Mods per shader
~92∶1
About 72,665 mods vs about 794 shader projects on Modrinth.
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 versus how many mods exist, not a quality score.
Thumbnails make shaders look like the whole scene, but the catalog says they are a tiny slice. A few famous ones still get huge downloads.
Shaders are a tiny slice of the catalog
A YouTube thumbnail shows Minecraft with cinematic shadows, shiny water, and a sky that looks almost real. That look usually comes from a shader: a lighting pack that changes how the game draws light, shade, and water. After enough of those videos, it can feel like shaders are everywhere.
I opened Modrinth, one of the big free libraries for extra Minecraft content, and counted how many projects sit under each type label. Mods (extra code that changes the game) tower over the list. Shader projects are a thin slice.
Mods tower over lighting packs
On Modrinth, 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.
About 72,665 mods sit next to about 794 shader projects. That is about 92 mods for every 1 shader on this store. Resource packs are common too: 32,307 of them, new skins for blocks and items. Pretty art is broader than the shader label alone. Lighting packs are the rare slice.
Rare and famous can both be true
Iris Shaders still sits near the top of Modrinth downloads, even though shaders as a whole are few. Most lighting packs stay small. A few famous ones get almost all the attention.
So YouTube can make shaders look common while the catalog still says they are rare. Both can be true when a small group of famous packs does most of the talking.
On this store, shaders are rare as projects (about 92 mods for every 1 shader) even when a famous helper like Iris still sits near the top of downloads.
See also
How I calculated it
Modrinth project_type_counts from platform statistics API (2026-08-08).
Ratio = mods ÷ shaders ≈ 72665/794 ≈ 91.5.
Counts are projects on Modrinth from the 2026-08-08 pull, 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?.
