals): 3 million in 2023
- Users aged 18-24: 40% of GitHub's developer base in 2023
- Fork contributors across repos: 50 million unique in 2023
- Users with GitHub Discussions enabled: 10 million in 2024
- Enterprise seats licensed: 10 million in 2023
User Metrics Interpretation
GitHub has evolved into an astonishingly vast yet intimately human digital nation-state, where 100 million monthly developers—from enterprise architects to student coders—collectively shape the future, proving that while code may be written in solitude, progress is built by the crowd.
Sources & References
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