Mining Minecraft · Platforms
Why don’t CurseForge and Modrinth agree on #1?
People talk like there’s one “most popular mod” list. I opened two big free stores, and the top charts barely share a cast.
CurseForge #1
JEI
“Just Enough Items”. A giant recipe browser: ~608M downloads on that platform.
Modrinth #1
Fabric API
A library other mods need to run on a modern loader. Not a recipe browser.
The two stores do not share a #1
You want a mod: extra code that changes Java Minecraft. Two big free libraries show up in almost every install guide: CurseForge and Modrinth.
I opened both charts. CurseForge’s #1 is Just Enough Items (JEI), a giant recipe browser. Modrinth’s #1 is Fabric API, a toolkit other mods need so they can run on Fabric (one of the helpers that lets extra code run in Java Minecraft). Same hobby. Two different #1s.
These columns are not one true player count. Each store counts downloads on its own site.
Each store has its own top list
CurseForge top (sample)
| # | Project | Downloads |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Just Enough Items (JEI) | 607,903,927 |
| 2 | Mouse Tweaks | 467,549,870 |
| 3 | AppleSkin | 405,742,265 |
| 4 | Bookshelf | 404,375,888 |
| 5 | Controlling | 387,197,925 |
| 6 | GeckoLib | 392,459,540 |
| 7 | Cloth Config API (Fabric/Forge/NeoForge) | 367,394,887 |
| 8 | Clumps | 360,849,579 |
Modrinth top (sample)
| # | Project | Downloads |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fabric API | 226,821,998 |
| 2 | Sodium | 202,411,472 |
| 3 | Iris Shaders | 157,796,369 |
| 4 | Cloth Config API | 151,555,951 |
| 5 | Entity Culling | 148,022,388 |
| 6 | FerriteCore | 136,979,771 |
| 7 | Mod Menu | 130,077,388 |
| 8 | Lithium | 116,245,542 |
Snapshots from numbers I saved in August 2026. These columns are not one true “player count.”
Why the charts disagree
CurseForge’s top, in this pull, looks like huge helpers that grew up around Forge and NeoForge: recipe browsers, inventory tweaks, extra libraries. Forge and NeoForge are the other big Java helpers besides Fabric. A mod built for one helper will not just drop into another.
Modrinth’s top is thicker with Fabric-era speed-ups and shared libraries. Some mods ship on both stores. Cloth Config shows up on both lists. The order of the mountains still differs. Overlap is not the same as a shared #1.
See also
How I calculated it
CurseForge and Modrinth top-mod extracts from the August 2026 research pull. Download totals are platform-reported. Columns are not cross-store comparable as one “player count.”
Sources
- CurseForge top mods extract (numbers I saved, August 2026).
- Modrinth top mods extract: also What's actually #1 on Minecraft's biggest mod chart?.
