Sales of 3D models have dropped significantly

Thanks for the feedback! At first, there was an idea about AI to create 3d, but it cannot create decent 3d models. I agree with you that now many people use AI to create beautiful images and the 3d rendering stage is becoming unnecessary.

I recently came across an article describing the process of automating the creation of 3D models using AI and placing them on CGT automatically!
The models themselves look terrible and clumsy, but there are about 3,000 of them with automatic placement. This is terrible for honest creators and sellers of 3d models like you and me, who create 3d content themselves and post their work on CGT, wasting time and effort, while there are those who fill CGT with all sorts of junk and take away customers, since AI models are cheap, and buyers often do not need quality....

Yes, it happened to me too. I've also noticed a massive shake-up in the search results. I used to have 3-4 products consistently appear on the first page for the 'woman' category, but now none of them show up. It feels like every time the platform finally stabilizes for us creators, a sudden backend update is rolled out that completely resets our visibility and disrupts our workflow. It's incredibly frustrating to deal with this constant, unpredictable instability.

On my timeline I can see moment AI got introduced, things got steadily down hill from there. For image or video generation the demand for 3D models is clearly significantly reduced, however, game art keeps in steady demand!

It makes sense if you think about it, AI lowers barrier of entry for indie game developers. Lots of tasks can now be accelerated (coding/scripting, dialog, story, voice overs, etc.). At the same time meany large traditional game studios are in trouble. The AI hype is shifting investments and meany large studios go bust because of it. The people coming out of those studios are not going to sit down and do nothing right? They probably enter smaller indie studios or start a small studio on their own.

Also note there are AI tools that can create 3D models from images, however, the quality is low and still demand expertise and time to actually make clean usable models from it, hens well crafted 3D “game” models can still compete with AI (for now).

In meany ways, it now becomes more realistic to independently build a game and that’s also where we can still provide value.

It’s a perfect storm, really:

At the start, AI is attracting a lot of customers, which can freely or cheaply generate images, music, and 3D models. They become “addicted” to their own "creations," making them less likely to interact with original content. They don’t realize this problem but push this slop onto the regular markets, diluting them and turning away customers.

We saw the appearance of large buyer entities on Turbosquid and CGTrader. These companies buy up all the models in order to train 3D AI models, that will degrade the entire market even more.

Next, Epic bought Sketchfab and Artstation, both very respected sites, with very good markets. After the takeover, the Sketchfab marketplace was assimilated, and Artstation was left for dead in the gutter. This causes resentment in buyers. Not only for Epic (FAB) but also for the marketplace as a whole.

And lastly, the reaction of governments worldwide: Instead of supporting artists in these challenging times, the focus is somehow shifted to oil, land, and fostering the rich (in particular, AI).

The solution? Purging AI from the marketplace, abolishing the credit boost system, and going back to organic search results based on buyer satisfaction will change nothing. It is simply too late, and we cannot go back. The key is finding a niche and growing from there.

Big things have small beginnings.

Hello, the system previously had a royalty system. As your sales increased, your percentage of earnings increased. Imagine working for 6 years to reach the highest level, and then CGTrader cancels the system and switches to a new one. Did you consider this? For example, someone with 70% royalty points now only gets 64-65%. This person worked for years, uploaded models, and earned that percentage. You canceled it overnight. The system changed in 2025, and sales have been steadily declining ever since. CGTrader support, as always, paints a rosy picture. They say, "everything is fine, competition has increased, etc." They also constantly run discount campaigns. Let me put it this way: you don't even receive your full income anyway; there are deductions from that, deductions from money transfers, so why would I offer a discount? I wrote to CGTrader support, "If the boss said, 'I've given you a 50% discount on your salary this month,' would you accept it?" No answer. Years ago, I participated in several discount campaigns and got no results. I'm already listing the true value of my models, so why would I offer a discount? It doesn't make sense to me. If we put it all together, the house always wins, and the artists suffer.

Same... Sales dropped a lot! This situation Is global (its not the fault of one website). 3d modeling has become way less popular. I think It's mostly due to A.I. that can produce images and videos of High quality. 3d markets don't want to invest in advertisment anymore..thats my opinion

CGTrader should prevent AI generation from our model images by adding watermarks to product images.

There are also problems with the discounts. Although my discount settings are configured and a general discount was applied, it wasn't reflected in the models. I sent two emails but received no reply.

I see a lot of talk about AI being the reason, I don't know if this is the case, but I hope it's AI and not something more serious.
AI is not sustainable because:

1- There is constant push back against the use of AI in media, not from workers only, but consumers. Corporations will try to push it but will fail.
2- AI is cheap for now, but the current cost is not real, they are in the scaling phase and are burning cash to dominate the market, sooner or later they will have to turn a profit, and the artist will prove more cost effective and reliable/consistent.
3- AI is not a viable option for creating copyrighted IPs, everything created by AI is public domain.

I think the real issue is terrible practices by greedy marketplaces, for example the boost credits system, it's becoming google all over again when they started pushing promoted content instead of what the user searches for. Also the new subscription model and lack of transparency about it. Hopelessly trying to squeeze as much value as possible instead of investing in modernizing the platform and fixing the issues. Unlike AI, these practices are here to stay for the foreseeable future.

We wrote to the support service about the fact that sales have dropped significantly. The support team says that everything is fine. That it's seasonal.
Previously, our models were definitely in the top 100, but not now. It seems that sellers have started using bots to upload and delete models in order to bring their products into the top 100.
Finding your niche is definitely a good option, but how long it will take to find and develop it is a question...AI can do this much faster over time.

Has anyone used boost credits? We have tried, but there is no special result. Maybe this is how it's done now - pay for boost credits and your models will be sold?

Sales dropped completely. cgtrader is apparently "updating" something again. By the way, has everyone's delete model button disappeared? cgtrader did not warn about any changes.

Yes. That's a logical explanation. Thanks.

Credit boost, front page featuring, and floating royalties are all measures CGTrader took to not Flip its Normals because of the shift in tech that's happening. It helps us sellers indirectly because CGT still exists, but the direct benefit is still not clear...

Hey guys, there's a question that's been bothering me for a while. The "payout rate" means that as I make sales, the amount of sales I need to make to reach the next level constantly increases, and just when I think I'm one step closer to the next level, it moves one step further. I just can't seem to get into the next percentile. The sales amount I need to make keeps increasing.

Yes, my royalty rate decreased when this system came into effect. And now, just when I think I'm getting closer to the next one, it's getting further away. It's a strange system. The target started increasing every month.

TS is paying for AI services. I don't think CG is making such a payment.