February is always such an interesting (or alternately for the purposes of this project: exhausting) month due to the sheer volume of projects that happen despite it being shorter than all other months. This time around is no exception! Here's the raw data, let's dig in.
- 231 campaigns
- 71 Backerkit
- 1 Gamefound
- 159 Kickstarter
- $2,610,858.67 raised
- $666,832.71 on Backerkit
- $22,562.00 on Gamefound
- $1,921,463.96 on Kickstarter
- Types of campaigns
- 14 accessories
- 2 Actual Plays
- 53 adventures
- 7 campaign settings
- 2 fundraising
- 3 LitRPGs
- 1 platform
- 2 reprints
- 67 supplements
- 75 systems
- 1 translation
- 4 zines
- 119 distinct systems used (63 original)
- 64 campaigns (27.71%) used D&D 5E and raised $1,152,107.23 (44.13% of all money raised in February)
- 46 campaigns used AI in some form (19.91% of total) and raised $239,894.59 (9.19% of all money raised in February)
- 28 of these were D&D 5E campaigns, accounting for 43.75% of all 5E crowdfunding campaigns
- Campaigns were based in 21 different countries
- Top 3: 122 in USA, 30 in UK, 17 in Italy
- Singleton countries: Austria, Cyprus, Ireland, Mexico, Portugal, Switzerland
Backerkit's February
- Old-School Adventures & Pinball Crawl Classics! by Goodman Games ($187,677 from 2,063 backers)
- Bloodpunk: Night Before the White Wake - Adventure and VTT by DRS Publishing ($73,215.22 from 543 backers)
- Level Up: A5E Gate Pass Gazette Annual 2025 by EN Publishing ($29,086.04 from 468 backers)
- Triple-O: the player character emulator by Cezar Capacle ($26,234.92 from 1,005 backers)
- DedBoi - an investigative solo TTRPG by Critical Kit Ltd ($24,113.43 from 657 backers)
Gamefound's February
Kickstarter's February
- Eternal Ruins: The Roleplaying Game by Mythworks ($295,166 from 3,208 backers)
- Night Hunters: Gothic Horror for TOV and 5E D&D by Kobold Press ($223,878 from 1,934 backers)
- Dungeon, Inc. by Olivier Revenu ($149,746 from 2,583 backers)
- Tainted Grail TTRPG: Life and Death in Avalon by Jim Searcy ($103,710 from 940 backers)
- REALM: The Soul Searchers Protocol by Jonathan Matteson ($102,420 from 2,583 backers)
February 2024 vs 2025 vs 2026
| 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Campaign count | |||
| Backerkit | 12 | 19 | 71 |
| Kickstarter | 214 | 202 | 159 |
| Money pledged | |||
| Backerkit total | $884,266.93 | $1,194,103.59 | $666,832.71 |
| Backerkit average | $73,688.91 | $62,847.56 | $9,392.01 |
| Backerkit median | $6,662.59 | $7,653.65 | $4,233.00 |
| Kickstarter total | $2,468,976.14 | $2,936,765.97 | $1,921,463.96 |
| Kickstarter average | $11,537.27 | $14,538.45 | $12,084.68 |
| Kickstarter median | $3,768.33 | $3,116.00 | $3,483.00 |
| AI | |||
| Campaign count | 35 | 39 | 46 |
| Money pledged | $236,973.58 | $197,675.97 | $239,894.59 |
| D&D 5E | |||
| Campaign count | 57 | 58 | 64 |
| Money pledged | $592,773.60 | $1,773,005.23 | $1,152,107.23 |
We are gathered here today to honor the memories of ZineQuest/ZineMonth/ZineTopia -- not because they're dead but because they might as well be in many regards. Let me be clear: I am not saying they're bad initiatives or that they shouldn't happen again. But we should all be honest with ourselves that they just don't really mean much anymore from even a marketing perspective.
I've said previously that I don't want to get too hung up on the money raised by crowdfunding projects as the sole, or even primary, metric of success, and that remains true. But I can't ignore that by that metric, this year's zine-themed initiatives have fared considerably worse thus far than those of previous years. ZineTopia, Backerkit's official foray into the zine space, more than tripled the number of successful projects (an unalloyed good!) yet raised the least money in February since 2024. When I talked about ZineTopia and general month fatigue back in October 2025, I was primarily concerned that Backerkit was going to become a gatekeeper obstructing people's participation in their February initiative, which I am glad to say hasn't happened. But the result has highlighted the platform's seeming dependence on high-profile campaigns from established creators. By and large, it seems that larger creators genuinely respected the ZineTopia initiative (or that Backerkit was enforcing its primacy behind the scenes) and yet that initiative was responsible for just over 50% ($343,710.45 by my data, $357,613 by the official page) of Backerkit's February total. The rest? That came mostly from the top 3 campaigns I listed above (all of which began before ZineTopia started). Even Kickstarter saw a dip in February metrics despite the continued presence of successful campaigns from indies like Mythworks and established companies like Kobold Press, suggesting that even the most successful campaigns are suffering from a general malaise. I can't say whether this is due to crowdfunding oversaturation, worsening economies the world over (but especially the US), some secret third thing, or a combination therein (the most likely answer I'd say).
So what are we to do with all this? It's really difficult to say. I really appreciate that ZineMonth is a community-organized initiative that lives outside of a crowdfunding platform, but it just doesn't have much of an ability to break outside of the existing indie TTRPG field. ZineQuest doesn't seem to be giving the same benefits it once did, and ZineTopia is a troubling indicator of future success (or lack thereof) of themed Months for Backerkit. The main hopeful statistic I can see in this is that the median campaign still raises ~$3K-$4K whether it's on Backerkit or Kickstarter (the median across all February campaigns was $3,868.00), and this has been stable for a number of months, if not years. Yes, the February median fell by quite a bit year-over-year for Backerkit, but that's just reflective of more, smaller projects getting on the platform. Crowdfunding campaigns just have to get increasingly realistic: there's no real evidence of a rising tide that's lifting all ships, but there is at least a consistent water level that should hopefully keep you from getting stranded on the rocks.
