Brandon Sanderson ends 2024 at the top of Kickstarter’s most-funded list

Published:2025-02-05T17:23 / Source:https://www.polygon.com/analysis/519488/top-10-kickstarter-campaigns-2024

Kickstarter, the Brooklyn-based leader in crowdfunding for tabletop games, had a big year in 2024. Not only did it staunch the post-pandemic flow of backer dollars from what has been traditionally its single largest revenue category, it also set some records — including the most-funded tabletop game of all time.

These are the biggest campaigns of the year, in order, as shared with Polygon by Kickstarter.

NameCreatorInitial funds raisedBackers
Cosmere Roleplaying GameBrotherwise Games$15.1 million55,106
Altered TCGEquinox$6.7 million14,997
Trench CrusadeFactory Fortress$3.3 million20,170
Twisted CryptidsRamy Badie$3.1 million33,210
Discworld RPG: Adventures in Ankh-MorporkModiphius$3.0 million17,223
Root: The Homeland ExpansionPatrick Leder$2.4 million27,549
DC20The Dungeon Coach$2.2 million20,684
Terraria: The Board GamePaper Fort Games$2 million15,237
Return to the 7th CitadelSerious Poulp$1.7 million15,137
Thunder Road: Vendetta – Carnival of ChaosRestoration Games$1.6 million13,460

Topping the chart is Brandon Sanderson and Brotherwise Games’ campaign for the Cosmere Roleplaying Game, which celebrates not one but two of the author’s most popular fiction series. The project easily beat out the previous tabletop leader, Frosthaven from Isaac Childres’ Cephalofair Games. It also landed in the top three Kickstarter campaigns of all time, alongside — who else? — Brandon Sanderson, with the $41.7 million campaign for four secret novels that went viral several years ago.

Coming in second place last year is the campaign for Altered TCG, a novel trading card game from the French start-up Equinox. The game features QR codes on all of its collectible cards, including one-of-one uniques, and even allows players to play virtually with their own collections online. Its digital marketplace and print-on-demand features were expected in January, but have yet to enter beta. Meanwhile, you can find the game at local retailers here in the United States.

In third place is yet another record-setting campaign in Trench Crusade, the most-funded miniatures skirmish game ever launched on the crowdfunding platform. You can check out a preview of its wild concept art and an interview with its creators in our exclusive feature story. Other top titles include a new TTRPG celebrating the work of Terry Pratchett, a game inspired by hit video game Terrarria, and Thunder Road: Vendetta – Carnival of Chaos from Restoration Games.

February marks the beginning of Zine Quest, traditionally a time of innovation for TTRPG creators who will launch dozens of projects this month. While the larger campaigns on this list have been extremely successful, that’s not always the case for smaller creators. Digging into Kickstarter’s own data, if you subtract these 10 campaigns from the total amount pledged to new tabletop projects on the platform this year you end up with an average per-campaign haul of just $33,729 — less than half the $67,350 average earned across all successful tabletop campaigns in 2019.

Source:https://www.polygon.com/analysis/519488/top-10-kickstarter-campaigns-2024

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