Now that we’ve gathered a substantial number of cases and received Bambu’s official statement, it’s time to let users know that MakerWorld has quietly begun not counting all downloads anymore. The points system has been devalued. It doesn’t affect everyone equally - some users barely notice it, others are hit quite hard - but it affects many.
You can see this most clearly in the growing discrepancy between the download numbers shown for the actual 3D model and those shown for the print profile. These figures are drifting further and further apart. In its statement, Bambu even admitted that this behavior is intentional.
Below are just a few examples out of many; anyone can verify this themselves. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a long‑time user or a newcomer. The cases documented so far show that between 10 and 50 percent of all downloads were not counted.
There were also users who had already reported this to Bambu and MakerWorld. Bambu says this is normal behavior, but doesn’t offer any explanation. As usual, it’s just a generic, empty statement - and most importantly, they explicitly say the issue will not be fixed, which strongly suggests that it’s intentional.
Hi there,
Thanks for contacting MakerWorld Team.Model download counts and print profile download counts are tracked separately on the platform. To prevent malicious downloading or printing behavior, the system applies certain limits on how many downloads or prints from a single user can be counted toward both model downloads and profile downloads. As a result, it is normal for the download counts of print profiles and models to show inconsistencies.
Regarding the specific counting logic, we’re sorry that we’re unable to share more detailed information. That said, our team continuously reviews data and user feedback to improve the overall experience. This measure is currently applied universally across the platform to prevent abuse, and to maintain fairness and accuracy in the counting system. We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused.
We appreciate your contributions to our platform.
If you require any further information or have any questions, please feel free to contact us. If you do not have further questions for this case, we will make the ticket as “resolved”. Should you have any further issues, you may reopen this ticket by replying directly to this email. For new requests, please submit a new ticket through our support portal：https://makerworld.com/en/my/support/ticketsBest regards,
MakerWorld
Maybe Bambu or MakerWorld would like to comment directly on what’s actually happening here, rather than issuing another generic, empty statement to the affected users. Why did Bambu intentionally stop counting all downloads and fail to openly inform users about it?
I really encourage everyone to take a moment to review their own profiles and keep track of anything that looks unusual. The more users document these discrepancies, the clearer the overall picture becomes - and the harder it is for the issue to be dismissed.
Feel free to post your cases here under this topic if this applies to you as well.