Quarterly 3D Printer Shipments Face Turbulence

At the start of 2025, vendors had optimism and expected a rebound in Industrial 3D printing sales within the year. But high inflation, high interest rates, layoffs, more mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity, tariff disputes and concerns about possible recessions weakened the outlook, a new outlook from CONTEXT finds.

Results from the fourth quarter of 2024 showed a downturn across all 3D printer sectors: sales of industrial ($100,000+) printers declined by −6%, sales of midrange printers (costing $20,000–$100,000) fell by −18%, and shipments of professional ($2,500–$20,000) printers decreased by −11%. Additionally, the entry-level segment experienced a −10% drop in global shipments compared to the same period the previous year.

The overall year was challenging. Only the entry-level segment grew: shipments of printers priced below $2,500 were 26% up on 2023, driven by new brands like Bambu Lab and the ongoing strength of Creality. Although these printers are mostly aimed at hobbyists, they have impacted sales of professional printers, which were −15% down on the previous year. In 2024, global midrange printer shipments decreased by −11%, and sales of systems in the industrial price class were −17% down on 2023.

“2024 was a tough year across the globe for many 3D printer system vendors, marked by macroeconomic pressures and a shifting competitive landscape,” says Chris Connery, vice president of global analysis at CONTEXT. “But beneath the surface, there’s a clear sense of continued strong bottled-up demand that could reshape the industry in 2025 and beyond.”

Click here for full-size Chart 1.

Industrial Systems

Industrial 3D printers underperformed against expectations in the quarter, with −6% fewer systems shipped in Q4 2024 than in Q4 2023. Although Industrial polymer printers bounced back some, sales of industrial metal printers were weaker especially in China. Over the year, global shipments of Industrial additive manufacturing printer systems were down −17%: −21% for polymer systems but only −11% for metals systems.

Industrial Polymer Systems

Global shipments of Industrial polymer systems were up 10% in quarter (Q4 2024) thanks mainly to 23% year-on-year growth for vat photopolymerisation systems. Demand in China bounced back: shipments into the region were 53% higher than in Q4 2023. China was, once again, the top end market and accounted for 34% of total global shipments. In the second-largest region, North America (representing 29% of the worldwide total), unit shipments dropped −14% YoY.

Industrial Metal Systems

PBF systems accounted for 71% of all Industrial metal printers shipped in Q4 2024 but unit shipments slid down −20% YoY. Directed energy deposition (DED) saw its share increase to 17% with a 15% rise in unit shipments—mostly thanks to the low-price leader Meltio—but there was a YoY decline in shipments of systems based on other technologies. After a difficult third quarter, China’s BLT regained its position as the top global vendor of metal PBF printers (as measured by unit volumes) in Q4 2024. Although the first half of 2024 was strong, H2 2024 was more challenging and Q4 2024 was equally weak for Western and Chinese manufacturers alike with unit shipments of metal PBF systems down −22% and −20%, respectively.

Midrange Systems

Midrange printer shipments dropped −18% YoY in total during Q4 2024. This was despite a 25% increase in sales of material jetting systems. While a few companies, including Stratasys, saw a YoY rise in shipments of this type of machine, it was the 100% YoY growth of Flashforge that catapulted the technology to the top spot.

Chart 2: Yearly Global Professional and Entry-level 3D printer shipments. Click here for full-size image. Image courtesy of CONTEXT.

Professional Systems

The two sub-technologies in this price-class—material extrusion and vat photopolymerisation—went in opposite directions in 2024. In the fourth quarter, overall shipments in this segment were down −11% on Q4 2023 but shipments of material extrusion printers (generally FDM/FFF) were down −40% while those of vat photo printers were up 18%.

Entry-Level Systems

Demand for entry-level printers overall increased significantly in 2024 and shipments for the full year rose 26% over 2023. All growth came in the first half of the year. Sales began to slow in this hot segment in Q3 2024 and growth turned negative in Q4 2024 when shipments fell just shy of a million units for the quarter and −10% fewer printers shipped globally compared to Q4 2023. Creality remained the market-share leader (with a 40% share) but saw unit shipments drop −25% YoY. Conversely, even while struggling with some negative press toward the end of the year, the number two player (with a 20% share) Bambu Lab saw their quarterly shipments rise 76%. Another bright spot in this segment was growth for long-term player Flashforge which saw shipments rise 77% as it continued to transform itself yet again.

Of all entry-level 3D printers sold in the world, in 2024, 96% came from Chinese vendors. A few minor players had shifted some production to the US (the largest end-market for this price-class), in anticipation of tariffs, but the economics of producing such low-priced products in places where wages tend to be much higher made such wholesale shifts in production not-yet-tenable in 2024.

Outlook

Across the globe, big and small companies alike have already hit all-important milestones this year: EOS shipped its 5,000th printer, Eplus3D its 100th ‘super-meter’ metal PBF machine, Xact Metal its 150th machine and Nikon SLM Solutions has produced its 1,000th metal PBF machine (and 50 of those are NXG large format multi-laser systems!). The start of 2025 also saw new equity investments including $120M for Stratasys, new investment for Velo3D, the acquisition of Desktop Metal by Nano Dimension (which also has the acquisition of Markforged on the horizon). The hope is that these activities will bring new stability and profitability to the market as it waits for the strong, pent-up demand reported by manufacturers of Industrial AM systems to be let loose.

“At the high end of the market, there is anticipation of new demand developing due to global onshoring initiatives, and that capital equipment expenditures will accelerate again when interest rates drop”, says Chris Connery. “The timing of such interest rate drops is the great unknown, and the situation is further complicated by sticky inflation, tariff wars and M&A questions, especially in the US.”

With major headwinds like these across the entire AM market—and coming off a challenging Q4 2024—CONTEXT notes that forecasts have largely been shift-out with expectation now for flat to single-digit unit shipment growth in 2025, mid-double-digit growth in 2026 and accelerating beyond that. Even with expectations for 2025 revised down, some pockets of excitement are anticipated in the year ahead. M&A will again dominate the headlines but, more importantly, there are glimpses of new models on the horizon which could be of interest to 3D printing industry players and mainstream audiences alike.

About CONTEXT

CONTEXT offers global market intelligence, performance benchmarks and opportunity analysis.. With over 35 years of industry partnership and experience reporting on large datasets, CONTEXT delivers analytics at all points in the value chain. CONTEXT is headquartered in London, with over 300 staff across the world.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.