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← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “play”

wp.org orders by popularity, so a plugin a host bundled onto millions of sites, or a big-brand one that's slow and mediocre, can sit at the top. Our ranking is built to answer a different question: which of these is actually worth installing. How this works →

For “play”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 of the top 20. 4 plugins are pushed down for signals wp.org ignores: errors, a host-installed base, or removal risk.

wp.org search ranks on

Install count (uncapped), the raw star average, freshness, and support. Popularity dominates, so the biggest install base usually wins regardless of how it got there.

We add

A cap on the install boost, volume-weighted ratings, and signals wp.org can't see: whether it throws errors on current PHP, whether the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

BH Custom CSS3 Preloader – Just play and play shows at wp.org #6 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 700+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.8★ average from 6 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Podcast Player – Your Podcasting Companion places #10 on merit, 4.8★ from 113 reviews, but shows at wp.org #16. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 The Events Calendar 600K+ · 4.2★ (2461) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Raffle Play Woocommerce 700+ · 5.0★ (21) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4228) wp.org #5 ↓1 2 too low 4 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #4 ↑7 5 Music Player for Elementor – Audio Player & Podcast Player 10K+ · 4.7★ (123) wp.org #7 ↓1 2 too low 6 HTML5 Video Player – embed fast, responsive videos with ease 20K+ · 4.6★ (195) wp.org #8 ↑6 2 too low 7 Video Player Block – play videos beautifully on any device 2K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #3 4 too high 8 HTML5 Audio Player – The Ultimate No-Code Podcast, MP3 & Audio Player 10K+ · 4.6★ (169) wp.org #10 ↓1 2 too low 9 Compact WP Audio Player 20K+ · 4.1★ (69) wp.org #9 ↓3 10 Podcast Player – Your Podcasting Companion 10K+ · 4.8★ (113) wp.org #16 6 too low 11 Music Player for WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.8★ (61) wp.org #17 6 too low 12 Embed YouTube Block – Fast Loading Videos, Shorts & Playlists 6K+ · 5.0★ (16) wp.org #11 ↓2 1 too high 13 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #21 8 too low 14 AudioIgniter Music Player 10K+ · 4.6★ (64) wp.org #24 10 too low 15 MP3 Audio Player – Music Player, Podcast Player & Radio by Sonaar 20K+ · 4.8★ (302) wp.org #23 8 too low 16 Radio Station by netmix® – Manage and play your Show Schedule in WordPress! 1K+ · 4.6★ (30) wp.org #12 ↓2 4 too high 17 Videojs HTML5 Player 7K+ · 4.7★ (18) wp.org #15 2 too high 18 Automatic YouTube Gallery – Embed Auto-Updating YouTube Video Galleries, Feeds, Playlists & Channels 9K+ · 4.8★ (31) wp.org #20 2 too low 19 FluentPlayer – Video Player With Forms & Lead Capture 2K+ · 4.7★ (14) wp.org #13 ↓1 6 too high 20 BH Custom CSS3 Preloader – Just play and play 700+ · 3.8★ (6) wp.org #6 ↓1 14 too high 21 Super Video player – Fully Customizable Video Player with Playlist 2K+ · 4.2★ (30) wp.org #19 2 too high 22 Lean Player – Video and Audio Player with Playlist for WordPress, Elementor and Gutenberg 2K+ · 4.7★ (6) wp.org #14 ↓1 8 too high 23 Video Popup Block – YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok Lightbox by WPZOOM 10K+ · 4.7★ (6) wp.org #22 ↓1 1 too high 24 Embed Lottie Player – bring your pages to life with animation 4K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #18 6 too high

Merit ranking caps the install boost at 1M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted Bayesian score and a Wilson lower bound, and keeps wp.org's own freshness and compatibility decays. Method from the plugin-directory source; see Meta Trac #8298. Positions are tracked daily from the first visit to a keyword, so the small arrows show movement since tracking began.