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.
