The Featured tab is the one that loads by default when you go to Plugins > Add New. Eight plugins, hand-picked, rotated every couple of weeks. It has been running since March.

I went looking for a first-hand account from anyone it happened to, someone writing up what it did to their installs or whether any of it stuck, and I couldn't find one. The curator published figures for the first cohort back in March and said more would follow, but there hasn't been a second report. When someone asked publicly for a list of previously featured plugins, the question went unanswered.

So there is a placement that puts eight small plugins in front of a very large number of admins, and no public record of what it does or who has been in it.

Disclosure: my plugin is in the current rotation, which is why I started looking. I'm logging the numbers daily and I'll publish them either way, including if the answer turns out to be "not much".

One thing I haven't seen mentioned anywhere: the order of the eight is randomised daily. Same plugins, different sequence, stable within a given day. If you're featured and your download numbers move around day to day, that might be why rather than anything you did.

If you have been featured before and kept any figures at all, even rough ones, I'd like to compare.