Install crossover · Issue Nº 14

Codex passes Claude Code in weekly npm installs

OpenAI's coding tool took the lead in weekly npm downloads while its front-page engagement left Anthropic's behind in the same week.

August 25 – September 9, 2026 (September is partial: 9 days of data) · Published 2026-09-09

The brief

01Codex took 21,092,836 weekly npm downloads at the September 8 snapshot to Claude Code's 14,825,815. A week earlier Claude Code led 21,450,823 to 20,368,373. Claude Code fell 31% week-over-week; Codex rose roughly 725,000.
02Codex posted three front-page Hacker News stories in September's first nine days with an average peak score of 29, up from 6 in August. Claude Code posted zero front-page stories with an average peak score of 4, down from 7.
03The conversation share gap narrowed from 9.2 points in March (Codex 2.9%, Claude Code 12.1%) to 1.5 points in September partial (Codex 3.8%, Claude Code 5.3%). Cursor held 1.1%.
04Codex GitHub stars reached 122,600 on September 9, up 16.5% over 28 days. Claude Code reached 144,500, up 2.5%. Codex added 17,300 stars in the last 28 days to Claude Code's 3,500, nearly 5x the rate.