" I hate 3dsmax, but back some years ago, there were some figures floating around saying that Autodesk had about 350,000 active 3dsmax licenses, which was by far the most of any app in their software lineup, including Maya." 

The Blender website states that the current unique downloads of Blender are 366,672 per month.  Due to the fact that Blender is free not all these downloads convert to regular users but it does give an indication of its popularity.  I am a vendor here and I do use Blender for all my modelling and uv mapping needs.

I'm hardly surprised by those download numbers.  It's free.  Before Google sold Sketchup to Trimble, back in 2012, Sketchup boasted 2 MILLION users per week.  Yes, per week.  If Trimble paid 5% of what Sketchup was worth at that time, it would have been $90 million US dollars, according to this article. http://gfxspeak.com/2012/04/26/google-sells-sketchup-to-trimble/

3dsmax was the biggest of the pro studio apps some time ago.  I think it lost ground to Cinema4d, Modo, and Maya over the past few years though.  The only decent upgrade they gave it was just this year.  I don't like it because of Autodesk.  I hate their policies.  I don't like Blender either.  I think 90% of those download figures are just curiosity downloads.  I have Blender on my machine too, but never open it.  I'm a C4D user for life.