The State of Web Vitals

WordPress subresource network protocols (HTTP/2, HTTP/3) and the Core Web Vitals

HTTP/2 (96.9%), HTTP/3 QUIC (78.1%), and legacy HTTP/1.1 (62.1%) across all page subrequests: how connection protocols move Largest Contentful Paint.

Field data PhoneDesktopAll Scope All sites October 2026 edition · Phone field outcomes · WordPress sites only
WordPress Scoped to 63,295 sites out of 203,892 analyzed (cms) Compare with all sites →

96.9% of WordPress sites use HTTP/2 subresource network protocols, and 69% of those sites have a good LCP, against 70% of all WordPress sites.

The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · WordPress: 63,295 crawled sites · 36,524 with phone field dataBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
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LCP pass rate

Sites with HTTP/2 subresource network protocols have a good LCP most often: 69%, against 70% of all WordPress sites. Sites with HTTP/1.1 network protocols have it least often, at 67%.

SitesGood, needs improvement, poor LCPMedian
All WordPress sites36,52470%2.0s
HTTP/2 (h2) 96.9%35,47269%2.0s
HTTP/3 (QUIC / h3) 78.1%27,78067%2.0s
HTTP/1.1 62.1%22,72467%2.0s
GoodNeeds improvementPoorSites: with Chrome field data
The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · WordPress: 63,295 crawled sites · 36,524 with phone field dataBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
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Subresource network protocols usage

HTTP/2 is the most used: 96.9% of WordPress sites.

Sites using each option (sites can use more than one) 63,295 sites
HTTP/2 (h2) 96.9% HTTP/3 (QUIC / h3) 78.1% HTTP/1.1 62.1%
HTTP/2 (h2) 96.9% HTTP/3 (QUIC / h3) 78.1% HTTP/1.1 62.1%
The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · WordPress: 63,295 crawled sites · 36,524 with phone field dataBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
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How subresource network protocols affect the four LCP phases

Across the four LCP sub-parts in Chrome's field data, the largest gap between HTTP/2 and HTTP/1.1 sits in time to first byte (TTFB): 1120 ms median for HTTP/2 against 1148 ms for HTTP/1.1. Overall median field LCP is 2.0s for HTTP/2 (TTFB 1120 ms, load delay 355 ms, load duration 181 ms, render delay 243 ms) versus 2.0s for HTTP/1.1.

Median LCP phase breakdown (Chrome field p75) Load delay Median LCP
All WordPress sites 26,0501116 ms355 ms242 ms355 mslab 346 ms2.0s
HTTP/2 (h2) 25,3611120 ms355 ms243 ms355 mslab 346 ms2.0s
HTTP/3 (QUIC / h3) 19,9421148 ms367 ms253 ms367 mslab 358 ms2.0s
HTTP/1.1 16,4411148 ms378 ms255 ms378 mslab 369 ms2.0s
TTFB Resource load delay Resource load time Element render delay
The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · WordPress: 63,295 crawled sites · 36,524 with phone field dataBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
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Subresource network protocols per framework

Alpine sets the subresource network protocols to HTTP/2 on 99% of its sites, and 78% of Alpine sites have a good LCP, against 70% of all sites.

FrameworkSubresource network protocols on its sitesGood LCP
All WordPress sites 63,295 sitesHTTP/2 (h2) 97%HTTP/3 (QUIC / h3) 78%HTTP/1.1 62%70%
Alpine 380 sitesHTTP/2 (h2) 99%HTTP/3 (QUIC / h3) 87%HTTP/1.1 78%78%
jQuery 60,314 sitesHTTP/2 (h2) 97%HTTP/3 (QUIC / h3) 79%HTTP/1.1 63%69%
Vue 4,844 sitesHTTP/2 (h2) 96%HTTP/1.1 51%HTTP/3 (QUIC / h3) 47%67%
React 2,233 sitesHTTP/2 (h2) 97%HTTP/3 (QUIC / h3) 82%HTTP/1.1 70%63%
HTTP/2 (h2) HTTP/3 (QUIC / h3) HTTP/1.1
The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · WordPress: 63,295 crawled sites · 36,524 with phone field dataBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
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Subresource network protocols or the framework

Does the framework explain the subresource network protocols difference?

Almost every site with HTTP/2 subresource network protocols is a jQuery site, and almost every jQuery site has HTTP/2 subresource network protocols, so the data can't tell HTTP/2 subresource network protocols and jQuery apart. On Vue, 67% of sites with HTTP/2 subresource network protocols have a good LCP, against 66% of Vue sites with HTTP/3. Within Vue, sites with HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 have a good LCP about equally often. On React, 63% of sites with HTTP/2 subresource network protocols have a good LCP, against 61% of React sites with HTTP/3. Within React, sites with HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 have a good LCP about equally often.

Why most pages mix HTTP/2, HTTP/3, and HTTP/1.1 in a single load

While a page's HTML document uses a single connection, its subresources come from first-party CDNs, font hosts, and third-party scripts. Across 189,798 sites, 96.9% load subresources over HTTP/2 (69% good LCP), 78.1% negotiate HTTP/3 on at least one origin (67% good LCP), and 62.1% still make at least one legacy HTTP/1.1 request (67% good LCP).

The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · WordPress: 63,295 crawled sites · 36,524 with phone field dataBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
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Understanding subresource network protocols

Serve all first-party static assets over HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 via a modern CDN, and audit third-party scripts or unproxied asset hosts that still fall back to HTTP/1.1 (62.1% of sites). HTTP/1.1 origins cannot multiplex concurrent requests over a single connection, adding head-of-line blocking when multiple assets share that domain.

Go fix it Third-party domains → Configure Cloudflare for passing the Core Web Vitals →
The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · WordPress: 63,295 crawled sites · 36,524 with phone field dataBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
Related signals Connection hints → Main CDN → HTTP protocol → HTML compression → By Arjen Karel · 63,295 crawled WordPress sites (36,524 with phone Chrome field data, October 2026) · How we measured