Why PHP 8.4 Usage Is Stalling: Latest Version Trends and Package Requirements

Usage Statistics

Current PHP version percentages are shown only for versions with a market share above 1%. The data covers January 2024 to June 2025.

7.2 : dropped from 2.5% in Jan 2024 to 1.6% in Jun 2025.

7.3 : fell from 3.2% to 1.4%.

7.4 : decreased from 13.6% to 6.9%.

8.0 : declined from 7.2% to 3.3%.

8.1 : fell sharply from 35.2% to 13.4%.

8.2 : rose to 32.3% then fell to 24.8%.

8.3 : surged quickly from 6.4% to 34.0%.

8.4 : appeared at 5.1% in Jan 2025 and reached 13.7% by Jun 2025.

Visualizing these figures produces the following chart:

Version Update Trend Analysis

PHP 8.4 usage : six months after release its share is 13.7%, lower than earlier releases (8.3 at 16.7% and 8.1 at 21.6%).

Possible reasons :

New features such as property hooks, bracket‑less new, and asymmetric visibility may be perceived as complex.

Quality‑assurance tools lag behind; support for 8.4 in PHP CS Fixer and PHPStan is slow.

Visualizing PHP’s Evolution

Open‑source Package Minimum PHP Version Requirements

Analysis of the minimum PHP version requirements for the 1,000 most popular Packagist packages reveals:

Key data :

In June 2025, 8.1 and 8.2 are required by 234 and 187 packages respectively; 8.3 is required by 26 packages, while 8.4 is required by none.

More than 50% of popular packages still depend on legacy PHP versions that have reached end‑of‑life (e.g., 5.3‑7.2).

Conclusion : The community should encourage package maintainers to drop unsupported PHP versions and target actively maintained releases to improve overall security and compatibility.