The SAP Devtoberfest 2025 is over. Marian Zeis did crunch again some numbers and shared the result 🔗. Let’s take a look at those numbers, just like last year.
The good news
The good news? 5.184 people participated. That’s more than the 4.000+ from last year (2024). 1.200 people more participants. Almost 30% more! That’s not bad, that’s close to impressive. Only, just like last year, the number of total participants does not say that people did actively participate. So, that number is nice, but also noise. Focus should be on the number of peoples that went beyond level 0. Last year Devtoberfest had 600 people beyond level 0 (level 1 to 4), and in 2025, it had 849 active participants reaching at least level 1. That’s a solid increase of 40%+ participants. The % of partipants and level 1+ is the same: ~16%. If you focus on the 30% and 40% increase: Devtoberfest 2025 delivered exceptionally.
Were did people stop? Level 2 was the limit for 64 people (43 in 2024), Level 3 for 14 (18 in 2024) and level 4 – Nerdvana – for 133 people. Which is less compared to 2024 when 163 people reached Nerdvana. With the higher number of participants the % of people that reached level 1 and 2 increased compared to 2024, even with the overall higher number of participants.
It is a surprise that the number of people reaching level 4 is lower than last year. 133 vs. 163. Overall, why did less people reached level 3 and 4? Is this as intended? Was the content too complicated? Not enough time provided? Doesn’t matter, as a more important aspect is that more people entered Devtoberfest and participated long enough to go past level 0 and reach at least level 1 or 2.
Reduce to increase
Looking at the percentage of people active in SCN, the number is higher compared to 2024. Why? Less people are active in SCN. The DSA numbers for October 2025 are 263.212. In 2024 it were around 450.000. Considering the 200.000 less people active, the 133 out of 263k is a higher percentage compared to the 163 out of 450k. You might say: what about the loss of 200k active users? But that’s just DSA numbers. Look at the bright side: 133 out of just 263.212 is a massive increase compared to 2024. And 5.184 out of 263.212 is even better! Close to 2%. With less people being reported as active, automatically the % of participation in Devtoberfest goes up. Not only that 849 got past level 0 is an absolute increase. It leaves the previous % far behind with 0,32%. In 2024 the % was 0,0%. Now there is a number > 0 after the comma.
This is a smart move: make it every year harder to participate in SCN, lose active participants, while increasing slightly the number of Devtoberfest participants => automatically a higher % is reached. You might think: that’s not going to happen. But: DSA numbers for September 2026: 165.950. That’s 100k less than in 2025.
More people have been in space
Personally I still think that the number of people NOT reaching level 2, 3 or 4 should be concerning. Why do people stop? Are the challenges too hard? Too time consuming? Not interesting enough? Is the setup too complicated? Are the topics just too broad? Does reaching level 1 mean: you participated in all activities that fit your profile? Meaning: that’s more than perfect?
SAP is a big player in IT. There are millions of SAP professionals out there. Many of those have a technical profile, and many are developers. 133 people reached Nerdvana. More people were in space 🔗. An event like Devtoberfest can serve as an entry point for new (young) professionals. It can attract new people, a new generation. Can make long time SAP professionals learn about a technology they might not have known about. Show how to find information, how to connect the dots. But is this even a goal of Devtoberfest? Currently the selection process is stricter than for astronauts. Albeit: The number of participants might be irrelvant. The goal might be to get valid, updated, useful content published. Maybe this works as planned. At least I still struggle to find information from last editions. Which is unfortunate, as the content presented can be of surprisinlgy high quality.