Go is currently in 7th place in the TIOBE Index for November 2024. Not only is this is the highest position it has ever had, it's percentage rating is almost equal to its all-time-high. Will Go continue to go higher?

Go is Google's system language, although it does appear that it also gets used in wider contests. It was launched by Google in November 2009 and made an immediate, and lasting, impact due to its provenance - in those days Google was almost universally popular. 

There was some skepticism, however. In I Programmer's first report about Go, which had launched in the year preceding this website, Mike James questioned whether a new language was needed, describing it in rather disparaging terms:

A lightweight systems programming language ... with a few idiosyncrasies and fast compilation and execution. Is this enough to justify its existence? Personally I think not but I seem to be in the minority as the TIOBE index shows Go listed at number 18 and rising rapidly.

For a language to appear in the top 20 of the TIOBE index within a little over six months was indeed an achievement, as was the fact that it had already become TIOBE Language of the Year 2009, the very year of its launch!  Despite Mike James claiming in June 2010 that Go was on the rise in the TIOBE index its rating declined after a high of 1.78% in February 2010 and it would be October 2016 before it surpassed that percentage. Looking at its chart you can clearly see why it became Language of the Year again in 2016, although that was partly because it had reached its low point of 0.03%, corresponding to #122, in May 2015. 

In was in July 2017 that Go reached its all-time-high of 2.36% - just 0.01% higher than its current rating. At that time however Go was at a much lower position in the table, at 15th. It entered the Top 10 for the first time in March 2023 at 10th place and dropped back out the following month. This wasn't unexpected due to the zig-zag behavior that is characteristic of the TIOBE index. It's third, and most recent, entry to the Top 10, was February 2024 when it ranked 8th with a percentage rating of 1.73%. So while it has only gone up by one rank, by displacing Visual Basic, it has put a distance between itself and the cluster of languages ranking 8th, 9th and 10th - Fortran (1.97%), Visual Basic (1.95%) and SQL (1.94%) respectively.

Looking the languages that above Go in the table there's a substantial distance between it and JavaScript which is in 6th position with a rating of 3.71%. And, while JavaScript is perhaps in the doldrums, it is still the main language for web development, the activity that engages the most developers, professionally and otherwise. Above JavaScript comes C#, 5th position with 4.98%. Like JavaScript, it hasn't moved its position year on year and was TIOBE Language of the Year for 2024 because of the way its rating had increased over 2023.

There is a a sizeable gap between C# and the cluster of 3 languages that are in 4th, 3rd and 2nd positions in the Index, C with a rating of 9.01%, Java with a rating of 9.60% and C++ with a rating of 10.64%. At the top Python has put even more distance between it and the rest. Boosted by an increase of 8.69% year-on-year it's rating of 22.85 is over twice that of C++ and as suggested three months ago, looks as if it could break previous records to become the most popular programming language ever, see Python Strengthens Its Dominance Of TIOBE Index.

Contemplating the question of  whether Go could migrate higher in his November 2024  report, headlined Go is here to stay, Paul Jansen comments:

The next hurdle for Go in the TIOBE index is JavaScript at position #6. That will be a tough one to pass. JavaScript is ubiquitous in software development, although for larger JavaScript systems we see a shift to TypeScript nowadays. If annual trends continue this way, Go will bypass JavaScript within 3 years.

And while three years might seem a long time to wait, we will certainly be watching.

More Information

TIOBE Index 

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Python Strengthens Its Dominance Of TIOBE Index

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