MakerWorld exclusives

A MakerWorld creator can mark a model as exclusive to the site. In 2023, 6.7% of new uploads in our sample carried that mark. It was 15.6% in 2024 and 23.5% in 2025, and so far in 2026 it's 28.1%.

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.

By year

Across every MakerWorld model we studied, old and new, 23.8% are marked exclusive. The mark is separate from the MakerWorld Exclusive License, which a creator picks like any other license. That license was 0.5% of new uploads in 2023 and 10.3% in 2026, and 50.9% of the models under it carry the exclusive mark.

Downloads

Among models six months to two years old, exclusives are 24.2% of the models and hold 54.2% of the downloads. The median exclusive has 50 downloads, against 17 for the rest.

That raw gap mixes in who goes exclusive. Set each creator's exclusives against their own other models of similar age and the mark is linked to 54% more downloads. That comparison covers every listing feature we checked. It's still a link. It doesn't show that the mark brought the downloads.

Who marks them

Creators who sell subscriptions on MakerWorld mark 48.9% of their models exclusive. Everyone else marks 19.4%.

If you're weighing it, you'd be joining a group that has grown every year we can see. 28.1% of this year's MakerWorld uploads carry the mark. Whether it would help your model, these numbers can't say.