81% of all funds raised on Kickstarter went to games with a budget of no more than half a million dollars — analysis
Dmitry Filatov, head of the Narwhal game accelerator, analyzed all video game crowdfunding campaigns on Kickstarter. He shared his observations on the Telegram channel DogDog.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
Important: The provided statistics only pertain to video games; board games were not included.
As calculated by Filatov, over 16 years of Kickstarter's existence, developers have launched more than 18,000 funding campaigns, attracting a total of $377 million.
The best year in terms of money raised was 2013, when developers managed to receive $51 million. By comparison, by 2024, the funds raised had dropped by half, decreasing to $25.2 million. Overall, Filatov writes, the "golden era" of Kickstarter, in terms of the amount of money raised, can be considered the period between 2012 and 2015. However, if judged not by the dollar amount but by the success rate of campaigns, then the "Covid" years 2021-2023 take the crown by a wide margin, with 62% of teams reaching their goals.
Here are a few more interesting data points:
- As Filatov noted, no game that aimed to raise more than $2.5 million on Kickstarter succeeded in doing so. However, there are plenty of examples on the platform where users invested even larger amounts in games where the creators requested less than a million dollars;
- Top 3 games by funds raised: Shenmue 3 ($6.3 million), Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night ($5.5 million), and Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes ($4.5 million);
- 81% of the $377 million went to games with budgets estimated by developers at $500,000 or less;
- The majority of funds on Kickstarter were raised by developers from the USA — 63.5% of the $377 million;
- Meanwhile, the highest success rate for campaigns was achieved by developers from Japan (58%) and Singapore (48%);
- Polish publisher PlayWay is the most effective game company on Kickstarter. They raised funds 32 times and reached their goals in 31 cases. In total, PlayWay received $889,000 this way.