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A Different Feeling Around WordCamp US 2026
We're officially one month away from WordCamp US 2026, and if you look across social media, you'll see the usual excitement beginning to build. People are booking flights, organizing dinners, announcing side events, and talking about seeing friends they only get to catch up with once a year. That's always been one of the best parts of WordCamp. It's as much about the people as it is the sessions.
Behind the scenes, though, there is another conversation happening. It's not one you'll find in many public blog posts or LinkedIn updates, but it's one I've heard repeatedly over the past few weeks. People are quietly asking the same question: What is happening to WordCamp US?
As of writing this article, there have been no public speaker announcements, no published schedule, and the public attendee page shows fewer than 300 registered attendees. That number will certainly grow. Speakers, sponsors, volunteers, and additional attendees still have time to register, so nobody should mistake the public attendee page for the final attendance count. Even so, with only a month to go, it's hard not to notice how different this year feels compared to previous years.
WordCamp US Attendance Trends Over the Last Four Years
Looking back, the trend tells an interesting story. WordCamp US sold 2,149 tickets in 2023 and followed that with 1,928 attendees in 2024. Last year, attendance dropped significantly to approximately 1,200 tickets. Today, the public attendee list for the 2026 event sits below 300 people. Even if that number eventually doubles, it would still represent another substantial decline from last year.
The obvious question is why.
Like most things in our industry, there probably isn't a single answer. Communities don't change overnight, and flagship conferences rarely experience this kind of shift because of one decision. More often, it's a combination of factors that slowly build on one another until the numbers finally reflect what has been changing beneath the surface.
Has WordCamp US Become Harder to Attend?
One point worth remembering is that WordCamp US has always been smaller than WordCamp Europe. Europe benefits from shorter travel distances, lower transportation costs between countries, and the ability for attendees to travel across borders much more easily. Flying across the United States can be just as expensive and time consuming as flying internationally, which has always made WordCamp US a more difficult trip for many people.
Some have suggested that current U.S. immigration policies are the primary reason for lower attendance, especially among international visitors. While there is no doubt that immigration and visa concerns influence some travel decisions, I don't think they tell the whole story. Attendance has been trending downward for several years, and the move from the East Coast to the West Coast also made travel more difficult for many European attendees who previously found cities like Philadelphia or National Harbor much easier to reach.
The Lasting Impact of the WP Engine Controversy
When we look back at 2025, I think we also have to acknowledge the impact of the events surrounding Matt Mullenweg and WP Engine. Some people blamed Portland for last year's attendance numbers, but I believe the larger story was the ongoing conflict that dominated conversations throughout much of 2024 and 2025. Whether people agreed with Matt's position or strongly opposed it, there is little doubt that the dispute changed the atmosphere around the community. For many people, WordPress no longer felt like it was talking about building the future. It felt like it was talking about itself.
Why Phoenix and the 2026 Schedule May Affect Attendance
Now we arrive at 2026, and several new challenges have entered the picture. Phoenix is hosting WordCamp US in the middle of summer, with temperatures expected to climb well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. For some attendees, especially those traveling with families or coming from overseas, that's simply another reason to stay home. The event schedule is also unusual. Most flagship WordCamps run from the middle of the week into the weekend, allowing attendees to combine work travel with a weekend away. This year, the conference begins on Sunday and runs through Wednesday, requiring many people to spend more weekdays away from work.
Travel costs also remain high, international conflicts continue to disrupt travel in parts of the world, and visa concerns haven't disappeared. All of those issues matter, but even taken together, they still don't completely explain the steady decline we've seen over the last several years.
How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing WordPress
There is another conversation I believe deserves much more attention, and that's artificial intelligence.
For years, WordPress has competed with platforms like Wix and Squarespace for simple brochure websites and portfolio sites. Those platforms chipped away at the lower end of the market, but AI has accelerated that shift dramatically. Today, tools like Lovable, Base44, Bolt, Replit, and many others can generate impressive websites and applications in minutes. For someone launching a small business or building a personal portfolio, AI has changed what is possible without hiring a developer or learning WordPress.
That doesn't mean WordPress is losing its relevance. Far from it. WordPress remains the world's leading content management system because it excels at publishing, ecommerce, memberships, custom applications, and complex websites where flexibility and ownership matter. Agencies aren't disappearing either. They're adapting. The rise of the Agentic Agency is already underway, with AI handling repetitive development tasks while agencies focus on strategy, integrations, content, marketing, and delivering business outcomes.
The question isn't whether AI replaces WordPress. I don't believe it will. The more interesting question is how quickly WordPress can embrace AI and become the platform people choose to build intelligent, AI-powered experiences instead of simply traditional websites.
What Could Final WordCamp US 2026 Attendance Look Like?
Of course, all of this is still speculation. Until WordCamp US takes place and the organizers release final attendance numbers, nobody outside the organizing team truly knows how many people will ultimately attend. If I had to make an educated guess today, I wouldn't be surprised to see attendance land somewhere around 600 people once speakers, sponsors, volunteers, and late registrations are included. That would still represent roughly half of last year's attendance and nearly a 70 percent decline from just three years ago.
What WordCamp US Organizers Should Do Next
If those numbers prove to be anywhere close to reality, I hope the community takes the opportunity to learn from them instead of dismissing them. The most valuable thing WordCamp US organizers could do after the event is survey not only those who attended, but also those who didn't. Ask why they stayed home. Was it the location? The timing? Cost? Community drama? AI? Conference fatigue? Something else entirely? Real answers will always be more valuable than assumptions.
I love WordCamp. Some of the best friendships and professional opportunities I've had over the last twenty years started at WordCamps. That's exactly why I think these conversations matter. Asking difficult questions isn't being negative. It's how healthy communities evolve.
Whatever the final attendance numbers are, I hope WordCamp US 2026 sparks an honest conversation about where WordPress is today, where it's heading, and what the next generation of WordCamp needs to look like. The technology landscape is changing faster than it ever has before. AI is reshaping how websites are built, how agencies operate, and how businesses think about the web. WordPress has adapted many times over the past two decades, and I believe it can adapt again.
The future of WordCamp US won't be determined by one conference. It will be determined by how willing the community is to understand why things are changing and what it wants the next chapter to become.