Crowdfund Bookie: One year, $35 million
The Crowdfund Bookie crunches data from select successful Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns that ended during the month and produces pretty charts for you to look at.
A total of 341 video game projects were funded on Kickstarter and Indiegogo in the past year. Those games earned $35,945,510 from June 2013 through May 2014 thanks to the generosity of 782,147 people. It was a year that saw games like Double Fine's Massive Chalice and Keiji Inafune's Mighty No. 9 pull in over $5 million alone.
The crowdfunding year was marked by projects like these which, when measured over time, consistently tipped impressions of average Kickstarter and Indiegogo earnings to appear more favorable. The 341 projects in question earned a mean average of $105,412, though creators really earned closer to the median average of $25,457. Removing the more costly projects drags the mean average of money earned down towards that mark; it drops to $61,152 without the top ten projects for the year, $45,153 without the top 20 and $37,862 without the top 30.
It was an ever-changing year, as well. Just glancing at the monthly comparison charts after the break shows a gradual decline in most categories, such as the average amount an individual project backer spent on a given project. The first three months of the year saw an average of $49.40 pledged per person, which dropped to $39.80 in the last quarter of the year. This reflects the averages for the entire year; the year showed a mean average of $45.96, though funders spent closer to the median amount of $36.10.
By the end of the year, fewer projects earned far beyond their initial goals, potentially reaching fewer stretch goals as a result. The first quarter of the year averaged an earning rate of 211 percent, over double the amount of money projects set out to achieve. The final three months amounted to 166 percent of the combined goals, even after the average combined goals per month dropped $453,639. Relative to their ambitions, project creators earned more to start the year than those whose games were funded late in the year.
The year also featured a number of fascinating stories in the crowdfunding space. It included the highly-questionable campaign for Gridiron Thunder and the related fallout of Ouya's Free the Games Fund program. More recently, it looked favorably on Harmonix's new Amplitude game, which was an anomaly among crowdfunded games. Head past the break for another look at the year in crowdfunding, including the top 20 projects and the year's breakdown by genre.
Mighty No. 9 by Comcept - $3,845,170
Hex by Cryptozoic Entertainment- $2,278,255
Kingdom Come: Deliverance by Warhorse - $1,842,218
Warmachine: Tactics by Privateer Press - $1,578,950
Obduction by Cyan Inc - $1,321,306
Massive Chalice by Double Fine - $1,229,015
Project Phoenix by Creative Intelligence Arts - $1,014,600
Armikrog by Pencil Test Studios - $974,578
Amplitude by Harmonix - $844,127
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero by WayForward - $776,084
Satellite Reign by 5 Lives Studio - $705,194
The Mandate by Perihelion Interactive - $701,010
City of Titans by Missing Worlds Media - $678,189
Unsung Story by Playdek - $660,126
Hyper Light Drifter by Heart Machine - $645,158
Tobuscus Adventures by Toby Turner - $642,779
7 Days to Die by The Fun Pimps - $507,612
Shaq Fu by Big Deez Productions - $473,884
The Universim by Crytivo Games - $387,345
Awesomenauts: Starstorm by Ronimo Games - $345,835
Action (67): $8,781,125 (244.21% by 201,106 people ($43.66 mean average)
Adventure (77): $5,333,206 (142.00%) by 131,297 people ($40.62 mean average)
Fighting (7): $943,712 (116.26%) by 13,037 people ($72.39 mean average)
Platformer (18): $801,262 (178.69%) by 22,600 people ($35.45 mean average)
Puzzle (10): $243,888 (130.01%) by 5,683 people ($42.92 mean average)
Racing (1): $95,692 (152.34%) by 1,847 people ($51.81 mean average)
RPG (66): $7,678,078 (242.98%) by 166,974 people ($45.98 mean average)
Shooter (10): $1,076,944 (166.45%) by 24,128 people ($44.63 mean average)
Simulation (29): $1,855,114 (134.40%) by 48,663 people ($38.12 mean average)
Strategy (56): $9,136,489 (215.02%) by 166,812 people ($54.77 mean average)
[Image: Comcept]
