Plugin Graveyard — June 2026 Snapshot

A reproducible dataset of WordPress plugins meeting both of these criteria:

• 10,000 or more active installations (per the WordPress.org Plugin Directory API)
• No release update for two years or more

The 26 June 2026 snapshot contains 176 plugins representing approximately 4.93 million active installations.

A continuously refreshed, browsable version of the underlying tracker is maintained at royalplugins.com/plugin-graveyard.

Contents

File	Purpose
plugin-graveyard-2026-06-26.csv	The dataset (176 rows; snapshot date 26 June 2026)
methodology.pdf	Methodology, criteria, summary, limitations, citation
methodology.md	Source markdown for methodology.pdf
query.py	Self-contained script that produced the dataset
paper.css	Print stylesheet for regenerating methodology.pdf
LICENSE-MIT	License for query.py
LICENSE-CC-BY-4.0	License for the dataset and methodology

CSV schema

Column	Type	Description
slug	string	Plugin slug as registered on WordPress.org
name	string	Display name of the plugin
active_installs	integer	Bucketed active install count from the WP.org API
last_updated	date	ISO-8601 date of the most recent release
days_since_update	integer	Days between last_updated and the snapshot date
category	string	First tag returned by the API, used as a coarse functional bucket
rating_percent	integer	Mean user rating as a percentage (0–100)
num_ratings	integer	Count of user ratings contributing to the mean
author	string	Plugin author string (HTML stripped)
homepage	string	Author-provided homepage URL, if any
wp_org_url	string	Canonical WordPress.org plugin page URL

Reproducing the snapshot

python query.py --snapshot-date 2026-06-26 --output plugin-graveyard-2026-06-26.csv

Requires Python 3.10 or newer. No third-party dependencies. No API key.

Running with a different --snapshot-date advances the abandonment cutoff and will produce a different result.

Regenerating the methodology PDF

Requires pandoc and a Chromium-based browser:

pandoc methodology.md -o methodology.html --standalone -c paper.css --embed-resources
chrome --headless --disable-gpu --no-pdf-header-footer --print-to-pdf=methodology.pdf methodology.html

Mirrors

This dataset is also archived on:

• Zenodo: 10.5281/zenodo.20901450
• Figshare: 10.6084/m9.figshare.32798370

Citation

Bernard, J. (2026). Abandoned WordPress Plugins with 10,000+ Active Installations: A Reproducible Dataset and Methodology (June 2026 Snapshot). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20901450

Licenses

• query.py — MIT (see LICENSE-MIT)
• Dataset and methodology — CC-BY-4.0 (see LICENSE-CC-BY-4.0)