We received a note from Netherlands-based Leapfrog 3D Printers who, among other notable achievements, said they’ve sold their 1,000th 3D printer. It was a LeapFrog Creatr, evidently sold to someone also in the Netherlands.
This is quite an accomplishment for the small manufacturer, but it leads us to ponder: exactly how many personal 3D printers are now out in the world? In the past some manufacturers would publish numbers, but we kinda lost track around 25,000.
Since then there have been several developments:
- Cubify launched the Cube (and now CubeX) with a major marketing push and no doubt sold many thousands of units
- MakerBot has released two new 3D printers, the Replicator 2 and Replicator 2X, which likely were (and are) very popular
- Multiple smaller 3D printer manufacturers emerged, each selling at least dozens or perhaps hundreds of units
- Formlabs sold over 1,000 units in its Kickstarter campaign and many more afterwards
- Older, more primitive units have likely been replaced by more powerful personal 3D printers
So how many units exist?
We have no idea, but it’s possible the number now exceeds 100,000 units.
