WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and Lead Gutenberg Architect Matias Ventura offered the WordPress community a recap of 2023’s progress and a look ahead at a key-note speech in Madrid, Spain. State of the Word 2023 included a State of the Word Video, a keynote address, and a short video Q&A session

WordPress Highlights and Milestones from 2023

Before diving into the future of WordPress and what’s in store for 2024, Matt and Matias highlighted progress and milestones made in 2023. These highlights included a number of important milestones such as:

• WordPress Turned 20 on May 27th 2023 – From Its humble beginnings as a small blogging platform, WordPress has developed into a web behemoth as it celebrated its 20th anniversary. No longer a niche platform, WordPress has developed into a robust and widely supported content management system. Well supported by web developers, there are thousands of plugins and themes available to its users. According to W3Techs, WordPress is used on 45.8% of all websites on the internet as of 2023.
• WordPress Hosted 70 WordCamps in 33 Countries – WordPress continued to grow its international following with an astounding 70 WordCamps across 33 countries in 2023. WordCamps are community events for anyone using or building in WordPress.
• Openverse Wins Award For Excellence – Openverse is a free-to-use media library where you can access images, audio, and more. Openverse is built into WordPress and can be used when you insert images into pages or posts. They were awarded the Open Education Award For Excellence for their contributions in the open infrastructure category.
• WordPress launches a Browser Based Playground Tool – WordPress released a browser based playground tool for WordPress developers. This tool may revolutionize the way developers work locally, and test new features and plugin updates.
• The New Annual Default Theme is Now Available – A celebrated yearly tradition, WordPress released its new default theme Twenty-Twenty Four. The core idea behind Twenty-Twenty Four was to create a theme versatile enough for any type of site or content.
• Site Editor Capabilities Got a Boost – From footnotes to distraction free writing mode, WordPress placed added emphasis on boosting site editor capabilities.

What’s In Store For WordPress in 2024?

After recapping important milestones for WordPress in 2023, the presentation turned its sites on exciting updates in store for 2024. These updates included a number of exciting features including:

• Seamless Migration – WordPress has made seamless migration a priority in 2024 in an effort to “unlock the web”. Whether you are migrating from WordPres or another platform like WIX or Squarespace, WordPress is working hard to make the migration process as painless as possible under the code name the data liberation project.
• Real-Time Collaboration – A boon to remote workers and teams, multiple users will now be able to edit content and design on the backend at the same time, with changes synched in real time
• Next-Level Patterns  – 2023 saw a significant acceleration in pattern development, and 2024 is poised to elevate this further. Expect enhanced features such as advanced syncing capabilities, expanded customization options, and refined site-wide application of patterns.
• Performance Improvements – Users can expect to see a noticeable (2-3 times faster) performance increase related to routine tasks such as typing, uploading media, and publishing content
• Dashboard and Admin Screen Refresh – The backend admin dashboard area is set for a refresh in 2024 with the goal of taking on more of the look and feel of a site editor

After the main presentation was completed, Matt took questions about WordPress from the audience (video recap here) and answered questions that ran over time in a follow up blog post