Score +2 For Million Dollar Crowdfunders!

This time last week, The Arcane Library's The Western Reaches for Shadowdark looked set to be the only game in town--so far--for TTRPG million-dollar crowdfunders this year. And it's still projected to break the top six of all time in the Million Dollar TTRPG Crowdfunder Club, which currently stands at 42 members.

However, two other crowdfunders rallied in their closing days, both squeaking in just past the million dollar mark! While it had always looked close, most people felt these two campaigns would just fall short of that magical--albeit arbitrary--number. However, The Magnus Archives RPG: Tangled in the Web from Monte Cook Games closed at $1015,475; and Fallen London: The Roleplaying Game from Magpie Games crossed the line with $1,028,103.

This means that the total number of million dollar TTRPG crowdfunders this year went from 0 to 3 in the space of a week! You can see the full list here.

It's noteable that none of these three are D&D 5E projects but this is easily ascribed to the fact that a new edition of D&D has just come out, making 5E crowdfunding creators and backers cautious all throughout 2024 and into 2025. Additionally, from the creator front, there is no official SRD (System Reference Document) available yet for the new edition of D&D, which is the rules document which D&D owner Wizards of the Coast puts out under the Open Game License--or, more recently, Creative Commons--as a developer tool for third parties. While this does not stop publishers making 2024 D&D-compatible products using the older SRDs (after all, WotC has gone to great lengths to point out that this is the same game, and not technically a new edition) it may have caused some to hold tight and wait for 'official' word.

Anyhow, after a quiet start, it looks like the million-dollar TTRPG crowdfunders are back again this year! 2024 saw 8 such projects, so it remains to be seen if 2025 will beat that!

 

[Mistwell]

Super cool to see these creators achieve such a milestone.

 

[Reynard]

That is a huge spike in 2021! The market for crowdfunded TTRPGs really hit its stride in the year following the pandemic,

I don't know where you lived, but boy howdy did the pandemic not feel over by 2021 in New England.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I feel it might be likely that this number might diminish.

Whatever your political position is, I think we can all agree that there's a lot of uncertainty in the hair and international trade is going to be affected. This is going to increase prices, might lead to inflation in certain countries. People might have less money to spend and products might be pricier to make.

Coming from video games, the average pledge numbers on TTRPG are absolutely baffling. I often see average pledges of more than 150$ USD. This is very high. I feel like more people might either take PDF options, less books, or just pledge as much on fewer projects.

PDF prices have risen too. Lots of PDFs seem to be in the $30-50 USD range.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

That is a huge spike in 2021! The market for crowdfunded TTRPGs really hit its stride in the year following the pandemic, and it really hasn't gone back down to pre-pandemic figures. There have been 43 $1MRPGs since 2016, and 89% of them have been funded in the last 4 years.

Maybe one of these days I'll get enough spare time to go through this list and list out the ones that have VTT support. I'm curious if that was a factor (I doubt it, but why make guesses when we have DATA.)

I guess inflation could be a factor, too. According to the Internet, $1.00 in 2016 is about $1.32 in 2025...so adjusting the playing field for inflation, TTRPGs today would need to reach $1.32M to qualify. (Another way to look at it: the bar for entry in 2016 would have been $758K, not $1M.)

And check out BackerKit! It went from being a fairly unknown crowdfunding platform, to one of the highest-performing, in just 20 months. Four of these $1MRPGs have been funded on BackerKit, including the #3 and #4 highest funded TTRPGs of all time.

Anyway. I love statistics, and I love TTRPGs, so thanks for letting me blather on and on about both.

Backerkit seems to be a place for established creators and IP to use (presumably because the lower traffic of Backerkit is offset by the fact that they have an established base that will find them anyway. I can only assume Backerkit has a smaller cut of the proceeds.

 

[CleverNickName]

I don't know where you lived, but boy howdy did the pandemic not feel over by 2021 in New England.

That's a good point. I revised my post to clarify what I meant.

 

[FoolishFrost]

I have to wonder about the stupendiums music having something to do with the push on this product… they did a mini musical based on the setting.

 

[FoolishFrost]

And the woman in question looks more like the actress from Orville who played the doctor. Clare Finn.

Might just be me, though.

 

[dbolack]

That is a huge spike in 2021! The market for crowdfunded TTRPGs really hit its stride in the year after the pandemic lockdowns began, and it really hasn't gone back down to pre

I'm curious if this is primarily the same folks getting higher number or if the tide is raising all boats...

 

[Cergorach]

$1 million was a LOT more money in 2016 then it's now. Inflation caused it to be worth around 25% less. So two of those $1+ million campaigns this year would never have hit the million mark in 2016. Such US focused KS also have 70%+ of their backers from the US, even when something is English, but specifically focused on another country (like the UK) it's still 50%+ US backers...

Also check when the US got their stimulus checks. Keeping in mind that at the start of the 2020 pandemic people were hording TP... While a year later people were figuring out how not to get bored to death at home... When people had an income, they were almost a year into not spending it on vacations, going out, etc. So a large percentage of people suddenly had WAY more money then things to spend it on...

 

[Potocki]

I feel it might be likely that this number might diminish.

Whatever your political position is, I think we can all agree that there's a lot of uncertainty in the hair and international trade is going to be affected. This is going to increase prices, might lead to inflation in certain countries. People might have less money to spend and products might be pricier to make.

Coming from video games, the average pledge numbers on TTRPG are absolutely baffling. I often see average pledges of more than 150$ USD. This is very high. I feel like more people might either take PDF options, less books, or just pledge as much on fewer projects.

Agreed, although I'm not as baffled by the numbers when compared to videogames for a few reasons:

1. Average age of audience is (likely) significantly higher for TT games than videogames, which means more disposable income.
2. Lower turnaround time for (most) TT crowdfunding campaigns, since most of them are just trying to recoup the relatively small development costs of the game, pay for art/other finishing touches, and pay for printing fees before delivery. Videogame campaigns, on the other hand, are usually trying to gather operational funds before committing major time to development, which can take years.
3. It's (relatively) easy to demonstrate to potential funders what a TT game will play like in its final incarnation. You can share prototype rulesets, record demo games, and show off key art, miniature sculpts, etc. A videogame campaign might have a short trailer ready to show off, but most don't have proper gameplay to show off, and even if they do, it's hard to gauge whether you'll enjoy a videogame just based on watching someone else play it.
4. Finally, there's simply more worthwhile stuff to pay for in a TT campaign. The stretch goals usually involve entire expansions to the base game, extra miniatures, organizational tools, etc., that expand and enhance the game significantly. Videogame campaigns can promise, realistically, some extra content and some physical or digital freebies like soundtracks or swag.