C# Wants to Become The MOST POPULAR Programming Language in 2022
Tags: csharp, dotnet, programming, beginners
Published: 2022-02-03 11:40:00

Who would have thought that we are already in the year 2022 and that C# has been with us for 22 years? A programming language so versatile and powerful that it easily stands up to any other. A language so complete that these days **it wants to make history:** Right now it is **the main candidate to be named programming language of the year.**

**C# could make history:** Although it has always been in the top, it has never managed to stay with the top one, but apparently **Microsoft is going to do everything in its power to make this happen.**

Today it is one of the most popular programming languages in the world and this would never have been possible without its main creator: **Anders Hejlsberg**. Will this be the year that his dream comes true? Will C# reach the podium with a gold medal? **Let’s discover it!** But first, let’s understand a little about how all this came about.

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## Let’s talk a little bit about the beginnings of C#

Before we get to the point we all want to get to, I’d like to start at the beginning: **The story of Anders Hejlsberg and his great creation:** C#

[Anders Hejlsberg](https://www.red-gate.com/simple-talk/opinion/geek-of-the-week/anders-hejlsberg-geek-of-the-week/) was born in **1960** in **Copenhagen** (Denmark). His great passion for programming **took him very high:** He managed to reach an agreement with **Philippe Kahn** — the founder of **[Borland](https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/85/Borland-International-Inc.html)** — to sell him his Pascal compiler that he himself had created for personal computers.

At the time, his company was doing very well, until he realized that **his revenues were not going well.** So he decided to move to California to start his new job, **which would lead him to success:** He became Borland’s chief engineer.

At that time — between 1989 and 1996 to be more precise — Anders Hejlsberg dedicated himself to improving Turbo Pascal and later, **he became the leader of his Turbo Pascal’s replacement:** Delphi. Everything went so well that he had to leave Borland because of a very big proposal from **Microsoft**.

With the passage of time he managed to **become the chief designer of a new programming language.** Yes, C#.

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## C# at present

Currently, C# has become one of Microsoft’s **most successful languages,** with wide adoption among professional developers. Although it is not the most popular — _for the moment_ — **it’s ranked among the most popular programming languages,** behind Python and C++. One benefit to C# is that it can be used to create applications on both mobile and computer devices. The open-source community also uses it frequently to build software applications using different kinds of frameworks such as **Mono** and **.NET Framework.**

**C# is increasingly used in the enterprise world,** and everything Microsoft is doing with it is starting to pay off. Let’s take a look at what and why C# has a good chance of being crowned **the most popular programming language of 2022.**

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## 2022: Will it be the year of C#?

This is what we are all wondering at this very moment: Will this be the year of C#? The year it becomes the most popular programming language in the world? Let’s start going deeper:

### The Tiobe Index

The **TIOBE index** (_[The Importance of Being Honest](https://nyupress.org/9780814752210/the-importance-of-being-honest/)_) is a monthly report on the popularity of programming languages, originally created by **TIOBE Software BV.**


![Source: https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/rhb83ss715ew3qneydjk.png)

This index, in case you are wondering, is based on an algorithm that **analyzes the number of queries in almost all search engines** worldwide. With the data it obtains, TIOBE is able to rank the popularity of programming languages.

As a disclaimer, **this ranking is never based on the versatility, power or quality of the programming language.** It is simply [based on the number of searches](https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/programming-languages-definition/) and from there, it ranks them from the most used to those that are not so widely used.

👀 **Info:** If you are interested in discovering how the algorithm works on search engines, I invite you to take a look at: **[TIOBE Index Definition](https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/programming-languages-definition/)**

### Will C# become the programming language of the year?

If we go back a few years, Tiobe showed that **C# had jumped to number 5 in January 2013.** That’s impressive considering that it came in at number 23 just a year earlier.

However, C# in the last month has **increased by 2.21%,** which puts it well ahead of the other languages.


![Source: https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/0p6us96xe04sklpesfjg.png)

Could C# become the most popular programming language of 2022? If so, how might other programming languages be affected as well? What are some potential challenges for C#’s developers along with those interested in learning it?

[According to **Paul Jansen**](https://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2021/12/15/csharp-tiobe.aspx), CEO TIOBE Software:

> “…At the moment, C# is by far the most likely candidate for this title…”

And then he added:

> “It is interesting to note that C# has never won the TIOBE index programming language of the year award during its 21 years of existence, although it has been in the top 10 for the last 2 decades. Let’s see what happens next month!”

### Microsoft: Just what C# needs

There is no doubt that **Microsoft is putting all its time and effort into C#.** If we go back a couple of months ago (**November 2021**), after many months of Previews, speculations and leaks, Microsoft officially released the new version of its Framework: **.NET 6.** This release was accompanied by the announcement of **Visual Studio 2022.**

Currently Microsoft is still working hard on the entire .NET Framework and a few days ago we already saw the first preview of this new year of the next candidate to replace Xamarin: **.NET MAUI.**


We expect **the release of .NET MAUI by the end of this year** — apart from the fact that we have already seen quite a lot of news from C#11. It seems that Microsoft wants to **reach the top of the podium** this year.


How about you? Do you think C# will achieve the title of the most popular programming language this year?