September 2025 TTRPG Crowdfunding Retrospective

 

If you're not already aware, the Kickstarter workers' union is currently on strike but have not called for a boycott of the site. To find out what you can do, please check out the corresponding part of their website.

Now on to the TTRPG stuff (which of course wouldn't be possible without the incredible labor of the workers at all of these sites)! As always, raw data is available.

• 140 campaigns
• 14 Backerkit
• 0 Crowdfundr
• 3 Gamefound
• 123 Kickstarter
• $4,085,057.66 raised
• $1,617,387.33 on Backerkit
• $0.00 on Crowdfundr
• $9,174.10 on Gamefound
• $2,458,495.73 on Kickstarter
• Types of campaigns
• 10 accessories
• 3 Actual Plays
• 41 adventures
• 1 advice
• 4 campaign settings
• 2 fundraising
• 3 reprints
• 42 supplements
• 33 systems
• 1 translation
• 59 distinct systems used (14 original)
• 51 campaigns (36.43%) used D&D 5E and raised $815,352.14 (19.96% of all money raised in September)
• 40 campaigns used AI in some form (28.57% of total) and raised $227,946.95 (5.58% of all money raised in September)
• 25 of these were D&D 5E campaigns, accounting for 49.02% of all 5E crowdfunding campaigns
• Campaigns were based in 16 different countries
• Top 3: 73 in USA, 23 in UK, 8 each in Canada and Italy
• Singleton countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Greece, New Zealand, Portugal

Backerkit's September

The top 5 campaigns on Backerkit in September were:

1. Cypher: Faster. Easier. And Even Better! by Monte Cook Games ($1,025,264 from 5,576 backers)
2. Ways and Means: A Heart Sourcebook by Rowan, Rook and Decard ($295,760.49 from 2,795 backers)
3. Nightfell The Witches' Path by Grim Moon Studio ($99,694.52 from 1,088 backers)
4. Deadlands Classic 20th Anniversary Reprint & AudioBook by World's Largest RPGs ($74,142 from 808 backers)
5. Monster Kingdoms by Onyx Path ($43,991 from 766 backers)

When it's not a peak time of year for Backerkit (basically Zine Month through Pocketopia or February to May this year), the platform really operates on something of a feast or famine model. When the big players in the space (Monte Cook Games and Rowan, Rook and Decard, for example) show up, they tend to run up the numbers both for their own projects and everyone else's, to a lesser extent. You can really see this impact in the median amount of money raised within a month, as that statistic is more resilient to outlier data points than averages are. While this is evidence that a rising tide does indeed lift all ships, it's also not the best thing to have the success of your project be somewhat tied to the mere coincidence of a bigger project funding at the same time. Especially when there is no actual guarantee that this will happen, it's just that more eyes tend to be on the platform and therefore more people have the chance to see your project.

Gamefound's September

The 3 campaigns on Gamefound in September were:

1. Kaliban Uniwersum by Wydawnictwo Hengal ($8,599.09 from 97 backers)
2. Modern RPG Battle Maps for Every Scenario – TTRPGs & VTT by Agnesagraphic ($297.94 from 15 backers)
3. 360 Western Battle Maps For TTRPG and VTT by Agnesagraphic ($277.07 from 14 backers)

Not much to talk about for September, but watch this space: there's a big wave of TTRPG campaigns coming on Gamefound in October.

Kickstarter's September

The top 5 campaigns on Kickstarter in September were:

1. Shadowrun: Anarchy 2.0 by Black Book Editions ($285,844.39 from 2,960 backers)
2. Wares Blade by LionWing Publishing ($237,751 from 2,549 backers)
3. Aetherial Expanse: Dreams of the Drowned God by Ghostfire Gaming ($235,321 from 2,250 backers)
4. Skullduggery: The 5E Urban Fantasy Companion by Beadle & Grimm's Pandemonium Warehouse ($231,236 from 2,127 backers)
5. Another Adventure Double Feature! by Olivier Revenu ($144,254.21 from 1,755 backers)

Shadowrun: Anarchy 2.0 is a fascinating project, if only because it just goes to show that there are cottage industries based around 'fixing' ponderous trad games that aren't D&D. I'm sure that this is not news to many people (clearly this particular project has been around long enough to get a second edition), but it's an insight into a side of the TTRPG field that I simply don't normally get. This effort at least makes more sense with a game like Shadowrun, as the world that the game lays out is considerably more idiosyncratic than the broad make-it-yourself fantasy worlds that D&D typically trades in. That is to say, if you find the world of Shadowrun particularly fascinating and dynamic, I completely understand the impulse to make the game system lighter and easier to run (whereas the same impulse for D&D just makes me feel like you'd probably just have a better time running a different game since many people don't exactly use published D&D settings).

September 2024 vs 2025

• Number of campaigns
• Backerkit: 12 (2024) => 14 (2025)
• Kickstarter: 101 (2024) => 123 (2025)
• Money
• Backerkit: $1,454,136.46 (2024) => $1,617,387.83 (2025)
• Average campaign: $121,178.04 (2024) => $115,527.70 (2025)
• Median campaign: $45,192.50 (2024) => $13,990.60 (2025)
• Kickstarter: $2,296,019.12 (2024) =>  $2,458,495.73 (2025)
• Average campaign: $22,732.86 (2024) => $19,987.77 (2025)
• Median campaign: $3,967.00 (2024) => $4,658.00 (2025)
• AI
• Count: 31 (2024) => 40 (2025)
• Money: $215,538.99 (2024) => $227,946.95 (2025)
• D&D 5E
• Count: 50 (2024) => 51 (2025)
• Money: $1,168,288.21 (2024) => $815,352.14 (2025)

We're seeing something of a return to form for everything except the money raised by D&D 5E projects this month. Probably the most interesting stat to hone in on is the median Kickstarter money raised, which is the highest it's been thus far this year. This speaks to a slight slump in the highest-earning campaigns and a slight bump for the lowest-earning ones, which to me seems like a good thing. We should all be hoping for a higher floor for crowdfunding, as that helps more art get made on the whole. Do I think this speaks to any kind of significant trend? Absolutely not. I would need to see evidence of that over the course of months if not years, and the median Kickstarter money raised by this point last year is actually higher than it is this year. Does that feel particularly worrying? I'd say: not really? Given all the economic fuckery over the past 9 months, I'm actually surprised the 2025 numbers aren't lower. Kickstarter is well on its way to undershoot the TTRPG money it made last year, Backerkit looks like it may fall just beneath its 2024 amount, and both platforms have not yet seen smash hits like they got last year (Cosmere RPG and Draw Steel! nee MCDM RPG, respectively). I have no real conclusion to draw here other than to say: everything appears to be leveling off unless you're already a 'big' company. And if you're not? Well, I hope that a couple thousand US dollars is enough to fund your project.