| | --- |
| | license: mit |
| | task_categories: |
| | - text-classification |
| | - time-series-forecasting |
| | - text-retrieval |
| | tags: |
| | - github |
| | - trending |
| | - developers |
| | - open-source |
| | - time-series |
| | - social-data |
| | language: |
| | - en |
| | size_categories: |
| | - 1K<n<10K |
| | --- |
| | |
| | # GitHub Top Developers by Year (2015-2025) |
| |
|
| | A derived dataset showing the top-ranked GitHub trending developers for each year, based on weighted scoring of their trending appearances across 41,841 raw data points from the Wayback Machine. |
| |
|
| | ## π Dataset Overview |
| |
|
| | - **Total Entries**: 8,125 ranked developers |
| | - **Years Covered**: 2015 - 2025 (11 years) |
| | - **Unique Developers**: 4,763 |
| | - **Source**: Derived from Wayback Machine snapshots of GitHub trending developers |
| | - **Data Order**: Sorted by year (descending: 2025 β 2015) and rank within each year |
| | - **Update Frequency**: Static historical dataset |
| |
|
| | ## π Scoring Methodology |
| |
|
| | Each developer's yearly score is calculated using: |
| |
|
| | ``` |
| | Score = Ξ£ (26 - rank) for each trending appearance |
| | |
| | Where: |
| | - Rank 1 = 25 points |
| | - Rank 2 = 24 points |
| | - ... |
| | - Rank 25 = 1 point |
| | ``` |
| |
|
| | **Why this works:** |
| | - β
Rewards **frequent appearances** (more days trending = more points) |
| | - β
Rewards **high rankings** (rank 1 is worth more than rank 25) |
| | - β
Balances consistency with peak performance |
| |
|
| | ## π Dataset Structure |
| |
|
| | ### Columns |
| |
|
| | | Column | Type | Description | |
| | |--------|------|-------------| |
| | | `year` | integer | Year (2015-2025) | |
| | | `rank` | integer | Overall rank for that year (1 = highest score) | |
| | | `name` | string | Developer/organization GitHub username | |
| | | `times_trended` | integer | Number of times appeared on trending | |
| | | `best_rank` | integer | Highest rank achieved (lowest number) | |
| | | `avg_rank` | float | Average rank across all appearances | |
| | | `median_rank` | integer | Median rank | |
| | | `popular_repos` | string | Top repositories (comma-separated) | |
| |
|
| | ## π Key Insights |
| |
|
| | ### 1. Year Winners (Highest Score Each Year) |
| |
|
| | | Year | Winner | Score | Appearances | Notable Project | |
| | |------|--------|-------|-------------|-----------------| |
| | | 2025 | comfyanonymous | 257 | 18 | ComfyUI | |
| | | 2024 | **emilk** | **2,052** | **124** | egui (Rust GUI) | |
| | | 2023 | hrydgard | 1,858 | 111 | PPSSPP emulator | |
| | | 2022 | emilk | 1,958 | 107 | egui | |
| | | 2021 | PySimpleGUI | 1,993 | 120 | PySimpleGUI | |
| | | 2020 | stefanprodan | 1,033 | 64 | Flux CD | |
| | | 2019 | Microsoft | 308 | 15 | Various | |
| | | 2018 | google | 325 | 15 | Various | |
| | | 2017 | facebook / Microsoft | 77 | 4 | (tie) | |
| | | 2016 | facebook | 485 | 23 | React ecosystem | |
| | | 2015 | facebook | 48 | 2 | React | |
| |
|
| | **Notable:** emilk appeared on trending **124 times in 2024 alone** (nearly every 3 days!) |
| |
|
| | ### 2. All-Time Top 10 (Total Score Across All Years) |
| |
|
| | | Rank | Developer | Total Score | Total Appearances | Years Active | |
| | |------|-----------|-------------|-------------------|--------------| |
| | | 1 | **emilk** | **6,311** | 370 | 2020-2025 | |
| | | 2 | hrydgard | 5,181 | 324 | 2018-2024 | |
| | | 3 | stefanprodan | 4,910 | 306 | 2018-2022 | |
| | | 4 | stephencelis | 4,870 | 301 | 2016-2024 | |
| | | 5 | a8m | 4,649 | 323 | 2016-2024 | |
| | | 6 | hathach | 3,629 | 264 | 2018-2024 | |
| | | 7 | azure-sdk | 3,621 | 251 | 2020-2024 | |
| | | 8 | twpayne | 3,124 | 196 | 2017-2024 | |
| | | 9 | PySimpleGUI | 3,059 | 185 | 2019-2023 | |
| | | 10 | arvidn | 2,737 | 164 | 2017-2022 | |
| |
|
| | ### 3. Trend Shifts Over Time |
| |
|
| | **2015-2017: Organization Era** |
| | - Big tech dominated: Facebook, Google, Microsoft |
| | - Individual developers rarely broke top 3 |
| | - React ecosystem (Facebook) was the dominant force |
| |
|
| | **2018-2019: Transition Period** |
| | - Mix of organizations and influential individuals |
| | - Rise of open-source foundations (Apache, Linux Foundation) |
| | - Container/cloud technologies gained traction |
| |
|
| | **2020-2025: Individual Developer Era** |
| | - Individuals dominate top ranks consistently |
| | - **emilk** (egui) becomes most successful developer ever |
| | - Specialized tool creators rise (PySimpleGUI, hrydgard's PPSSPP) |
| | - AI/ML researchers become more prominent (rasbt, 2024-2025) |
| |
|
| | ### 5. Notable Patterns |
| |
|
| | - **Extreme Consistency**: emilk appeared 370 times across 6 years (average 62 times/year) |
| | - **2021 Peak**: PySimpleGUI set record with 120 appearances in a single year |
| | - **Developer Longevity**: sindresorhus maintained relevance from 2015-2021 (7 years) |
| | - **Organization Decline**: Big tech companies dropped from top spots after 2019 |
| | - **Ecosystem Impact**: Most top developers maintain influential open-source libraries |
| |
|
| | ## π License |
| |
|
| | MIT License - Free to use with attribution |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
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