From download to print

A download isn't a print. On MakerWorld, the 314,217 models we studied, of any age, have 51,297,747 downloads and 31,467,702 logged prints, the prints people record against a model's ready-made print settings. That's 61.3 prints for every hundred downloads. We left out 13,542 models that show prints but no print profile in our data, since their prints can't be matched to a profile.

Printables counts something else: makes, which are prints someone came back and posted. The two numbers don't measure the same thing, so this piece takes each site on its own and never lines them up.

We studied 1,004,137 public models from MakerWorld and Printables, two of the biggest sites for sharing 3D printing files: 327,759 from MakerWorld and 676,378 from Printables. Every number here describes those models, not every model ever posted.

Prints on MakerWorld

Counting logged prints on print profiles, as above, gives 61.3 per hundred downloads. Models six months to two years old land almost in the same place, at 60.4. A model's page also shows its own print counter. Summed over all 327,759 MakerWorld models we studied, including the 13,542 left out above, that counter comes to 62.3 prints per hundred downloads.

Category moves it. In our sample, 3D Printer models log the most, 68.7 prints per hundred downloads. Props & Cosplays log the fewest, at 48.4. Our guess: a printer upgrade or a test print gets made the day it's downloaded, while a cosplay prop can wait in a downloads folder for months.

Prints can outrun downloads, since one download can be printed many times. It's rare, though. Among models with at least twenty downloads, 2.6% have more logged prints than downloads. The median one logs 0.56 prints per download.

Makes on Printables

Printables shows views, so its path starts a step earlier. Across every free Printables model we studied, a thousand views came with 199 downloads, 35 likes and 1.6 makes. Put another way, every thousand downloads went with 7.9 posted makes.

Most models never get one. 27.6% of free Printables models in our sample have at least one make, 5.0% have five or more and 2.2% have ten or more. A hundred or more is down at 0.11%.

That low number probably says more about posting than printing. A make only exists if someone photographs the print and uploads it, so it counts the people who came back, not everyone who printed.

If you upload

On MakerWorld, a model that logs prints at around 61.3 per hundred downloads is normal. On Printables, one posted make already puts a free model ahead of the 72.4% that have none.