| --- |
| 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 |
| configs: |
| - config_name: yearly |
| data_files: "yearly/data.csv" |
| default: true |
| - config_name: full |
| data_files: "full/data.csv" |
| --- |
| |
| # 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 |
|
|
| ## π§ Dataset Configurations |
|
|
| This dataset has **two configurations** defined in the YAML header: |
|
|
| ### Configuration: `yearly` (Default) |
| Top-ranked developers by year with 8,125 entries |
|
|
| ```python |
| from datasets import load_dataset |
| ds = load_dataset('ronantakizawa/github-top-developers', 'yearly') |
| ``` |
|
|
| **Columns:** |
| - `year` (int): Year (2015-2025) |
| - `rank` (int): Overall rank for that year (1 = highest score) |
| - `username` (string): Developer/organization GitHub username |
| - `name` (string): Real name of developer/organization *(enriched)* |
| - `times_trended` (int): Number of times appeared on trending |
| - `best_rank` (int): Highest rank achieved (lowest number) |
| - `avg_rank` (float): Average rank across all appearances |
| - `median_rank` (int): Median rank |
| - `popular_repos` (string): Top repositories (comma-separated) |
| - `recent_company` (string): Company/organization affiliation *(as of Dec 2025)* |
| - `twitter_username` (string): Twitter/X handle *(as of Dec 2025)* |
|
|
| ### Configuration: `full` |
| Complete daily trending data with 41,841 entries (sorted by date: most recent first) |
|
|
| ```python |
| from datasets import load_dataset |
| ds = load_dataset('ronantakizawa/github-top-developers', 'full') |
| ``` |
|
|
| **Columns:** |
| - `name` (string): Developer/organization GitHub username |
| - `rank` (int): Position in trending (1-25) |
| - `popular_repo` (string): Associated repository at the time |
| - `date` (string): Snapshot date (YYYY-MM-DD, sorted descending) |
|
|
| ## 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. We use 25 because github ranks the top 25 developers on their page) |
| - β
Balances consistency with peak performance |
|
|
| ## 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 |
|
|
