According to TIOBE Software, C# has been named the programming language of 2023 based on its consistent popularity index. The TIOBE Programming Community Index tracks the trends in programming languages using search engine volume.
As of January 2024, the top three programming languages were Python, C, and C++, but they all experienced a decline in popularity throughout 2023 in TIOBE’s ranking system. Other notable changes between January 2023 and January 2024 include:
– C# had the highest year-over-year growth at +1.43%.
– JavaScript moved up from 7th to 6th place.
– PHP rose from 10th to 7th place.
– Visual Basic dropped from 6th to 8th place.
– SQL fell from 8th to 9th place.
– Scratch had a significant rise from 20th place to enter the top 10 at 10th place.
Paul Jansen, the CEO of TIOBE Software, stated that C# is gaining market share at the expense of Java and is becoming increasingly popular in areas like web application back-ends and games, particularly with the use of Unity. Jansen believes that C# will continue to grow and may even surpass Java in popularity.
Scratch and Fortran saw the second and third highest point increases in 2023, with 0.83% and +0.64%, respectively. Fortran, although an old language, remains crucial in handling large amounts of data in university research settings.
Jansen also noted that Kotlin has become a permanent fixture in the top 20 programming languages in 2023 as a viable alternative to Java, offering relative ease in learning and writing code.
Moving forward to 2024, Jansen mentioned that it is challenging to predict which programming languages will rise in popularity enough to enter the top 20. Dart and TypeScript, however, are potential contenders for reaching the top 20. Jansen highlighted that Dart, along with its companion app SDK Flutter, and TypeScript, which is already widely used in the industry, may break into the top rankings soon.
