I simply do not understand why Envato does not put out statements informing us on the state of affairs so that we may also prepare for eventual decisions they take that impact our sales to a major degree such as what is happening now.
This month has been a disaster so far but it’s been a downward trend since May 2021.
I am so disappointed.
How is it even possible that no other authors or staff are replying to this topic? Has been hidden or what?
I think there is another side to these problems related to sales that we need to look upon.
We have been following Themeforest since 2012 and what we found out was competition getting tough and tough day by day. At first, a single person would make easy money with WP themes. Now even teams are struggling to generate decent revenue. Yes, Envato’s strategy of letting authors pick their own prices made things worst but what most people are missing out on is that the quality of items declined as well.
Lack of creativity or innovation
You rarely see quality WP themes these days. 99% of the WordPress themes look and feel the same, no creativity there. I think the problem that lies in this innovation department is top selling themes that offer 100+ demos taking a huge pie from sales. Don’t get me wrong those are great themes, they are very flexible and provide tons of features under a small price. The problem is their designs(most of them) are old and outdated and there are people out there who want to explore new and better designs. But there also lies another problem, talented and creative designers can’t add so many features and options to their themes as they are resource and time-intensive. For better features, a designer has to team up with a developer which then again is taking more risk at thinking their theme will have to make some amount of sales to sustain or at least make a living out of it. Designers from developed countries(which are more talented design-wise) simply opt-out of this market mainly because of high costs of living and bills etc. and designers from third world countries kick in with low-quality themes(majority) and price their themes as low as $13 or $19. If you think I am wrong about new and innovative designs and there are good designs on ThemeForest, then check out webflow’s market(those designs are worth award-winning). If this strategy of Envato stays the same then in a few years ThemeForest will be left behind. People will soon feed off of these big themes.
Pirated sites
we all know about this problem. Nulled themes everywhere for free. The one who is crushed is the creator. Let’s face it, creating themes worthy of selling in the market takes months or even years to develop without making any revenue in that development period. It’s a huge risk author take to put out their work.
This is what we have observed over the past 10 years on Themeforest and we are yet to publish a theme(under development). These types of posts from fellow authors are very discouraging for us.
I agree that innovation is limited and that piracy is deflating but there is a bigger picture too.
For example, the volume of authors and items is so vastly bigger than any other marketplace (envato sees more uploads per day than most do in months), that the lack of fresh design etc. is always going to be more apparent. I would actually say that it has improved in the last few months, with some new and improved options. I’m not familiar with Web Flow but at a glance at their templates do not look that revolutionary?
The crux of this issue is that on stock marketplaces, the multi-purpose and super flexible or feature packed options have proven time and time again to be what sells more than the more creative or unique items which are released. Perhaps this due to the trend of many items being similar, but either way - authors will always focus on what sells.
As far as piracy goes - I agree entirely that this is a disgusting place to find things, but 99% of it e.g. warez or sales reversals are far from exclusive to envato and entirely beyond their control.
I think many of the challenges bought up in this thread bear some relevance, and it is great to get feedback from authors and buyers alike. But I don’t think it is any one thing - there is a much much bigger picture to consider in terms of running a global business and especially one impacted by so many industry, socio-economic factors etc.
The latest theme we have submitted on themeforest was built on ajax load page with an infinity list showcase slider developed inhouse with mouse velocity an floating images on hover with grid to fullscreen transition powered by three js. Yes, the theme is minimal, doesn’t have X demos, but is packed with creative features. Sadly we have recievd a hard reject because the theme is to minimal. The main objective creating this theme was to bring new inovation on this market but it looks only large themes succed on approvals
Totally you are right! My item sales dropeed 100% can you help me for the check my website URL? - #6 by themeofwp
This applies to all authors, a colossal decline in sales, on other sites there is also a decrease in sales.
Indeed, sales have a huge drop.
In last year, but the most important is from 2 months… I don’t know if is worth it to invest in more items or to stop…
Can we have an official reply to this thread explaining what is going on?
Hi All, This month may 2022 is the worst month in the last 5 years. sales graph is very down, and not much visitor in the themeforest market. what is your analysis about this month please write comment or reply. Thank you.
2 times less than usual
So bad, Feeling very bad myself what will happen in upcoming June 
Yes its very bad situation, and very confused about themeforest future. because our earnings and hops are attached with themeforest market. so i request to envato marketing team please restore the sales. thank you.
Same here. Any news on this matter?
May be some explanation is here. Though i still hope this changes will bring us better Envato
Beginning a huge fall of sales is March-April 2021 which lasts to this day when Envato did some test with Market… it was not war in Ukraine, inflation and similar.
It is always easiest to blame something else than to confess own mistake, today everyone is referring to the situation in the world which was purposely created for even higher earnings of big players.
Only a naive man can believe in everything that is served to him every day.
same situations is continue, not know the end point.
+1 
This is an interesting thread. What other market places are there? I feel like Envato/Themeforest/CodeCanyon/etc. are the go to place - no real competition. Web dev industry is booming - so why is this the opposite?