Rust's Popularity Shows Signs of Slowing but Remains Strong Among Experts

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 04:59:00 +0200

The article discusses the recent performance of the Rust programming language in the TIOBE Index, which tracks language popularity using search engine data. According to TIOBE’s CEO, Rust’s growth appears to be slowing. The language entered the top 20 in 2020 and was expected to reach the top 10 soon after, yet it never did. Earlier this year, Rust hit a record-high position of #13 but has now dropped to #16, raising questions about whether its adoption rate has plateaued. One reason cited is Rust’s reputation for being difficult to learn, especially for programmers without deep technical experience. While experts in performance-critical fields—like systems programming—continue to champion Rust for its safety and speed, broader mainstream adoption remains limited. The article also points out that AI may actually favor typed languages like Rust, which help catch errors introduced by machine-generated code. In fact, a 2025 academic study found that almost all compilation errors in AI-gen