Assertion Not publicly verifiable AI assessment confidence: 80% certainty 4/5 debate potential 3/5

Mullenweg claims 98% of WordPress core developers remained despite public dispute

Matt Mullenweg · Matt Mullenweg on the future of open source and why he’s taking a stand · Mar 2, 2025 · at 53:14

Matt Mullenweg is the co-creator of WordPress and CEO of Automattic. He discusses the fallout and developer retention within the open-source community following Automattic's public clash with WP Engine.

0:00 / 0:07exact quote · 7.4s

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“98% of all the core developers have stayed and contributed and are working on the next version and are supportive”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

Approximately 98% of WordPress core developers have remained and contributed code or reviews to the subsequent version of WordPress following the WP Engine dispute.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

Matt Mullenweg's March 2025 statement that approximately '98% of all the core developers have stayed and contributed' refers to an informal cohort retention metric that cannot be settled from public records. While aggregate Trac and GitHub contributor counts increased across subsequent releases—from 637 in WordPress 6.6 (July 2024) to over 750 in WordPress 6.7 (November 2024) and 924 in WordPress 6.8 (April 2025)—public records do not define a standardized cohort of 'core developers' versus general contributors, nor do they track an audited individual-level retention rate for active committers pre- and post-dispute. Combined with documented departures (such as 8.4% of Automattic's workforce taking voluntary buyouts and third-party corporate contribution reductions), public data neither substantiates nor disproves the specific 98% retention claim.

WordPress 6.6 had 637 credited contributors, WordPress 6.7 had 750+, and WordPress 6.8 had 924 contributors across Trac and GitHub.
Automattic had an 8.4% staff buyout (159 employees) in October 2024, and outside organizations reduced sponsored core contribution hours in early 2025.
No verified named-cohort public audit exists tracking the exact retention rate of WordPress core developers across the 6.6 to 6.7/6.8 cycles against the 98% threshold.

Checked against

[1] giantsandtitans.com [2] majordigital.com [3] pcgamer.com [4] whtop.com [5] blackhatworld.com [6] websightdesign.com [7] wordpress.org [8] themeisle.com

"core committers" resigned wordpress OR automattic "wp engine" 2024 OR 2025 "WordPress 6.7" "WordPress 6.6" core committers contributors stats wordpress core committers departed left "wp engine" dispute wordpress 6 7 contributor statistics 6 6 comparison wp engine wordpress core developers 98 percent retained wp engine dispute "WordPress 6.8" core contributors statistics make.wordpress.org wordpress 6 7 release contributors count core developers wordpress core contributors 6 6 vs 6 7 retention trac

assessed as of 2026-09-03

This assessment is an AI reading of a public statement, made against the cited references with the confidence shown. It can be wrong. The quote, the tape and the references are all on this page; if something is off, use report an error below. full disclaimer →

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Automattic WordPress WP Engine

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Mullenweg claims 98% of WordPress core developers remained despite public dispute

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