We know who's in the million dollar TTRPG club, but who has grossest the most of all the TTRPG crowdfunders? I decided to find out!
The difficulty is separating out boardgame companies who have also made a TTRPG. Boardgames, and indeed miniature creators, are a much bigger market than TTRPGs, so those creators have much higher crowdfunding totals. Monolithic, for example has made nearly $20M on boardgames but has one TTRPG in there too. I have included them, but TTRPG-only companies are in bold for those who want to make the distinction. Others, like Catalyst Game Labs or Renegade Game Studios, do produce RPGs but have only (so far) made boardgames and miniatures games via crowdfunding. Generally below I've tried to look at each and see if it makes the majority of its funding by TTRPGs; if so it's in bold.
Magpie Games looks like it's the leader of the pack when it comes to TTRPG companies (as opposed to boardgame companies who also made one TTRPG), with Monte Cook Games very close behind.
I may have missed some. If so, let me know! Note that this list is Kickstarter only. There are other platforms, and some of these creators appear on more than one of them.
| Position (overall) | Position (mainly TTRPGs) | Creator | TTRPGs Known For | Total Funding |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steamforged Games | Epic Encounters, Bardsung | $31,780,647 USD | |
| 2 | Monolithic Board Games | Batman: Gotham City Chronicles | $19,415,452 USD | |
| 3 | Mantic Games | Hellboy | $11,036,009 USD | |
| 4 | 1 | Magpie Games | Avatar Legends, Root, Urban Shadows | $10,333,950 USD |
| 5 | 2 | Monte Cook Games | Numenera, Cypher | $9,814,569 USD |
| 6 | 3 | Richard Thomas (Onxy Path) | Chronicles of Darkness, Pugmire | $7,497,693 USD |
| 7 | 4 | Hit Point Press | Humblewood, 3PP D&D Books | $7,167,718 USD |
| 8 | 5 | Kobold Press | 3PP D&D Books | $6,671,989 USD |
| 9 | 6 | Free League* | The One Ring, Tales from the Loop | $6,297,644 USD |
| 10 | Dragori Games | Tanares | $6,022,675 USD | |
| 11 | 7 | Matt Colville (MCDM) | Strongholds & Followers | $5,578,267 USD |
| 12 | Greater Than Games | Sentinel Comics: The RPG | $4,798,473 USD | |
| 13 | 8 | Shane Hensley (Pinnacle) | Savage Worlds | $4,500,145 USD |
| 14 | 9 | Fria Ligan (separate to Free League)* | Twilight 2000, Forbidden Lands | $4,193,206 USD |
| 15 | 10 | Exalted Funeral | Monty Python | $4,161,802 USD |
| 16 | 11 | Goodman Games | Dungeon Crawl Classics | $3,615,727 USD |
| 17 | 12 | Ghostfire Gaming | Grim Hollow, Arora | $3,615,442 USD |
| 18 | 13 | Privateer Press | Iron Kingdoms | $3,192,760 USD |
| 19 | Chris Birch (Modiphius) | Star Trek, Dune, Fallout | $2,953,405 USD | |
| 20 | 14 | Jim Searcy (Studio Agate) | Esteren | $2,923,720 USD |
| 21 | 15 | Morrus | Level Up: A5E, WOIN | $2,810,234 USD |
| 22 | 16 | Loot Tavern | Heliana's Guide | $2,729,246 USD |
| 23 | 17 | MonkeyDM | Steinhart's Guide | $2,692,698 USD |
| 24 | 18 | Eldermancy | Seeker's Guide to Twisted Taverns | $2,496,478 USD |
| 25 | 19 | Nord Games | Ultimate Guide to Foraging | $2,317,051 USD |
*No I don't know why Free League has two Kickstarter accounts. Ask them! But combined they'd be at #4 overall and #1 for TTRPGs.
