Playwright enters 2026 with 89.8k GitHub stars and an estimated 33 million weekly npm downloads. In the latest State of JS survey, 3,674 respondents said they use it at work, putting it ahead of Cypress by 71 respondents.
Playwright is Microsoft’s open-source framework for browser automation and testing. It runs across Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit, and the official site now positions it for testing, scripting, and AI agent workflows across TypeScript, Python, .NET, and Java.
This Playwright statistics article pulls together the strongest public numbers on adoption, ecosystem activity, competitive position, and the market behind it.
Playwright Statistics 2026: Key Insights & Takeaways
- Playwright’s GitHub repository shows 89.8k stars, 5.8k forks, and 161 releases; the latest release is v1.60.0 from May 11, 2026.
- Playwright reached 33 million weekly npm downloads in early 2026, compared with under 1 million in 2021.
- Checkly reported that Playwright surpassed Cypress in npm downloads in mid-2024.
- The official site says Playwright uses one API for 3 browser engines and supports 4 languages. The browser docs show a Playwright config that spans 7 project targets: 3 desktop browsers, 2 mobile viewports, and 2 branded browsers.
- Playwright’s codebase is 91.2% TypeScript, which shows how strongly the project remains anchored in the JavaScript/TypeScript ecosystem.
Playwright Statistics 2026: At a Glance
| Metric | Figure |
| GitHub stars | 89.8k |
| GitHub forks | 5.8k |
| Releases | 161 |
| Latest release | v1.60.0, May 11, 2026 |
| Weekly npm downloads | 33M+ estimated |
| Work users in State of JS 2024 | 3,674 |
| State of JS 2023 retention | 95% |
| Core browser engines | 3 |
| Supported languages | 4 |
| Parallel browsers in Azure service | Up to 50 |
Playwright Statistics 2026: A Deep Dive
1.Playwright Statistics 2026: User Statistics
Playwright’s growth is unmistakable: a 2026 npm Trends-based estimate puts it at 33M+ weekly downloads, while Checkly noted that it had already overtaken Cypress in downloads by mid-2024.
The survey data points in the same direction. State of JS 2024 shows Playwright used at work by 3,674 respondents, only 71 ahead of Cypress but well ahead of Puppeteer at 1,865 and Selenium at 1,130. That makes Playwright the most visible dedicated browser-automation tool in the survey’s professional-use ranking.
| Year / signal | Figure | What it suggests |
| 2021 weekly downloads | Under 1M | Early-stage adoption |
| Mid-2024 download crossover | Surpassed Cypress | Category inflection point |
| 2024 work usage | 3,674 respondents | Strong professional penetration |
| 2026 weekly downloads | 33M+ estimated | Large-scale package demand |
2. Playwright Statistics 2026: Usage & Adoption Statistics
The official documentation is explicit about Playwright’s scope: it is built for testing, scripting, and AI agents, not just classic E2E automation. The homepage says one API drives Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit, and the language matrix covers TypeScript, Python, .NET, and Java.
That breadth helps explain why Playwright has become a default option for modern web teams. The docs also show a browser matrix that can cover 7 project targets out of the box-style configuration: Chromium, Firefox, WebKit, Mobile Chrome, Mobile Safari, Google Chrome, and Microsoft Edge.
On top of that, each test gets a fresh browser context, which is one reason the framework is commonly used for isolated, parallelized CI runs.
| Usage signal | Numeric detail |
| Browser engines | 3 |
| Languages | 4 |
| Browser targets shown in docs | 7 |
| Fresh browser context per test | 1 context per test |
| Cloud parallel browsers | Up to 50 |
The adoption pattern is not only broad but also sticky. In State of JS 2023, Playwright recorded 49.94% mostly positive opinions and a 94.02 velocity score, which the survey uses to capture changes in usage and sentiment over time.
In the same survey cycle, Playwright’s retention landed at 95%, placing it among the strongest tools in the testing category.
3. Playwright Statistics 2026: Enterprise Adoption Statistics
Playwright’s 3,674 professional users in 2024 put it within 71 respondents of Cypress and above all other listed E2E/browser automation tools in that survey slice. In practical terms, that suggests Playwright has crossed from enthusiast adoption into routine professional use.
Microsoft’s own cloud offering reinforces that enterprise angle. Azure Playwright Testing advertises parallel execution on up to 50 browsers, which is the kind of scale teams usually care about when browser coverage moves from a handful of tests to large CI suites.
The GitHub repo also shows 161 releases, which points to an active release cadence that enterprise teams typically watch closely before standardizing on a framework.
| Enterprise signal | Figure |
| Professional users in State of JS 2024 | 3,674 |
| Gap to Cypress in work usage | 71 respondents |
| Azure cloud parallelism | Up to 50 browsers |
| Repository releases | 161 |
| Latest release date | May 11, 2026 |
4. Playwright Statistics 2026: Market Share & Competitive Statistics
By the public metrics that developers tend to quote, Playwright is now ahead of the two most common comparison points in browser automation. Its repository has 89.8k stars, versus 49.7k for Cypress and 34.1k for SeleniumHQ/selenium.
In npm Trends-style estimates, Playwright is at 33M+ weekly downloads, while Cypress sits around 6.5M and selenium-webdriver around 2.1M.
The opinion data points the same way. State of JS 2023 shows Playwright at 49.94% mostly positive opinions, Cypress at 29%, and Selenium at -34.29%.
That is not a perfect apples-to-apples market-share measure, but it is one of the clearest public signals that Playwright’s developer mindshare is stronger than the older incumbents.
| Metric | Playwright | Cypress | Selenium |
| GitHub stars | 89.8k | 49.7k | 34.1k |
| Weekly npm downloads | 33M+ est. | 6.5M est. | 2.1M est. for selenium-webdriver |
| Used at work (State of JS 2024) | 3,674 | 3,603 | 1,130 |
| Mostly positive opinions (State of JS 2023) | 49.94% | 29% | -34.29% |
For readers comparing tools, the most important number in that table is the download gap. Playwright’s estimated 33M+ weekly downloads are about 5.1x Cypress’s 6.5M and about 15.7x selenium-webdriver’s 2.1M.
5. Playwright Statistics 2026: Developer / API / Platform Statistics
Playwright is still fundamentally a TypeScript-led project. GitHub lists the codebase as 91.2% TypeScript, with smaller shares for HTML at 3.9%, CSS at 2.4%, C++ at 0.8%, Objective-C at 0.5%, and JavaScript at 0.5%.
That language mix is a strong sign that Playwright remains tightly coupled to the JavaScript ecosystem even as it expands into other runtimes.
The project is also unusually broad for a browser automation library. The official site says Playwright is available for 4 languages, and the homepage now groups the product into testing, CLI, MCP, and library paths.
That matters because browser automation is no longer just about test execution; Playwright is being used as a platform for agentic workflows as well.
| Platform metric | Figure |
| TypeScript share in repo | 91.2% |
| HTML share | 3.9% |
| CSS share | 2.4% |
| C++ share | 0.8% |
| JavaScript share | 0.5% |
| Languages supported | 4 |
| Releases | 161 |
| Watchers | 577 |
6. Playwright Statistics 2026: Regional & Geographic Statistics
North America accounted for 35.3% of global software testing revenue in 2025, while Fortune Business Insights says Asia Pacific held 34.78% of the automation testing market in 2025.
That is an inference, not a Playwright-specific census, but it still matters: the largest testing-spend regions are also the places where Playwright’s enterprise adoption is most likely to be strongest.
In other words, Playwright’s growth is happening inside a market that is already concentrated in high-spend geographies.
| Region | Market share figure |
| North America | 35.3% of software testing revenue in 2025 |
| Asia Pacific | 34.78% of automation testing market in 2025 |
7. Playwright Statistics 2026: Market Trends & Industry Growth Statistics
The broader automation-testing market is still expanding quickly. Fortune Business Insights estimates the market at $20.60 billion in 2025, rising to $84.22 billion by 2034 at a 16.84% CAGR.
Grand View Research gives a broader software-testing market estimate of $49.36 billion in 2025 and $93.15 billion by 2033, with an 8.5% CAGR.
For Playwright, the implication is straightforward: the category it sits in still has room to compound. When a tool already has 33M+ weekly downloads, 89.8k stars, and 3,674 work users, a rising market does not just add traffic; it expands the number of teams that can standardize on the tool.
That is why Playwright’s current numbers matter beyond the framework itself.
| Market metric | Figure |
| Automation testing market size, 2025 | $20.60B |
| Automation testing market size, 2034 | $84.22B |
| Automation testing CAGR | 16.84% |
| Software testing market size, 2025 | $49.36B |
| Software testing market size, 2033 | $93.15B |
| Software testing CAGR | 8.5% |
Conclusion
Playwright ends 2026 with a clear public footprint: 89.8k GitHub stars, 33M+ weekly npm downloads estimated from npm Trends, and 3,674 State of JS 2024 work users.
Its 95% retention in State of JS 2023 and 161 releases through v1.60.0 show that the project is still moving quickly, not just riding old momentum.
The broader market is still expanding too, with automation testing forecast to grow from $20.60 billion in 2025 to $84.22 billion by 2034.
That makes Playwright look less like a niche successor to older test frameworks and more like one of the main standards shaping modern browser automation.
FAQ’s
Q: How many users does Playwright have?
A: Playwright does not publish an official monthly active user figure. The strongest public adoption signals are 33M+ weekly npm downloads in early 2026 and 3,674 developers in the State of JS 2024 survey reporting that they use Playwright at work.
Q: Is Playwright more popular than Cypress?
A: By most public ecosystem metrics, yes. Playwright has approximately 89.8K GitHub stars compared to Cypress’s 49.7K, and its estimated weekly npm downloads exceed 33M+ versus roughly 6.5M for Cypress.
Q: What are Playwright’s main use cases?
A: Playwright is primarily used for end-to-end testing, browser automation, scripting, and AI-driven browser workflows. It supports all major browser engines and multiple programming languages, which makes it widely used for both QA automation and developer tooling.
Q: How fast is Playwright growing?
A: Playwright has grown rapidly, increasing from under 1 million weekly downloads in 2021 to more than 33 million weekly downloads by early 2026. Industry tracking also showed Playwright overtaking Cypress in npm download volume during 2024.
Q: What is Playwright’s retention rate?
A: In the State of JS 2023 survey, Playwright recorded a 95% retention rate, placing it among the highest-retained testing tools in the JavaScript ecosystem. The same survey also reported overwhelmingly positive developer sentiment toward the framework.
Q: Who uses Playwright most?
A: Playwright has particularly strong adoption among professional engineering teams. In the State of JS 2024 survey, 3,674 respondents said they used Playwright at work, slightly ahead of Cypress, indicating especially strong traction in production-grade testing environments.
