GitHub Statistics 2026: Languages, Licenses and Topics of 8,273 New Repos

In our sample of 8,273 new GitHub repositories that gained stars between October 10 and November 6, 2026, Python was the most common language at 23.9%, followed by JavaScript (10.8%), TypeScript (9.2%) and HTML (9.1%). Rust appeared in 5.5% of repos, more than twice as often as Go (2.6%). 41.3% used the MIT license and 27.4% had no license at all. The typical repo had 32 stars, and about 1 in 5 of the repos we listed since September has since been deleted.

This is a sample of new repositories that already had some traction, not every repository created on GitHub. The method section at the end explains exactly what is in it.

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The numbers at a glance

Question	Answer	Based on
Most common language	Python, 23.9%	8,273 repos
Repos with no language listed	12.1%	8,273 repos
Rust share	5.5%	8,273 repos
Go share	2.6%	8,273 repos
Most common license	MIT, 41.3%	8,273 repos
Repos with no license	27.4%	8,273 repos
Median stars	32	8,273 repos
Repos with 100 or more stars	19.0%	8,273 repos
Repos with 1,000 or more stars	0.9%	8,273 repos
Median forks	2	8,273 repos
Listed repos later deleted	19.6%	22,778 repos since September

Which programming languages do new GitHub repos use?

Python leads by a wide margin. About one new repo in four is written mostly in Python, more than JavaScript and TypeScript combined.

Language	Share of new repos	Repos	Median stars
Python	23.9%	1,975	28
No language listed	12.1%	1,004	29
JavaScript	10.8%	896	32
TypeScript	9.2%	757	35
HTML	9.1%	749	67
C++	5.8%	483	32
Rust	5.5%	459	33
C	4.9%	405	28
Swift	2.7%	220	32
Go	2.6%	211	33
C#	2.1%	174	not shown
Java	2.0%	166	not shown
Kotlin	1.9%	154	not shown
CSS	1.6%	131	not shown

Two things stand out. Rust is more than twice as common as Go among new repos with stars, and Java is rare at 2.0%. Median stars are shown only for languages with at least 150 repos, so small groups do not swing the number.

HTML repos have the highest median stars (67), about twice the Python median of 28. Most of these are websites, demos and landing pages, which are easy to show and share.

Which licenses do new repos use?

License	Share of new repos
MIT	41.3%
No license	27.4%
Unrecognized or custom license	11.4%
Apache 2.0	7.5%
GPL 3.0	7.1%
AGPL 3.0	2.2%
GPL 2.0	1.4%
CC0 1.0	0.4%

More than a quarter of new repos carry no license, which legally means others cannot reuse the code. Permissive licenses (MIT and Apache 2.0) together cover about 49%, while the GPL family covers about 11%.

What topics do new repos use?

Topics are the labels owners put on a repo. These were the most used among the 8,273 repos.

Topic	Repos
python	601
windows	513
open-source	506
developer-tools	471
automation	393
claude-code	371
software-engineering	365
utility	347
scripts	340
ai-agents	268
mcp	231
llm	197
rust	192
codex	177
agent-skills	160
self-hosted	128

The AI tags are the new part. claude-code (371 repos, 4.5% of the sample) is used more often than ai-agents (268) or mcp (231). For a closer look at what is inside those repos, see what developers are building around Claude Code.

How many stars does a typical new repo get?

The median is 32 stars. About 19% reach 100 stars and fewer than 1% (0.9%) reach 1,000. The median repo has 2 forks. A repo that passes 1,000 stars within its first weeks is in the top 1% of this group.

How many new GitHub repos get deleted?

Since early September 2026 we have listed 22,778 repos that gained stars. 19.6% (4,471) no longer exist on GitHub. The deleted ones are mostly game cheat tools, cracked software installers, bot tools and copy pasted spam repos. If you read a trend off raw GitHub star counts, a fifth of what looks like traction may be gone within weeks. We check every listing against GitHub daily and remove the deleted ones from our counts.

Method and limits

• What is in the sample: repositories created in the window that GitHub's search returned with stars, ranked by stars. It is a sample of new repos with traction, not all new repos.
• Window: October 10 to November 6, 2026, 28 days. We did not compare with earlier periods because collection was still being expanded in September.
• Cleanup: repos that look like cracked software lures, abuse tools or copy farms are excluded, and repos GitHub has deleted are removed.
• Language is the main language GitHub reports. Repos with no detected language (for example documentation only) are shown as "no language listed."
• Stars show interest, not usage.

Data as of November 7, 2026, from Nicheloom's own daily tracking. For the wider picture across Product Hunt, GitHub, Hacker News and Y Combinator, see product launch statistics 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most popular programming language for new GitHub repos in 2026? Python. In our sample of 8,273 new repos that gained stars between October 10 and November 6, 2026, 23.9% were mostly Python, followed by JavaScript (10.8%), TypeScript (9.2%) and HTML (9.1%).

Is Rust more popular than Go? Among new repos with stars, yes. Rust was 5.5% of the sample and Go 2.6%, so Rust appeared more than twice as often.

What share of new GitHub repos use the MIT license? 41.3%. About 27.4% have no license, 7.5% use Apache 2.0 and 7.1% use GPL 3.0.

How many stars does a typical new GitHub repo get? The median is 32 stars among new repos that already had traction. About 19% reach 100 stars and 0.9% reach 1,000.

How many GitHub repos get deleted? Of 22,778 repos with stars that we listed since September 2026, 19.6% have been deleted, mostly cheat tools, cracked installers, bots and spam copies.

What is the most used AI topic on new GitHub repos? claude-code, used by 371 repos (4.5% of the sample), ahead of ai-agents (268) and mcp (231).