WordPress.com themes – from most to least popular (January 2012)

16 thoughts on “WordPress.com themes – from most to least popular (January 2012)”

1. 

   Surprised to know P2 is at the bottom! It’s a nice theme; seems people don’t need it as they have twitter!

   Posted by Ganesh Dhamodkar | January 9, 2012, 15:07
2. 

   Thanks, Panos, interesting to see what people are using…I had to check out “Eight” since it looked like a total failure with only 30 blogs. Did the “try it out” thing. I liked it! unfortunately it’s a premium one, if I’m going to pay for anything I think I would rather fork over for no ads than for a premium theme. Wonder why it’s so unpopular?

   Posted by ingridcc | January 9, 2012, 18:47
3. 

   @GD: It’s at the bottom of the first column! 89th in a total of 174 is not bad at all for a special-purpose theme.

   @ICC: Most users feel the way you do, so “premium” themes in general are bound to rank lowest. Eight was launched only three months ago, but that can’t be the only reason (ThemeMin was launched just four days ago and already 22 users have bought it); maybe it doesn’t have enough special features.

   Posted by Panos | January 9, 2012, 22:07
4. 

   Thanks for this chart, Panos, I know it must have taken lots of work!

   Any chance you’ll take a look at Nuntius anytime soon?

   Posted by ELMalvaney | January 10, 2012, 03:21
5. 

   I’m familiar with all free themes, so define “take a look” please!

   Posted by Panos | January 10, 2012, 09:22
6. 

   What a great list! The fact that 5,255,467 people have chosen the same theme must say something about how adaptable it is!

   Posted by Margie | January 11, 2012, 00:33
7. 

   Maybe, because it’s rather neutral. But its popularity is largely due to its being the default theme during 2010, a year that saw a great surge of new users – partly because Microsoft closed down Live Spaces, and all Live Space users had to move to WP.

   Posted by Panos | January 11, 2012, 05:22
8. 

   I’m really intrigued by how Nuntius works but I’ve hesitated to give it a try because I’ve seen several negative comments on the forums about parts of the front page not working. I’m not sure if those are due to user error or a problem with the theme itself. The thing I like about it, as opposed to TMA, which I’m using now, is that it marries the “traditional blog” page with the string of recent posts, which some of my readers say they miss, with the front page where you can display featured posts and categories in some meaningful way for new readers or regular readers just browsing. With TMA, you have the front page, but not the blog page option.

   Posted by ELMalvaney | January 11, 2012, 07:08
9. 

   Nuntius is interesting, and I was surprised to see it as a free instead of a premium theme. Possible drawback, in my opinion: the slider takes up too much of your screen space.

   So you mean you’d like me to write a guide like I did for TMA? Maybe I will.

   Posted by Panos | January 11, 2012, 14:56
10. 

    As for the “negative comments on the forums about parts of the front page not working”:
    If you mean problems with the featured categories etc, user error.
    If you mean post excerpt not showing on the slider, WP error – fixed:
    http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/nuntius-theme-slider?replies=6#post-789142

    Posted by Panos | January 11, 2012, 16:01
11. 

    Re: the slider, it is a bit too tall, but I was thinking of abandoning my header so that essentially the slider becomes the visual header, with just the blog title above. Good to know about the problems not being as big as made out in the comments. Thanks for that link!

    I was surprised it was free too. I’m assuming there will be a 2012 theme as there has been the last two years, and maybe that will be one that gets me to jump again, if I jump on Nuntius first.

    Posted by ELMalvaney | January 12, 2012, 04:37
12. 

    Agree: the slider is more unusual and more attractive than a header image, so I would go without the latter. But even without a header image, the title area is a bit tall (100px) so you don’t gain much. Of course, since you have the CD upgrade you can make it shorter.

    Posted by Panos | January 12, 2012, 12:49
13. 

    I’m intrigued that Misty Look is up there in the ranks…it is an older theme and I use it. I haven’t switched simply because I haven’t found alternate theme (that’s wider) that meets an organization’s needs.

    And interesting about Duster. Maybe some folks are like me who use it but haven’t gone to Twenty Eleven (because I found some problems in make the gallery option work for my photos.)

    I wouldn’t have expected Bueno to be so heavily used.

    Posted by Jean | February 4, 2012, 23:29
14. 

    Hi Jean!

    Personally I don’t really like MistyLook, but it’s always been one of the most popular themes. I think its popularity must be partly due to its default header image. Bueno I can’t explain.

    As for Duster, I remember your question in the forum, and I insist that there’s no such problem in 2011. But the only significant difference between the two is that 2011 can display the sidebar on static pages, so if that’s of no importance to you (and I don’t see why it should be) there’s no reason to switch.

    Posted by Panos | February 5, 2012, 03:55

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