Video games crowdfunding estimated to bring in $25m in 2017

Figures from Ico Partners have shown that the video games crowdfunding market has dipped by less than two per cent in 2017.

Ico’s chief Thomas Bidaux has said that the firms estimates point to around $25m being raised by video game crowdfunding in 2018 in a piece for PCGamesInsider.biz, with Kickstarter being the primary cash driver. Kickstarter themselves have released figures suggesting $17.25m was raised on the platform in 2017.

However, the amount of games crowdfunding on the platform actually decreased in 2017, with only 350 video games projects funded on the platform, a nine per cent decrease on 2016’s numbers.

"There were only three projects that raised more than $1m, and each project was funded on a different platform: Ashes of Creation found its success on Kickstarter; Pillars of Eternity 2 sought its funding on Fig; and Noob The Video game was the first video game to raise more than $500,000 on Ulule, a platform particularly popular in France," Bidaux wrote in his piece.

"Noob is the largest campaign the platform has ever hosted. While I won’t go as far as to say that platform doesn’t matter – it does – it elegantly highlights that the communities are what matter the most."

"Looking at raw numbers of projects, Kickstarter is still the uncontested leading platform for video games crowdfunding, with 350 video games campaigns being successful there in 2017. That, however, represents a nine per cent drop from 2016, with some of those projects going to other platforms like Fig. There is no growth, then, but there is no collapse either."