January 14, 2026
Rust rockets, browser beef
Servo 2025 Stats
Rust-made browser explodes in growth, fans hype a comeback while rivals feel the heat
TLDR: Servo’s community blew up in 2025 with 3,183 changes and 146 contributors. Comments clash over Rust’s rise, Chrome’s Manifest v3 backlash, Igalia’s role, and whether Servo can finally power PDFs and embedded devices—split between “usable next year” hype and skepticism about test metrics.
Forget the charts—the comments are on fire. The headline stat: in 2025, Servo merged 3,183 pull requests (PRs) and rallied 146 contributors (up from 54 in 2023), with eight people blasting past 100 PRs. Cue the crowd: half cheering “Rust saves the web,” half side‑eyeing the testing graphs after October’s ‘free’ bump from new WPT (Web Platform Tests). One commenter even wondered if Chrome’s Manifest v3 rule changes pushed devs toward alternatives and name‑dropped Ladybird, feeding the “new engines everywhere” meme.
Practical voices chimed in: “Can we finally make PDFs without CSS tears? Is it X yet?” The Rust faithful dunked on older engines—“memory safety or bust”—and asked if embedded gadgets should ditch stripped‑down WebKit for Servo. Then came the corporate tea: how is Igalia steering the project since taking over maintenance in 2023 if it’s a consulting shop? Fans clapped back that consultancies absolutely code, and the receipts landed: three releases, sponsorship tiers, nearly 35k GitHub stars on Servo, and a funding program already sponsoring Josh. Optimists shouted “usable by end of next year,” while skeptics warned test scores can be… creative. Drama aside, the vibe is undeniable: more people, more patches, more heat, and a Rust‑flavored browser comeback the internet can’t stop arguing about.
Key Points
- •Servo recorded 3,183 merged PRs in 2025, the highest since tracking began, with averages of 42.42 monthly contributors and 8.50 averaging ≥10 PRs per month.
- •Total contributors rose from 54 (2023) to 146 (2025); the share with ≥10 PRs increased from 15% to 29%, while single-PR contributors dropped from 57% to 38%.
- •Igalia has maintained Servo since 2023; PR metrics exclude bot activity from dependabot and Servo WPT Sync.
- •WPT pass-rate totals differ from wpt.fyi because Servo does not run all tests; October saw a jump of 188,281 passing subtests due to new WPT tests, not Servo changes.
- •Servo is nearing 35,000 GitHub stars; the project formalized governance roles, issued three releases, and introduced sponsorship tiers with four bronze sponsors in 2025.