San Francisco, May 12, 2025 – WordPress leadership has announced a significant change to its development roadmap, confirming version 6.8 will stand as the platform’s sole major release for 2025. This strategic decision follows concerning trends in contributor engagement and feature development velocity.
Key Findings Prompting Change
A late-March summit involving nearly 30 core committers and project leaders revealed critical metrics:
Contributor hours from supporting organizations have declined steadily
Both Gutenberg (300+ tickets) and Core Trac (450+ tickets) backlogs show stagnant resolution rates since Q4 2024
Gutenberg feature development dropped 62% year-over-year in Q1 2025
Impact on WordPress Ecosystem
Release Structure
Major releases: Annual cycle beginning with WP 6.8 (expected Q3 2025)
Minor releases: Monthly maintenance updates (6.8.1, 6.8.2) including:
Critical security patches
Performance optimizations
Limited enhancements (excluding new file additions)
Gutenberg Plugin
Maintains independent release cadence:
Current: Bi-weekly updates
Potential slowdown to monthly releases
Recommended Actions for Users
Security: Continue applying minor updates promptly
Feature Tracking: Monitor Gutenberg plugin for latest functionality
Development Planning: Align major projects with annual release windows
WordPress Executive Director Mary Hubbard emphasized this shift allows “focused investment in foundational improvements,” with the 2025 cycle dedicating 40% of resources to performance and stability enhancements.
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