7 tabletop games are funded on Kickstarter every day, says crowdfunding analyst

An average of seven tabletop projects are successfully funded every day on Kickstarter, according to the latest figures on tabletop crowdfunding from analyst ICO Partners.

According to a new report from ICO’s Thomas Bidaux, tabletop projects raised $80.5 million in the first half of 2019, versus $79.9 million during the same six-month period in 2018.

Tabletop games made $85.5 million in the second half of last year, the biggest six months on Kickstarter for tabletop projects since the site launched – the first half of 2019 is now the second-biggest half-year for the platform to date.

ICO previously reported that during the whole of last year tabletop Kickstarter campaigns made ten times the amount raised by video game projects, hauling in a massive $165 million – equivalent to around 30% of all the money raised on Kickstarter.
 
In 2019 so far, tabletop games have continued to outpace video games on Kickstarter, despite video games seeing their best six months on the website since 2015, raising $10.2 million.

The number of tabletop projects launched on Kickstarter over the last six months actually fell, dipping from 2,016 in the second half of 2018 to 1,926 this year. However, the number of campaigns launched was up versus the start of 2018, which saw 1,676 go live – Bidaux notes that more projects tend to be launched in the second half of the year.

Despite there being fewer projects launched compared to the end of last year, the proportion of tabletop games being successfully funded over the period went up to 69% – the biggest proportion of successful versus unsuccessful tabletop campaigns during any six months on Kickstarter. 1,321 projects raised their funding target, compared to 605 that failed. (1,272 were successful and 744 were not during the second half of 2018.)

Meanwhile, in video games the reverse was true, with more projects failing to hit their crowdfunding target.

Just 28% of the roughly 700 video game campaigns run during 2019 so far have been successfully funded, the highest proportion of successful video game projects since what Bidaux calls “the first surge of video games campaigns on the platform” in early 2012. The number of video games successfully funded over the last six months was the third-highest it’s ever been, following peaks in 2016 and 2013.

The amount of money that tabletop games are making on Kickstarter has gone up across the board, except for massive projects making over half a million dollars, which was the only tier of funding not to raise more money in total versus the end of 2018.

That’s despite more $500,000+ projects than ever before being successfully funded – maybe suggesting that backers are putting money into more projects, rather than splurging on massive blockbusters like 2017’s whopping Kingdom Death: Monster 1.5, which continues to be the highest-funded game of all time with $12.4 million raised. 

The number of tabletop games being funded grew in every tier of funding except the middle-ground of projects raising $10,000 to $50,000, hinting at a bigger number of smaller projects making under $10,000 (which saw the greatest increase) and bigger projects raising between $50,000 and $500,000.

Bidaux commented that the figures indicate a “very strong sign of healthiness” for tabletop games on Kickstarter, with more projects making more money on the whole.

The analyst added his prediction that the second half of 2019 should be “at least as good as the second half of 2018” – meaning we might see yet another record-breaking 12 months for tabletop games on Kickstarter.