30% Drop in Earnings after Bambu's Last Point System "Upgrade"

MakerWorld
1

Hey, a lot has been discussed in Bambu’s latest point system “upgrade” post but I wanted to create a dedicated topic to see what other people’s experience are after the “upgrade”. After seeing the results, I’m basically considering moving all my models off of MakerWorld at this point. Here is my situation so that you can compare against:

1- I started uploading models about 10.5 months ago but my account is quite old.

2- I have 53 models, 189K prints, 15.8K followers.

3- I’ve been getting 1000-1500 prints per day for at least the last 3 months. The last week’s average is 1.4K prints per day.

4- I’ve been in the top 10 when it comes to daily print count for the last couple of months. I’ve been in the top 3 on daily print count in the last week (first is fifindr, second is Bambu’s official account).

5- I’m in the top 55 when it comes to total print count

6- I create relatively simpler models that have every day use cases

Here is what happened over the last few months: Even though my daily print count has a pretty clear upward trajectory over the last few months with new models created weekly that ended up becoming popular, my earnings have been dropping slowly. After the last “upgrade” there has been an extremely sharp drop on earnings (at least 30%) even though my last week’s print/download counts are the best I’ve had since I started. I’m a software developer, I have my own dashboard specifically made for this. I’m tracking quite a lot of metrics.

3 months ago, what I was earning made it worth the effort in my eyes. Now, after creating many new popular models and breaking one personal record after another, then seeing a 30% drop in earnings as opposed to earnings going up, I’m questioning moving off of MakerWorld.

I’m wondering about the experience of other creators with relatively popular models. I also wanted to let Bambu know about the results of their point system reductions so that they are aware of people not being happy with the changes.

5 Likes
2

I am experiencing the same.
Not the same volume as you by any means but a downward trend in point rewards by about 1/3.

I also cant make heads or tails of what the heck they are doing, as yesterday was a pretty huge download day for me and my rewards awarded today were all for models with barely any downloads, and some that hadn’t moved at all… the trending downloads were not rewarded in any way.

I actually expected a nice lil bump today, but nothing of the sort… strange rewards for low download models…. I don’t get what they are doing.

I am also starting to investigate other platforms.
I need to at least make the filament back and it’s just not covering that anymore.

1 Like
3

My earnings have dropped significantly in recent weeks. i would say I’m getting less than 50% of what I was earning a month ago

1 Like
4

Keep in mind that the value of your downloads and prints is also steadily declining. That really hits hard. If you don’t keep uploading new content, the value of your downloads and prints will automatically keep dropping.

So a drop can also happen because your modelas are too popular.

I’m not sure what the current formula is; that was the last one I found from 2024…

  • 15 : 10 x 1,5 = 2,25 points per download
  • 12 : 25 x 0,5 = 0,24 points per download
  • 20 : 50 x 0,4 = 0,16 points per download
  • 30 : 100 x 0,3 = 0,09 points per download

Screenshot 2026-06-11 004813
Screenshot 2026-06-11 0048131309×640 88.2 KB

As I said, I have no idea what the current formula is; it’s hidden behind the sentence:

“Points fluctuate based on a comprehensive set of factors, including valid downloads, valid prints, visual appeal, functional practicality, experiential enjoyment, technical proficiency, design originality, overall completeness, compliance with rules, and your reputation score. Please check the details in 07 Point Fluctuation Factors.”

…and if you search for “07 Point Fluctuation Factors,” you won’t find anything except the Terms of Service, which state that they can change the system at any time. There is also no explanation of what the reputation score is.

1 Like
5

I used to receive a couple of boost tokens quite regular although I’m only a light user. Since Oct 24 when first started to Dec 25 received 37, between Dec 25 and today, zero.

There have been times when I wished i could just buy tokens or at least tip a creator, even for simple things that saved me $6 on eBay or a trip to a hardware store.

I have zero interest in going commercial but always getting the “can you… happy to pay…” from friends and neighbours, more often than not I don’t charge or just cover my material costs but I’d happily add on the price of a boost token and pay that forward to the maker!

6

I haven’t received any more Boosts since April 2025 - the ones you can pass on to others. So I can’t give any more to other people either. I know why: because I always download the 3D models to my computer first and print later. I would have to press print right away to get some to share.

1 Like
7

Really?

I have never printed from the app, have always opened into Makerworld, gave the print profile a tweak/overhaul and then sent to my printers by way of the Chinese Ministry of State Security :squinting_face_with_tongue:

2 Likes
8

I’m aware of it. What I’m describing takes that into account already. I have my own formulas, derived from millions of historical data points, which are significantly more complicated and realistic than any constant calculation. I’m comparing new model data historically (created in the last 7 days, created in the last 30 days) etc. as well as general trend of “points per print”.

So when I summarize it as “there has been a 30% drop on my earnings”, it means that “there has been at least a 30% drop on my earnings per new model adjusted for print count, download count, boost count, model complexity, model weight, print hours etc. I don’t want to overcomplicate the definition because the main point will get lost in details.

My guess is, there are very few people (if any) on MakerWorld with as much historical data as I have on the performance of my own models. I’ve been building data aggregators and visualizers for almost 10 years at this point (it’s the reason I started coding).

1 Like
9

Sure, no one disputes that, but how do you plan to measure this: “visual appeal, functional practicality, experiential enjoyment, technical proficiency, design originality, overall completeness and your reputation score.”

A factor changes that you can’t see, and you have a drop. I’m not saying you don’t have a drop - that was never my intention - but rather that an unknown factor may have changed.

Your aggregator can only measure what it has access to, right? Or do you know of any other ways to access those other factors? Please feel free to share your knowledge. Thank you.

11

I’m not sure what the point is here. I simply expressed that my calculations are significantly more data-driven than your suggestion. I was saying that I’m in a position to make such a statement, with enough popular models, enough consistency between models, enough consistency between the popularity of the models and with enough data. If someone has a more accurate “guess” than me, they can feel free to share it. I’m not sure why do you think we have to believe Bambu until someone comes with a perfect guess. There are pretty obvious trends, to come to these conclusions.

What you are describing probably can’t even be measured by MakerWorld themselves by the way (and doesn’t need to be, to claim what I claimed), as in they don’t know that “unknown factor” either, or the formula, they can only guess it, and see results of it (basically like I do, but with more data). Because like any modern and huge ranking/scoring algorithm, they are likely using a set of machine learning models that is deciding all that.

I didn’t even make any claims about that “unknown” factor. I don’t need to. I said my earnings dropped. They did. You might’ve assumed I meant “my general earnings per day dropped” which is fair, but that’s not what I meant. I simply summarized a situation to make it more digestible by a general audience.

I could also say: 2 models, with the same use case, extremely similar weight, design, print count, download count, boost count, initial traction, etc. had very different earnings in similar short time frames.

So drop didn’t happen while I waited and uploaded nothing new. Drop happened while I created 10 more very popular models, on top of my 15 or so mostly popular models (a few of them very popular). So while my “popularity” roughly doubled, my earnings dropped quite significantly.

To that you might say: “Well you didn’t measure everything still”. Of course I didn’t. How can I? With that logic no one can come into any conclusion about anything on MakerWorld earnings ever.

If you want to believe Bambu didn’t reduce rewards, be my guest. I’ve seen enough data on my side to conclude they did for my account. My guess was, other people are probably experiencing something similar as well. That’s why I opened the thread to see what people say about their own accounts.

12

I think you misunderstood me. I said the exact opposite – that we shouldn’t believe Bambu. I made this clear by pointing out that there is nothing about it in their terms of service either. :thinking:

That’s strange, I never claimed that… something’s off in this discussion. I’ve always maintained on the forum that Bambu reduces points, and I’ve never claimed otherwise, even in this thread.

I just wanted to know more about your findings: how you took the measurements, what you measured, and so on – nothing more, nothing less. I have no idea if I came across as unclear.

I’m not sure - maybe I didn’t express myself properly. I’ll just let it go and avoid this thread. :+1:

13

I just realized I didn’t “reply” to you while posting. So deleted that message, and used the reply route this time with the exact message content so that it’s clear who I’m answering to.

I might’ve misunderstood what you said. Combined with your previous message I took that as “how could you possibly know your rewards have been reduced”. So I was trying to explain how I arrived at that conclusion :slight_smile:

I’d rather not disclose the exact how regarding the measurement. However, I can give some of the data points I used:

Prints, downloads, boost, likes, collections (the obvious ones). Weight, print hours, print profile rating. Model category, momentum (can be roughly described as “how quickly did this model became popular”, a made up metric of course, but that’s usually the best you can do :)). There are some others, I would expect with less effect.

This was relatively easy and probably relatively accurate in my case. Because I operate in a relatively small category. Small, fast prints, same design language, same style of photos, usually the same category, usually high ratings, very similar momentum for good chunk of models for a given time slice. The “momentum” dynamics also changed over the months, however for any given 2-3 week slice, I have models with extremely similar momentum (I was actually surprised how similar).

14

Thanks, that’s all I really wanted to know. Thanks for the reply. :grin: :+1:

15

I dont trust makerworld to count properly, I have a feeling they are vibe coding in production.

image
image799×288 10.7 KB

This just doesn’t feel right to me….
Was makerworld down today or something??? from 80k+ to just over 30k? I have posts going right now that are more popular than my usual ones, but somehow my traffic has nose dived?

yesterday was also my LOWEST points day ever…. while it was my largest download/print day ever.

Somethings not right.

1 Like
16

Since Monday it appears to have had a noticeable drop yet again, impressive given how it has dropped so consistently over the weeks.

As it is all donated, it is troubling.

I am concerned by the poor 0.8 fella.

3 Likes
17

:slight_smile: Just fixed it (15.8K).

I’m not sure if it’s the translation on my side but do you mean you had a noticeable drop since Monday?

18

Yes.

I have experienced yet another noticeable drop since Monday.

To confirm, it has been common to experience a day with lower numbers than other days, since Monday that low point has occurred three days in a row.

19

I just checked my point spread… basically flat lined since monday, after a rewarding weekend ( that seemed aligned with the traction models were getting ) with no real change in download rate, points are flat… and then there’s that traffic chart which I find pretty concerning, hows that possible?

20

Same here, I’m getting more prints lately and significantly less points

21

image
image690×337 43 KB

You can add:

Models with > 4000 downloads: For every 200 downloads, 48 points will be rewarded.

You have to add a 1.25x factor if they are Exclusive models.

I have seen a points reduction too, but in my case always has been caused by not rewarding some of those tiers on some models (I track all of my tiers/points from downloads).

I opened a ticket, the answer was that those tiers are not written on stone: you can receive them or not.