Kickstarted Tabletop Games Do Well In 2020 Despite Pandemic

ICO Partners has analyzed Kickstarter's tabletop games category and observed that tabletop games have made more money this year so far than ever before -- however, there are caveats!

While more money has been raised by the category there are two modifying factors:

• There was a steep 24% decline in products launched (3863 in March 2019, down to 2040 in March 2020). April's decline was 34%, and May's 30%.
• Correspondingly, the amount of pledges dropped sharply.
• The boardgame Frosthaven made a third of the total money raised ($13M) in May, making May the biggest ever month for the tabletop games category. It raised 10% of the total for the year so far.

Spring is usually a good time for crowdfunding. It appears that the pandemic has affected Kickstarter, but more from the project launch side -- fewer projects have been launched, resulting in lower overall funding (aside from Frosthaven) but those that did launch did just fine.

 

[dragoner]

Most of the planning for launches, and budgeting for pledges, was done prior to the pandemic, so the real effect won't be seen for some time.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

The only Kickstarters I backed that were affected were the ones that were just about to go to print - a lot were relying on overseas printers that were no longer available due to shutdowns and either had to rush to line new printers up or wait for them to re-open. The ones that had their materials already were fine. And of course, the ones that were just faffing around prior continued to faff around.

 

[whimsychris123]

Could it be that roleplaying games have had an uptick due to the pandemic, similar to streaming services like Netflix? I know I've been spending more due to not having much to do. I've been reading A LOT of gaming stuff, more than I'll ever use.

 

[Morrus]

Could it be that roleplaying games have had an uptick due to the pandemic, similar to streaming services like Netflix?

No, it's that Frosthaven made $13M.

 

[Espadadelaaurora]

Loads of interesting things in Kickstarter, maybe too much. In my case I had to pass on a few campaings to focus on others. Anyway it's good news.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Perhaps stupidly, I kept on backing projects large and small through the pandemic. All of them funded and, with the exception of Empire of the Ghouls' print edition being pushed back a few weeks (the PDF versions were already delivered), everything has been more or less on track.

 

[pnewman]

No, it's that Frosthaven made $13M.

Since 2020 sales were up $37.1 million over H1 2019 and up $23.7 million over H2 2019 there could have been no Frosthaven and sales would still be well up. It looks as if the H1 2020 vs 2019 would still be a higher percentage increase than 2019 vs 2018 or 2018 vs 2017, even without Frosthaven.

 

[EthanSental]

Frosthaven did it without having numerous minis like a CMON kickstarter...nicely done! I’ll stick with my pledge to mythological-figures-and-maleficent-monsters as my only Kickstarter so far this year!

 

[dalisprime]

Frosthaven did it without having numerous minis like a CMON kickstarter...nicely done! I’ll stick with my pledge to mythological-figures-and-maleficent-monsters as my only Kickstarter so far this year!

It was always going to be incredibly successful - gloomhaven stayed in top 10 hotness list pretty much since it first landed. The amount of hype that generated is incredible.