So it would seem the Themeforest juggernaut continues to grow from strength to strength. First off a disclaimer – I’m not a financial analyst, nor do I work for themeforest or envato. These calculations are my own estimates based on the information made freely available on themeforest. I’m merely a very interested and curious WordPress junkie who likes looking at these kind of things from time to time. Note I’ve also not deducted or split out numbers to account for themeforest author revenue splits which while could be projected I do not wish to shine a light on specific author net earnings – I’m interested in the macro view of the themeforest world.
If anyone from themeforest or envato would like to correct me feel free to get in touch.
I did some rough math this evening and took a look at the top selling WordPress themes on themeforest and some of the numbers are staggering. The WordPress economy is on fire.
Some quick highlights:
- The Top 20 Themes are grossing over $80,000 per week – There were approx. 2437 theme sales to the week ending May 6th 2012. By far the most common theme price amongst the Top 20 Theme Authors last week was $35 (18 out of 20), 1 theme was $40 and 1 was $45. This amounts $87,580 – not bad for 7 days of sales. This is also just the Top 20 selling themes. I’m guessing that the Top 20 selling themes probably account for a small percentage of overall weekly sales on themeforest given long tail sales against what must now be thousands of WordPress themes available on themeforest.
- So you think those figures are impressive? You ain’t seen nothing yet!
- I estimate that the combined Top 20 Authors on themeforest in April 2012 sold over $700,000 in WordPress themes. That’s over $32,000 per author per month. The basis for this calculation? Themeforest list their Top 20 authors by month (available here in the right hand side column). Between them, the Top 20 authors sold approx. 21975 themes in April. I’ve already noted above that the average theme sale price is $35. So get your abacus out kids: 21975*35 = $769,125. And remember this is just the Top 20 authors. I think it is easily conceivable that as a business themeforest must now be grossing in excess of $1 million dollars per month.
- Another interesting fact is that the Number 1 selling theme last week (the omnipresent U-Design) grossed almost twice as much as the number 2 theme (Modernize)
It will be interesting to see the numbers remain consistent and/or grow in May. I’m also curious to see if the same authors retain their rankings in the Top 20 author listings. If a theme author were able to do so over the course of a year it would amount to an average earning of $384,000 per annum! Nice work if you can get it!
While the commercial WordPress theme marketplace remains extremely competitive, it’s clear the rewards for the best of the best are substantial.
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