Wow #1 · Mods per shader
~92∶1
About 72,665 mods vs about 794 shader projects on Modrinth.
Scenario #2 · Still chart-topping
Iris
A shader helper still sits among Modrinth’s top downloads.
A count of project types on Modrinth. How many lighting packs exist vs how many mods exist. Not a quality score.
Thumbnails make shaders look like the whole scene. The catalog says they are hard to make, so fewer ship. A few famous ones still get huge downloads.
1. How many projects of each type?
On Modrinth (counts from 2026-08-08), project types look like this:
| Type (site label) | Projects | In one sentence |
|---|---|---|
| Mod | 72,665 | Gameplay tools, creatures, machines, quality-of-life |
| Resource pack | 32,307 | New skins for blocks/items/UI art |
| Modpack | 18,129 | Bundles of many mods pre-wired |
| Plugin | 16,891 | Mostly multiplayer server tools |
| Data pack | 13,885 | Rule tweaks without full rewrite tools |
| Shader | 794 | Lighting, shadows, water, atmosphere |
How many projects of each type?
The shader bar is tiny next to mods. That is real, not a chart bug.
2. Rare and famous can both be true
Iris Shaders sits near the top of Modrinth downloads. Shaders as a whole are still few. Most lighting packs stay small. A few famous ones get almost all the attention.
YouTube makes shaders look common. The catalog says they are rare. Both can be true when a small group of famous packs does most of the talking.
How I calculated it
Modrinth project_type_counts from platform statistics API (2026-08-08).
Ratio = mods ÷ shaders ≈ 72665/794 ≈ 91.5.
See also
Counts are projects, not quality scores or unique players. Other sites may host more graphics packs under different labels. Some “look prettier” work ships as resource packs, not shaders. So pretty art is broader than this one label.
Sources
- Modrinth platform statistics (public API), 2026-08-08.
- Companion download board: What’s actually #1 on Minecraft’s biggest mod chart?.
