January 2026 TTRPG Crowdfunding Retrospective

2026 is off to kind of a strange start, in ways both good and bad. Good: solid funding numbers, solid numbers of campaigns. Bad: AI slop, removing Crowdfundr from examination (it hasn't had an actual campaign in months). Check out the raw data if you want, and let's dive in.

• 90 campaigns
• 10 Backerkit
• 1 Gamefound
• 79 Kickstarter
• $4,019,799.97 raised
• $2,956,743.28 on Backerkit
• $28,448.46 on Gamefound
• $1,034,608.23 on Kickstarter
• Types of campaigns
• 15 accessories
• 22 adventures
• 1 audiobook
• 1 campaign setting
• 2 reprints
• 33 supplements
• 14 systems
• 1 translation
• 1 zine
• 26 distinct systems used (8 original)
• 38 campaigns (42.22%) used D&D 5E and raised $657,446.68 (16.36% of all money raised in January)
• 41 campaigns used AI in some form (45.56% of total) and raised $225,000.64 (5.60% of all money raised in January)
• 23 of these were D&D 5E campaigns, accounting for 60.53% of all 5E crowdfunding campaigns
• Campaigns were based in 13 different countries
• Top 3: 42 in USA, 19 in UK, 5 in each of Canada, Italy, and the Netherlands
• Singleton countries: Denmark, France, Norway, Spain, Vietnam

Backerkit's January

The top 5 campaigns on Backerkit in January were:

1. Draw Steel: Crack the Sun by MCDM Productions ($2,617,323 from 9,590 backers)
2. Toon the Cartoon Roleplaying Game Second Edition by Steve Jackson Games ($142,690 from 3,181 backers)
3. Ultimate Toolbox by World's Largest RPGs ($90,475 from 837 backers)
4. Somnus Domina 2025 : Three 5th Edition Splash Books by Nat19 ($55,163.69 from 520 backers)
5. Crush Your Game Nights! AtR goes VTT on Roll20 by Rusted Portal Games ($20,867 from 14 backers)

Gamefound's January

There was only 1 campaign on Gamefound in January: Cthulhu 2050: Whispers Beyond The Stars by OtherWorlds ($28,448.46 from 653 backers)

Kickstarter's January

The top 5 campaigns on Kickstarter in January were:

1. The Thundercats Roleplaying Game is Here! by Dynamite Toys & Games ($307,397 from 2,517 backers)
2. The Wyrmwood Modular Gaming Table: NOW ADJUSTABLE⬆🤯⬇ by Wyrmwood Gaming ($162,066 from 803 backers)
3. 2D6 Void - A Classic Sci-fi Dungeon Crawler - Solo Play by Toby Lancaster ($91,687.10 from 1,241 backers)
4. Enchanted Trinkets Complete: 500+ Magic Items for D&D 5E by Morrus ($38,470.85 from 729 backers)
5. Arathi Sector by Castle Grief ($35,882 from 683 backers)

January 2024 vs 2025 vs 2026

	2024	2025	2026
Campaign count
Backerkit	4	6	10
Kickstarter	71	62	79
Money pledged
Backerkit total	$4,608,855.66	$199,232.66	$2,956,743.28
Backerkit average	$1,152,213.92	$33,205.44	$295,674.33
Backerkit median	$3,777.61	$3,231.00	$18,863.55
Kickstarter total	$801,189.61	$354,795.72	$1,034,608.23
Kickstarter average	$11,284.36	$5,722.51	$13,096.31
Kickstarter median	$4,045.68	$3,294.00	$3,438.50
AI
Campaign count	19	28	41
Money pledged	$113,268.66	$130,553.04	$225,000.64
D&D 5E
Campaign count	32	37	38
Money pledged	$367,344.91	$176,170.54	$657,446.68

January 2026 was an unexpectedly strong showing for both Backerkit and Kickstarter compared to the frankly abysmal numbers from January 2025. Backerkit's success was primarily (but not entirely) fueled by another strong showing from the MCDM team with their first major follow-up to Draw Steel, as the other 9 January 2026 Backerkit campaigns collectively raised more than last year's total ($339,420.28 sans MCDM's campaign).

Kickstarter also saw their strongest January in years, topping even 2024 in both money raised and number of successful campaigns. Unfortunately, January 2026 was the first time when campaigns using AI accounted for more than 50% of the successful TTRPG campaigns on the platform. 41 projects using AI isn't anywhere near a high water mark within a given month, but  51.9% of successful projects is the highest I've seen so far. Money-wise, AI campaigns also raised more than the past 2 years in raw amount, but only accounted for 21.75% of Kickstarter money raised.

This made me think: does anything in particular explain/predict how successful AI campaigns will be on the whole? I looked at a couple of different predictor variables (number of AI campaigns, number of non-AI campaigns, number of total campaigns, total money raised) and largely came up blank. There's no evidence to suggest, for example, that a rising tide (overall money raised) lifts all ships equally. But if you look at the relationship between the percentage of AI campaigns and the percentage of money raised by AI campaigns, something emerges.

Slight positive relationship between % of AI Kickstarter campaigns and % of AI Kickstarter money raised
(y = 0.5436x - 0.0686, R² = 0.3507)

Yes, you're seeing that right: there is a very weak association that AI does better when it occupies more of the market on Kickstarter. This equation explains very little of the variance (only ~35% in fact), but it agrees with what feels true to me: the slop produced by AI can only really compete with real creativity if it is collectively flooding the zone with shit. When everything looks too smooth and shiny, it's easier to ignore it and just accept it as the norm.

Now I'm the first to admit that this is not a strong result. Any statistician will tell you that this R² is, in fact, dogshit and that you can't draw meaningful conclusions from it. Based on these data, AI is far more likely to underperform than anything else, given that ~2/3 of the data points fall beneath the trendline. If there is any particular silver lining to be taken from all this, it's that the presence of AI campaigns seems to overall be independent of the money going to real artists. I have yet to find evidence that it's a zero-sum game, so I wouldn't stress too much over whether there's a bunch of AI campaigns already in the field or not.