The WordPress Themes Repository has hit an exciting milestone of 1,000 block themes. As of today, the repository has over 12,000 free themes.
Block themes were introduced in WordPress 5.9 allowing users to create and customize all aspects of their site using the block editor. This ushered in a new era of site design, and in July 2022, the Themes Repository celebrated reaching the 100-block-theme mark. It hit the 200 mark in December 2022.
The journey of block themes was not without challenges leading to the community discussing why more theme authors were not embracing block themes. To give block themes greater visibility, a “Block Themes” menu item was added to the filter menu on the directory homepage, helping developers and site owners discover these innovative designs more easily.
Ganga Kafle, a representative of the WordPress.org Themes Team, has shared more details about block themes and contributors. The very first block theme to go live was Armando, a theme crafted by Carolina Nymark. Today, Automattic leads the contributions to the block themes category with 116 themes, followed by Creta Themes with 41 themes.
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Ganga Kafle also shared the team’s vision, “The themes team would like to see more block themes. We expect an influx of innovative designs and functionalities. Whether you’re a developer, designer, or site owner, the potential of block themes offers exciting opportunities for creativity and customization.”
Remkus de Vries tweeted, “It started out real slow, but it seems we’ve finally got some momentum for the Block Themes. Let’s see how long it takes for the next 1000!” while Jeff Chandler tweeted, “Back in 2021, Matt’s request was for 5,000 block themes, not 1,000 lol. Still a bit shy of that number :D.”
Automattic Product Wrangler Anne McCarthy also published WordPress Community