Monte Cook Games & Free League Lead The TTRPG Crowdfunding Charts!

Unlike the Million Dollar Kickstarter Club which lists individual TTRPG campaigns which have broken the $1M mark, this list compiles the total raised by crowdfunding by each creator.

Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarter Club

Avatar Legends leads the pack in an exclusive club -- Kickstarters for tabletop roleplaying game products which have broken the $1M barrier! It is currently the most successful TTRPG Kickstarter in history with a funding total of nearly $10M, and over 80,000 backers. 24 TTRPG campaigns have...

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These are all the creators I could find which had a TTRPG Kickstarter or Backerkit and had totalled over $2M in crowdfunding. I've noted the total number of campaigns and also the number which were TTRPG -- so 12 (7) means that they have 12 crowdfunding campaigns, 7 of which were for a TTRPG. This is just Kickstarter and Backerkit; I am aware that several other platforms exist.

I cut it off at $2M as the number of entries grows rapidly below that. As it is there are approaching 600 crowdfunding campaigns represented in the table below.

Somewhat arbitrarily I have highlighted the ones which have 50% or more of their crowdfunders in TTRPGS (as opposed to boardgames and other tabletop games). This creates a TTRPG-specific list as follows:

1. Monte Cook Games
2. Free League
3. Magpie Games
4. Hit Point Press
5. Richard Thomas
6. Kobold Press
7. Matt Colville
8. Exalted Funeral
9. Shane Hensley
10. Goodman Games
11. Ghostfire Gaming
12. DnD Shorts
13. Modiphius
14. Morrus
15. Jim Searcy
16. Loot Tavern
17. MonkeyDM
18. Eldermancy
19. Nord Games
20. Dungeon Dudes
21. Russ Charles
22. Palladium Books

Position	Creator	Total $ (KICKSTARTER)	# Campaigns (#RPG) (KICKSTARTER)	Total $ (BACKERKIT)	# Campaigns ($RPG) (BACKERKIT)	TOTAL $
1	Steamforged Games	$31,780,647	16 (1)			$31,780,647
2	Monte Cook Games	$9,814,568	22 (22)	$3,399,472	4 (4)	$13,214,040
3	Reaper Miniatures	$12,537,425	7 (1)			$12,537,425
4	Free League (+ Fria Ligan)	$11,926,219	27 (23)			$11,926,219
5	Mantic Games	$11,767,381	21 (1)	$629,460	1 (0)	$12,395,841
6	Magpie Games	$10,333,950	3 (2)			$10,333,950
7	Stronghold Games	$9,310,408	11 (1)			$9,310,408
8	Sandy Petersen	$8,170,100	24 (3)			$8,170,100
9	Hit Point Press	$7,618,393	11 (10)			$7,618,393
10	Richard Thomas	$7,559,980	48 (46)			$7,559,980
11	Kobold Press	$6,931,005	24 (24)			$6,931,005
12	A.J. Porfirio	$6,504,064	23 (1)			$6,604,064
13	Dragori Games	$6,022,675	4 (1)			$6,022,675
14	Matt Colville	$5,578,267	3 (3)	$344,651	1 (1)	$5,922,918
15	Exalted Funeral	$5,624,838	12 (12)	$240,520	1 (1)	$5,865,258
16	Cephalofair Games	-	-	$5,053,380	1 (0.5)	$5,053,380
17	Shane Hensley	$4,654,324	29 (29)			$4,654,324
18	Steve Jackson Games	$4,544,505	35 (3)			$4,544,505
19	Legends of Avantris	$4,020,234	1 (1)			$4,020,234
20	1985 Games	$3,904,319	7 (3)	$108,950	1 (0)	$4,013,269
21	Goodman Games	$3,642,988	33 (33)	$133,331	1 (1)	$3,776,319
22	Ghostfire Gaming	$3,615,442	6 (6)	$159,085	1 (1)	$3,774,537
23	DnD Shorts	$3,327,204	1 (1)			$3,327,204
24	Chris Birch (Modiphius)	$3,254,709	9 (6)			$3,254,709
25	Privateer Press	$3,192,760	12 (4)			$3,192,760
26	Morrus	$2,929,561	43 (43)			$2,929,561
27	Jim Searcy	$2,923,720	12 (11)			$2,923,720
28	Loot Tavern	$2,729,246	4 (2)			$2,729,246
29	MonkeyDM	$2,692,698	1 (1)			$2,692,698
30	Horrible Guild	$2,620,565	8 (2)			$2,620,565
31	Eldermancy	$2,496,478	3 (3)			$2,496,478
32	GAME START	$2,495,476	12 (2)			$2,495,476
33	Nord Games	$2,458,241	25 (22)			$2,458,241
34	Everything Epic	$2,340,870	20 (1)			$2,340,870
35	Mike Gnade	$2,340,377	17 (3)			$2,340,377
36	Dungeon Dudes	$2,304,515	2 (2)			$2,304,515
37	Atlas Games	$2,284,136	13 (4)			$2,284,136
38	Russ Charles	$2,251,388	5 (5)			$2,251,388
39	Certifiable Studios	$2,159,498	8 (1)			$2,159,498
40	Palladium Books	$2,084,928	3 (2)			$2,084,928

 

[Umbran]

You know you can have stuff printed on demand these days, right?

My experience with print on demand is that the quality of the binding is nowhere near that which comes from typical commercial channels. So I am not too surprised if many eschew that solution.

 

[Morrus]

Should I understand this as a: Go counting crowdfundings and add up Euros ?

Well, if you’re volunteering!

 

[agrayday]

Steamforged is a board game company which happens to have released one TTRPG product. It only ‘technically’ qualifies for the list as it’s really not a TTRPG company.


I don't know what that means.

I mean to say, their idea of a "quality product" is much lower on delivery day.

There are very few positive or highly praised reviews of their boardgames outside of "nice miniatures".

The Dark Souls RPG had a laundry list of editing, gameplay and presentation issues.

So it means they need to do better before i buy anything related to an RPG or a Boardgame, and i think that's well known in the Boardgame community circles.

I do understand most people like their Miniatures, that is their bread & butter.

 

[Superchunk77]

Free League Kickstarters are legendary for their quality, value, and being delivered on-time. Not suprised to see them so high on that list. My mountain of Forbidden Lands books and boxes in my bedroom is testament to that lol.

 

[Superchunk77]

Trying to force everything into one design paradigm is bad forthe industry. We know this from experience -- d20, anyone? There are some things that I think 5E would work fine for (Star Wars for example, IMO) but generally I prefer if games go with bespoke systems. Palladium rules are a mess, for sure, but going 5E isn't the only way to save them. Savage Worlds Rifts shows that, if nothing else.

I will second that whole-heartedly. I'm just sick to death of "5e" adaptations of everything. So much so that I sold all of my 5e books and purchased a whole bunch of Pathfinder 1e material.

 

[agrayday]

Free League Kickstarters are legendary for their quality, value, and being delivered on-time. Not suprised to see them so high on that list. My mountain of Forbidden Lands books and boxes in my bedroom is testament to that lol.

As a participant of several Free League KS & Pre-Orders, i have not experienced "being delivered on time" since before 2021. They are high quality products when they do arrive, and i cant really think of a better quality & value based competitor in the RPG market.