Definition
This measure groups WordPress plugins by how many releases they made in the report month. It then states the typical download change within each group. Release count and download change are placed side by side, not folded into one figure. Each plugin appears in exactly one release-count group for the month.
Population and window
Rivale measures this across the top 12,500 plugins, by popularity rank: ranks 1 to 1,000, 1,001 to 5,000, and 5,001 to 12,500. The window is the report month, with releases counted across the whole month. For download change: Issue 1 compared four full weeks. Later issues compare full calendar months, per day, because months differ in length.
How it is computed
Plugins are placed in groups by popularity rank at the end of the prior month, then within each rank by release count in the report month, 0, 1 to 2, or 3 or more, then the median download change is taken within each group. The pairing is an association and not a cause: a release generates downloads of its own.
How to read it
Plugins are placed in groups by their popularity rank at the end of the prior month. Within each rank they are grouped again by release count: none, one or two, or three or more. A release generates download activity from the plugin's existing install base. Groups with more releases can show higher download change for that reason, independent of any real change in adoption. The pairing shown is an association between release count and download change within each group. It is not a stated cause of one figure by the other.
What it is not
This measure does not show that releasing more updates by itself produces higher downloads. It draws no causal line between the two figures it presents together. It groups plugins by rank and release count and reports the median within each group. It does not follow any single plugin's own path across the month. It also does not isolate first-time installs from update downloads. It is not the same figure as update rate, which reports whether a plugin released at all.