10 Years of Kickstarter – Fun Facts & My Personal Stats

Last night, I think many of us received an email that said it was Kickstarter’s birthday. An amazing accomplishment to say the least, Kickstarter has helped so many projects come to life – and also seen plenty of failed projects too. Labours of love have been showcased, as well as plenty of ideas that were just too ambitious. Either way, we love Kickstarter and all of the wonderful ideas it hosts.

This isn’t going to be a particularly long article, but rather I wanted to give you all a bunch of facts and figures. I’ll also talk briefly about some of my favourite Kickstarter campaigns, as well as briefly listing every project that I’ve ever backed on the platform. As ever though, today’s article is about exploring and celebrating what has been a tremendously useful crowdsourcing platform.

Interesting Kickstarter Facts

Here’s a breakdown of some of the unsuccessful kickstarter numbers

Using the very helpful Kickstarter Stats Page, here are some amazing figures which are updated on a daily basis. By the time you read this article, this may have changed.

There have been over 162,000 projects backed on the platform, which have been backed by over 16 million backers. Out of those 16 million backers, over 5 million of them are repeat backers, which have created over 53 million pledges between them. For anyone who isn’t versed in Kickstarter, a pledge is when a backer puts money into a project – So if one person put money into, say, 3 projects, that’s 3 separate pledges.

One thing I really like about this stats page is how frank it is. There are stats on how many projects for each category have been fully funded, overfunded and even not funded. There are a surprising amount of projects that have 0% funding on them as well. A bit scary, knowing some people have gone onto the platform and not even drawn up enough interest to get one person to back them.

There is a further breakdown of the technical aspect of Kickstarter available on their blog.

Personal Kickstarter Stats

10 years is a long time, so I wondered if I had even pushed past the £100 mark on Kickstarter. I won’t lie, I can’t afford a lot, but whenever I see a project that intrigues me, I do try to back it, or at least share the word. So, here is a list of all of the projects that I’ve backed, along with the amount that I pledged to each project. This list is in chronological order and I may have a few additional comments about some of them.

• Shovel Knight: $15.00
  • This was my first pledge? Damn… What a game!
• The Savlonic Album: £15.00
  • The only album I ever backed through Kickstarter.
• Prospero’s Price; A Lovecraft and Shakespeare Tale: $5.00
• The Clay That Woke, an RPG about Minotaurs: $3.00
• Merchmakr: desktop screen printing shop: $20.00
  • You know, I don’t even know if I got the t-shirt… Maybe I did! Anyway, I actually interviewed the guy for this one.
• Commodore 64: a visual Commpendium by Bitmap Books
• Patema Inverted – Ultimate Edition: £22.00
  • I’d pay that again to see this film again. What. An. Anime.
• d4 – Rollable 4 Sided Dice: £12.00
  • This one still gets people talking at GeekOut Bristol Meets. They’re a staple part of my pound of dice!
• Role-Playing Game Adventure Journals: $26.00
  • They looked stunning. They were great.
• Recipes for the Dead: Issue 3 – An Indie Comic Book: $15.00
• mBuino, a programmable mbed keychain: $19.00
• TerraTech – physics-based vehicle construction & combat: £10.00
• Potato Salad: $2.00
  • The infamous Kickstarter.
• Semi Comic Book – Volume #1: $40.00
  • I. Loved. This. Also had the privilege to interview these fine creators.
• Men vs Cosplay: 2015 Heroes vs Villains Calendar Project: $32.00
  • Not gonna lie – This was manly as hell.
• Limited Edition Every Round Counts Boxset £25.00
• Rogues to Riches – a Game for the Criminally Imaginative: CA$45.00
  • Still played at GeekOut Bristol Meet today.
• Legend of Lotus: $10.00
• Exploding Kittens: $50.00
  • Still played at GeekOut Bristol Meet today.
• Chance & Counters: Bristol’s first board game café: £10.00
• GOAT LORDS.: $30.00
  • This was the 2nd time this one went up. 2nd time’s the charm!
• Gibbous – A Cthulhu Adventure: CHF$34.00
• Bears vs Babies – A Card Game: $38.00
  • Still played at GeekOut Bristol Meet today.
• Moonstone Fantasy Skirmish Game: £1.00
  • I just wanted these guys to do well.
• Defection #1 Running On Empty: £21.00
  • Awesome, awesome art.
• GROWL: $24.00
  • Still not received this. Looking forward to it! Will chase this up soon, as it’s nearly half a year late.
• The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls: $44.00
  • Still played at GeekOut Bristol Meet today.
• Volfyirion: €18.00
  • Waiting on this one, but got notification that it’s in the last stages. Looking forward to that stunning dragon figure!

This has shown me that uh, I put a fair bit of money into Kickstarter campaigns. I thought I had done a lot less than this… But it turns out I’ve spent over £555 in total on all of these campaigns. That’s… Quite something. But that is since 2013, meaning that I’m spending a bit over £100 a year on average.

Here’s to many more!

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Have you ever backed a project on Kickstarter? How much do you typically spend on a campaign? What about your own projects – have you ever put one up, or have you dreamt of putting a project up? What was your favourite project to ever be on the platform? If you have an answer to any of these questions, or if you have a different spin on today’s article, share your thoughts with us in the comments below, or on Facebook and Twitter.