Which PHP Versions Dominate Packagist? A Six‑Month Usage Deep Dive

Usage Statistics

Every six months the author updates the PHP versions used in the Packagist ecosystem, based on data from the Packagist statistics page.

Current version distribution

Version | 2023-01 | 2023-07 | 2024-01 | 2024-07
7.2 | 4.3% | 4.3% | 2.5% | 2.0%
7.3 | 5.3% | 4.2% | 3.2% | 1.9%
7.4 | 27.7% | 19.9% | 13.6% | 10.2%
8.0 | 16.2% | 12.3% | 7.2% | 5.4%
8.1 | 38.8% | 39.3% | 35.2% | 26.1%
8.2 | 4.7% | 17.2% | 29.4% | 32.3%
8.3 | 0.0% | 0.2% | 6.4% | 19.9%

The chart below visualizes these percentages.

Version adoption over the first six months

Version | 6‑month adoption
7.0 | 19.0%
7.1 | 16.2%
7.2 | 12.4%
7.3 | 19.8%
7.4 | 17.1%
8.0 | 9.2%
8.1 | 15.4%
8.2 | 12.5%
8.3 | 13.5%

Interestingly, PHP 7.x versions show faster adoption than PHP 8.x in the first half‑year after release.

Minimum required PHP version in popular packages

Version | 2023-01 | 2023-07 | 2024-01 | 2024-07
5.2 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 5
5.3 | 78 | 65 | 58 | 50
5.4 | 40 | 31 | 28 | 26
5.5 | 37 | 21 | 16 | 15
5.6 | 43 | 32 | 30 | 29
7.0 | 30 | 24 | 24 | 24
7.1 | 159 | 125 | 100 | 93
7.2 | 144 | 133 | 123 | 118
7.3 | 106 | 56 | 49 | 42
7.4 | 98 | 97 | 87 | 80
8.0 | 103 | 144 | 126 | 123
8.1 | 129 | 107 | 154 | 184
8.2 | - | 94 | 135 | 153
8.3 | - | - | 0 | 4

The table shows the lowest PHP version required by each package; a package requiring 8.0 also works on 8.1‑8.3.

Two important notes: the table reflects minimum required versions, and not all packages list a valid version string.

Trend: Minimum PHP requirements are decreasing over time

In the latest month, four packages require PHP 8.3 as the minimum, while many more require 8.2 or 8.1, indicating a shift toward lower minimum versions.

The author encourages open‑source maintainers to raise minimum PHP requirements more quickly.