One thing worth noting is that newer versions have two main modloaders, Forge and Fabric, with many mods having versions for both, and the general trend has been to make more smaller mods which add a few features than large "all in one" mods (for example, TMCW is a single mod which adds over 350 blocks and items, 100 biomes and all their associated worldgen (the main point of the mod, hence its name), 45 entities/variants, and countless other features and changes to game mechanics). Some mods are even just "library" mods which are dependencies for other mods (basically, modders put code that is common to many of their mods into a single file, which is easier to update than every individual mod).
Note also that CurseForge is unreliable for versions as recent as 1.7.10 (prior to then many mods were uploaded to places like the forums, and really old mods often had non-Forge and/or "ModLoader" versions, inflating their numbers):
With 1.16, it was the next 'stable' spot. Add in two other factors as well- Fabric was finally getting popular and it a trend that had started back in 1.10 of splitting mods into parts really caught on.
So yeah, numbers exploded.
Also as someone thats been in modding since before 1.0- previous numbers were actually closer to 1.7 than this chart shows, as this chart is only covering Curse (as the title states).
It’s also that by 1.12, it was popular to create micro-mods that add a small number of very specific features or modify an existing mod’s mechanics in a very specific way. 1.7 mods were generally larger and less focused on interactivity, instead focused on fleshing out their own mechanics.
This is also why it is not very useful to rate modpacks by the number of mods they have (if anything, this trend has contributed to increased loading times and resource usage as each individual mod has its own overhead).
In my opinion the 1.12 is the most modded.
1.7 and 1.16 have big modding community too
And what other versions have alot of mods too?
Referring to Curseforge, Minecraft 1.16.5 has the most mods and 1.12.2 the most modpacks
Ranked by mods:
1.16.5 - about 14.440 mods
1.18.2 - about 11.380 mods
1.12.2 - about 10.620 mods
1.19.2 - about 9280 mods
1.7.10 - about 4300 mods
Ranked by modpacks:
1.12.2 - about 20.920 modpacks
1.16.5 - about 12.180 modpacks
1.18.2 - about 5660 modpacks
1.7.10 - about 4700 modpacks
1.19.2 - about 4160 modpacks
>> Link to Curseforge <<
My friends' modded servers are 1.7.2 and 1.12.2 so going with those.
One thing worth noting is that newer versions have two main modloaders, Forge and Fabric, with many mods having versions for both, and the general trend has been to make more smaller mods which add a few features than large "all in one" mods (for example, TMCW is a single mod which adds over 350 blocks and items, 100 biomes and all their associated worldgen (the main point of the mod, hence its name), 45 entities/variants, and countless other features and changes to game mechanics). Some mods are even just "library" mods which are dependencies for other mods (basically, modders put code that is common to many of their mods into a single file, which is easier to update than every individual mod).
See also:
https://www.reddit.com/r/feedthebeast/comments/rgg7fl/i_updated_my_graph_of_mod_count_by_version_now/
Note also that CurseForge is unreliable for versions as recent as 1.7.10 (prior to then many mods were uploaded to places like the forums, and really old mods often had non-Forge and/or "ModLoader" versions, inflating their numbers):
This is also why it is not very useful to rate modpacks by the number of mods they have (if anything, this trend has contributed to increased loading times and resource usage as each individual mod has its own overhead).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
Your firend having these modded versions doesnt mean they are the ones with the most mods