C# has experienced a notable surge in popularity, according to the latest Tiobe programming community index. While the language still holds steady at the fifth position in the Tiobe rankings for May 2022—unchanged from the previous year—its overall rating has seen a significant increase. The language now boasts a rating of 6.39%, a remarkable 1.98 percentage point increase from 4.41% in May 2021. This growth highlights the rising demand and adoption of C# within the programming community.
Tiobe attributes C#’s continued success to its status as one of the most mature and versatile programming languages in use today. The language supports a variety of modern programming paradigms, making it a powerful tool for developers across different sectors. In particular, Tiobe notes that an increasing number of its clients have been using C# on Linux over the past two years, signaling its growing presence in environments beyond its traditional .NET base. This shift could potentially push C# even higher in the rankings, with some speculating that it may soon challenge C for a spot among the top three most popular languages.
C++ has also shown upward momentum, with its rating increasing by 1.01 percentage points over the past year. While C# has gained significant ground, C++ remains a key player in the programming landscape, especially in areas like system programming, game development, and performance-critical applications. Both languages’ growth reflect a broader trend in the industry toward languages that balance performance with versatility.
Tiobe’s ranking methodology is based on a comprehensive formula that takes into account various factors, including the number of skilled engineers, the number of available courses, and the presence of third-party vendors supporting each language. The ratings are then derived from search engine queries, using platforms like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Wikipedia to gauge the language’s visibility and usage. This data-driven approach offers a broad snapshot of language trends, and C#’s recent surge in popularity suggests it is becoming an increasingly important tool in the developer’s toolkit.