Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarter Club

Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere RPG leads the pack in an exclusive club -- crowdfunders for tabletop roleplaying game products which have broken the $1M barrier! It is currently the most successful TTRPG crowdfunder in history with a funding total of over $10M, and over 30,000 backers (and also the third biggest crowdfunded of any kind!)

[Update--Kickstarter integrated 'late pledges' in May 2024. The totals on this table are the totals at the time the campaign officially ended and do not include late pledges or additional pledges from pledge managers.]


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This list comprises crowdfunders specifically for tabletop roleplaying games or supplements which have exceeded $1M. It does not include crowdfunders which are primarily for miniatures, software, dice, or other accessories.

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$1M+ TTRPG Crowdfunders: The Official TTRPG $1M Crowdfunder Club

#​
Project
Platform​
D&D 5E​
Additions**​
Creator​
Date EndedBackersAmountFirst Day***Average Pledge
1​
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Brotherwise GamesAugust 202452,652$14,557,439$4,380,024 (30%)$276
2​
Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game
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September 202181,549$9,533,258$1,150,566 (12%)$117
3​
Gloomhaven Grand Festival
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July 202334,691$5,053,380$1,339,942 (27%)$146
4​
The MCDM RPG
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MCDM Productions (Matt Colville)​
January 202430,177$4,600,529$1,985,398 (43%))$152
5​
The Crooked Moon: Folk Horror in 5E by Legends of Aavantris
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Legends of AvantrisNovember 202321,793$4,020,234$1,225,460 (30%)$184
6​
Ryoko's Guide to the Yokai Realms - A 5e Tome
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DnD Shorts (Loot Tavern)October 202326,376$3,327,204$712,290 (21%)$126
7​
Terry Pratchett's Discworld RPG: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork
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ModiphiusNovember 202416,177$2,925,641$671,187 (23%)$181
8​
Steinhardt's Guide to the Eldritch Hunt: A 5e Supplement
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MonkeyDM(Loot Tavern)August 202219,723$2,692,698$411,135 (15%)$137
9​
Obojima Tales From The Tall Grass: A 5E Campaign Setting
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1985 GamesAugust 202323,416$2,610,869$380,679 (15%)$111
10​
Fool's Gold: Into the Bellowing Wilds
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Hit Point PressNovember 202116,929$2,479,888$349,884 (14%)$147
11​
ALIEN RPG – Evolved Edition and Rapture Protocol
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Free LeagueApril 202511,749$2,412,117$1,109,732 (46%)$205
12Shadowdark RPG: The Western Reaches Setting
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The Arcane LibraryApril 202512,795$2,384,757$1,099,875 (46%)$186
13​
DC20
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The Dungeon CoachJuly 202420,685$2,245,231$415,127 (19%)$108
14​
Strongholds & Streaming
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Matt ColvilleMarch 201828,918$2,121,465$591,556 (28%)$73
15​
Tanares RPG - 5e
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Dragori GamesOctober 20219,403$2,100,242$993,228 (47%)$223
16​
Old Gods of Appalachia Roleplaying Game
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May 202215,061$2,097,715$679,748 (32%)$139
17​
"Flee, Mortals!" - The MCDM Monster Book for 5e
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Matt ColvilleMay 202227,009$2,084,117$788,976 (38%)$77
18​
The Magnus Archives Roleplaying Game
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September 202311,622$2,027,997$794,798 (39%)$174
19​
The One Ring Roleplaying Game, Second Edition
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March 202116,591$2,025,288$521,908 (26%)$122
20​
Monty Python's Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme
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November 202215,018$1,933,426$792,724 (41%)$129
21​
Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting
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Loot Tavern(Hit Point Press)July 202118,082$1,845,422$259,382 (14%)$102
22​
BLADE RUNNER - The Roleplaying Game
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May 202215,323$1,673,567$833,263 (49%)$109
23​
The Seeker's Guide to Twisted Taverns
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Eldermancy
(Ghostfire Gaming)
March 202117,921$1,650,076$211,563 (13%)$92
24​
Adventure Time: The Roleplaying Game
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May 20247,334$1,568,387$238,556 (15%)$214
25​
Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG 1st Edition Boxed Set
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Alan GerdingDecember 202115,699$1,405,569$529,134 (38%)$90
26​
Dolmenwood Tabletop RPG
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Exalted FuneralSeptember 202310,862$1,389,313$639,002 (46%)$128
27​
Kingdoms, Warfare & More Minis!
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Matt ColvilleNovember 201919,033$1,372,685$594,330 (43%)$72
28​
Shadowdark RPG: Old School Gaming, Modernized
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The Arcane LibraryMarch 202313,249$1,365,923$299,898 (22%)$103
29​
Grim Hollow: The Monster Grimoire
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Ghostfire GamingMay 202115,530$1,348,160$258,640 (19%)$87
30​
7th Sea: Second Edition
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John Wick (Chaosium)March 201611,483$1,316,813$286,290 (22%)$115
31​
The Deck of Many Animated Spells, Tarot and More for 5e
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Hit Point PressJune 20209,871$1,310,509$218,381 (16%)$133
32​
Dungeons of Drakkenheim
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Dungeon Dudes
(Ghostfire Gaming)
August 202113,376$1,279,240$370,638 (29%)$96
33​
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness
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Palladium BooksNovember 20238,383$1,277,498$359,895 (28%)$152
34​
Auroboros: Coils of the Serpent
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Warchief GamingMay 202110,218$1,260,863$493,947 (39%)$123
35​
The Griffon's Saddlebag: Book 2
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Griffin Macaulay
(Hit Point Press)
April 202211,710$1,237,197$297,192 (24%)$106
36​
Erevan's Guide to Death and Beyond - A 5e Tome
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Archvillain GamesJune 20246,826$1,236,738$336,253 (27%)$181
37​
Moria - Through the Doors of Durin for The One Ring RPG
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September 202313,009$1,198,575$619,890 (52%)$92
38​
Tales of the Valiant RPG: Launching Black Flag Roleplaying
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Kobold PressJune 202310,057$1,151,914$487,329 (42%)$115
39​
The Field Guide to Floral Dragons
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Hit Point PressMay 202412,532$1,110,056$297,687 (27%)$89
40​
Coyote & Crow the Roleplaying Game
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Connor AlexanderApril 202116,269$1,073,453$106,515 (10%)$66
41​
Monsters of Drakkenheim - 5E Monsters with Lores Lairs & Loot
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Dungeon Dudes
(Ghostfire Gaming)
April 20248,078$1,065,710$459,295 (43%)$132
42Fallen London: The Roleplaying Game
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Magpie GamesMarch 20258,105$1,028,103$419,329 (41%)$127
43​
Sebastian Crowe's Guide to Drakkenheim
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Dungeon Dudes
(Ghostfire Gaming)
September 20228,963$1,025,330$422,376 (41%)$114
44The Magnus Archives RPG: Tangled in the Web
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Monte Cook GamesMarch 20256,174$1,015,475$244,599 (24%)$164
45​
Humblewood Campaign Setting for 5e
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Hit Point PressApril 201914,604$1,001,085$58,985 (6%)$69
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Miniatures |
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Merchandise |
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Dice |
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Kickstarter |
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Backerkit |
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D&D 5E​

*Licensed or based on an existing IP (movie, novel, video game, board game, comic book, previous game edition, etc.)
**Merch means pins, shirts, dice trays, etc. Stuff which isn't the actual game.
***First day figures represent first calendar day, not first 24 hours, and are taken from Kicktraq's daily funding stats for Kickstarter or Backer Tracker for Backerkit.
Some unusual patterns can be seen above. Most crowdfunders follow the traditional 'U' shaped curved, with a large portion of the funding taking place in the first few and last few days of the campaign, and comparatively slower progress in the middle.
  • Tanares RPG did nearly $1M in its first day, but then support dropped off for the remaining month. This was due to a high-value giveaway to first-day backers.​
  • Humblewood started off slow and then got a big boost in the last 4 days. It's not clear what caused that, but an aggressive final marketing push is a good candidate--they have multiple marketing entries in their collaborators list.​
A crowdfunder which does well will tend to mean later campaigns also do well, as those backers are notified when new crowdfunders by the same creator are launched.

What Does A Million Dollar Campaign Look Like?
Look at the above campaigns, we can paint a picture of a million dollar TTRPG campaign.
  • 25/45 include minis
  • 41/45 include merchandise (pins, t-shirts, dice trays, etc.)
  • 34/45 include dice
  • Only 2/44 do not include minis, dice, or merch
  • 25/45 are D&D 5E related--but the top 4 are all non-D&D.
  • 17/45 are based on an existing IP (movie, book, older game edition, etc.) other than D&D
  • Only 3/45 are original games (neither 5E nor based on existing IP.)
  • The average pledge level is in the region of $115
  • The average campaign does 26% of its funding in the first day unless there are early bird rewards in which case it can be in the mid-40%s
  • The average campaign has 18.5K backers, with the lowest about 9K backers
Multiple Entries
The following creators have two or more entries in the chart. These 6 creators comprise nearly 50% of the chart with a total of 18 entries.

Creator
Entries​
MCDM Productions / Matt Colville
4​
Hit Point Press
4​
Free League
4​
Dungeon Dudes
3​
Monte Cook Games
3​
Exalted Funeral
2​
Magpie Games
2​
The Arcane Library
2​

Some creators are also listed as contributors to other projects.
  • Loot Tavern (1 entry) is also listed as contributor to DnD Shorts and MonkeyDM.
  • Hit Point Press (4 entries) is also listed as contributor to Loot Tavern and Griffin Macaulay.
  • Ghostfire Gaming (1 entry) is also listed as contributor to Eldermancy and Dungeon Dudes (x3).
 

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Well, according to Alphastream.org, the 5th Edition Player's Handbook has sold 1.56 million copies as of July of last year.
that is not what he says, these are the US Bookscan numbers, they are maybe 1/4 of the actual number. That is what he says…

If each copy was sold for the cover price ($34.99, if I recall correctly), that's $54,584,400 for the PHB alone.

So the Cosmere Kickstarter is at $5,381,000 right now...which means they have achieved almost 1/10th of all 5E PHB sales to date, in a single day.
the cover price is 49.99… $50 * 5M to 6M is 250M to 300M… of course nowhere near all of that goes to WotC
 
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that is not what he says, these are the US Bookscan numbers, they are maybe 1/4 of the actual number. That is what he says…


the cover price is 49.99… $50 * 5M to 6M is 250M to 300M… of course nowhere near all of that goes to WotC
Yeah, I mean, the Cosmere RPG is doing stupendous, but it isn't outselling the decade long run of the 2014 5E PHB in three weeks.
 

Yeah, I mean, the Cosmere RPG is doing stupendous, but it isn't outselling the decade long run of the 2014 5E PHB in three weeks.
no, of course not, was not expecting that, just wanted to correct some numbers ;)

As was mentioned these are also two sets of core books, setting supplement and adventure book, so the comparison is not correct either way. From that perspective number of backers is probably a better metric than $
 


To clarify, this is just made up numbers. I don't want anybody to think mamba is posting actual data.
it's basically what Alphastream arrives at, rounded a bit. There are no available official numbers so this is about as good as it gets. The 'or so' and 'maybe' should make it clear that they are not official ;)
 

It's looking more and more likely that we're going to have a new 1st-place $MTTRPG soon. Even if you adjust for inflation (and you should; $9.5M back in 2021 is about $11M here in 2024) the Cosmere KS is more than halfway there, and still has 18 days left.

Have we ever had a TTRPG join the Million Dollar Club in less than an hour before?
 


It's looking more and more likely that we're going to have a new 1st-place $MTTRPG soon. Even if you adjust for inflation (and you should; $9.5M back in 2021 is about $11M here in 2024) the Cosmere KS is more than halfway there, and still has 18 days left.

Have we ever had a TTRPG join the Million Dollar Club in less than an hour before?
And as an example of the deductions in the OP (value of preexisting IP, attractiveness of swag) this is pretty solid.
 

It's looking more and more likely that we're going to have a new 1st-place $MTTRPG soon. Even if you adjust for inflation (and you should; $9.5M back in 2021 is about $11M here in 2024) the Cosmere KS is more than halfway there, and still has 18 days left.
KS are very heavily frontloaded, but yes it is on track to get first place

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The drop off on the second day was larger than I expected, I’d assumed he’d make maybe 1M more and be well on its way, but even at the current 7M, 17 days to go, 200k/day rate it would get there, and the last days usually see a bump too (not that the rate cannot drop below 200k before that, but the last days should average that out again)

Whether it manages to cross 11M is less certain however, that will probably be a close call
 

KS are very heavily frontloaded, but yes it is on track to get first place

View attachment 376396

The drop off on the second day was larger than I expected, I’d assumed he’d make maybe 1M more and be well on its way, but even at the current 7M, 17 days to go, 200k/day rate it would get there, and the last days usually see a bump too (not that the rate cannot drop below 200k before that, but the last days should average that out again)

Whether it manages to cross 11M is less certain however, that will probably be a close call
~$200k a day seems probable, usually this is around the time that the middle pattern emerges and stays pretty steady until the last couple days.

Some comparisons:

Screenshot_20240812_090918_Chrome.jpg

Screenshot_20240812_090751_Chrome.jpg
 

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