February TTRPG Crowdfunding Retrospective

 

Zine Month/Quest are receding into the rearview, though there are still plenty of crowdfunding campaigns still wrapping up that are part of those events. So let's see how they impacted February's numbers, shall we? As always, check out the raw data here.

• 223 campaigns
• 19 Backerkit
• 2 Crowdfundr
• 202 Kickstarter
• $4,132,821.22 raised
• $1,194,103.59 on Backerkit
• $1,951.66 on Crowdfundr
• $2,936,765.97 on Kickstarter
• Types of campaigns
• 9 accessories
• 55 adventures
• 1 advice
• 1 app
• 2 audiobooks
• 6 campaign settings
• 1 fundraising
• 63 supplements
• 84 systems
• 1 zine
• 110 distinct systems used (59 original)
• 58 campaigns (26.01%) used D&D 5E and raised $1,773,005.23 (42.90% of all money raised in February)
• 39 campaigns used AI in some form (17.49% of total) and raised $197,675.97 (4.78% of all money raised in February)
• 28 of these were D&D 5E campaigns, accounting for 48.28% of all 5E crowdfunding campaigns

And for something new: country statistics!

• Campaigns were based in 21 different countries in February
• Top 3: 111 in USA, 34 in UK, 12 in Australia and Canada
• Singleton countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Japan, Switzerland, Vietnam

Backerkit's February

The top 5 campaigns on Backerkit in February were:

1. Legend of Kain Official Encyclopedia and Tabletop Role-Playing Game by Lost In Cult ($752,960.51 from 4,853 backers)
2. Terror from the Underdeep: A Giant Box of 5E Adventure by Goodman Games ($255,047 from 1,626 backers)
3. Level Up: A5E Gate Pass Gazette Annual 2024 by EN Publishing ($39,932.77 from 641 backers)
4. Broadsword Guide to Hunting Werebeasts by DMDave Publishing ($30,303 from 396 backers)
5. Starships & Soldiers - A Mothership Sci-Fi RPG Toolkit by Hammer City Games ($20,532.06 from 695 backers)

February is an odd month for Backerkit's top campaigns in that they're a little heavier on the D&D 5E offerings than usual. My working theory is that when there is a flood of weird shit (or at least unfamiliar shit, as evidenced by the 59 original systems funded this month), the average crowdfunding backer tends to coalesce around the things they do recognize. For Backerkit, that's a couple of 5E campaigns, a MÖRK BORG-based game for an existing IP (Legend of Kain), and a Mothership supplement (which I believe was originally intended to be part of Mothership month last November).

Crowdfundr's February

I genuinely almost forgot to put in these data since there are campaigns on Crowdfundr so infrequently. In February there were 2:

1. Rol de Guerrilla Vol.1 - Media Docena de Rol by ¡Rol o Barbarie! ($1,337.66 from 132 backers)
2. Secrets in the Static: Lynchian Horror TTRPG by Thought Punks ($614 from 34 backers)

Kickstarter's February

The top 5 campaigns on Kickstarter in February were:

1. A Time Traveler's Guide to Dinosaur Hunting by Darryl Jones ($449,998 from 3,247 backers)
2. KULT: Divinity Lost - Dark Realms and Other Horrors by Helmgast ($394,922 from 2,164 backers)
3. Monster Vault 2: Deadly Creatures for 5E D&D and TOV by Kobold Press ($261,864 from 3,749 backers)
4. The Oracle RPG App - Less Prep. More Play. by Nord Games ($257,090 from 1,222 backers)
5. Glumdark by Exalted Funeral ($149,439 from 2,719 backers)

Kickstarter's February is very similar to Backerkit's: top campaigns are dominated by recognizable systems (5E) and/or people (Kobold Press, Exalted Funeral).

February 2024 vs 2025

So how does February compare between this year and last year? If you'll recall from last month, Kickstarter money was way down and Backerkit's technically was too (but only if you include the MCDM RPG, which is practically the definition of an outlier). Well this time around we're seeing more of a return to form:

• Number of campaigns
• Backerkit: 12 (2024) - 19 (2025)
• Kickstarter: 214 (2024) - 202 (2025)
• Money
• Backerkit: $884,266.93 (2024) - $1,194,103.59 (2025)
• Kickstarter: $2,468,976.14 (2024) - $2,936,765.97 (2025)
• AI
• Count: 35 (2024) - 39 (2025)
• Money: $236,973.58 (2024) - $197,675.97 (2025)
• D&D 5E
• Count: 57 (2024) - 58 (2025)
• Money: $592,773.60 (2024) - $1,773,005.23 (2025)

These data actually poke some significant holes in my "people like familiar things" narrative given that money raised by D&D 5E campaigns more than doubles from year to year. If my half-baked idea were accurate, we wouldn't necessarily expect to see such a jump since the conditions are more or less the same between the two years (in terms of number of campaigns and unfamiliar systems).

Some of this is explained by an increase in 5E campaigns on Backerkit (2 campaigns raising $2,535 in 2024 vs 5 campaigns raising $333,080.42 in 2025), but something similar can be seen on Kickstarter (55 campaigns raising $590,238.60 in 2024 vs 53 campaigns raising $1,439,924.81 in 2025).

To wildly speculate about a different dynamic that could be at play here, I wonder if economic uncertainty and a generally pessimistic feeling about the economy (at least here in the US) could drive people to familiar, comfortable pastimes as well. D&D 5E as a familiar touchstone could give people faith in a fairly high floor of enjoyment and therefore a solid return on 'investment' so to speak, whereas original or unfamiliar systems present more of an unknown to the average TTRPG enjoyer and therefore a riskier place to spend their money.

Keep in mind that this is the most armchair of psychology, and proving this would take a hobby-wide level of surveying that would likely produce inconclusive results given that people are generally bad at self-reporting data on themselves.

Me rn

Lord knows I wouldn't be able to give particularly consistent reasons why I back the campaigns I do, even when I think ones I don't back sound interesting too.

Well that's it for February! See you back here in a month to break down the remaining Zine Month/Quest campaigns (and then some).