April sees essentially the same amount of money raised as March but with 100+ fewer successful campaigns. To find out why, take a gander at the raw data and let's dive in:
- 152 campaigns
- 21 Backerkit
- 4 Gamefound
- 127 Kickstarter
- $10,391,851.51 raised
- $900,727.16 on Backerkit
- $270,258.78 on Gamefound
- $9,220,865.57 on Kickstarter
- Types of campaigns
- 16 accessories
- 2 Actual Plays
- 36 adventures
- 1 advice
- 13 campaign settings
- 1 fundraising
- 1 platform
- 1 podcast
- 42 supplements
- 35 systems
- 2 translations
- 2 zines
- 56 distinct systems used (16 original)
- 60 campaigns (39.47%) used D&D 5E and raised $5,878,186.03 (56.57% of all money raised in April)
- 41 campaigns used AI in some form (26.98% of total) and raised $196,777.28 (1.89% of all money raised in April)
- 30 of these were D&D 5E campaigns, accounting for 50% of all 5E crowdfunding campaigns
- Campaigns were based in 20 different countries
- Top 3: 67 in USA, 26 in UK, 12 in Italy
- Singleton countries: Japan, Latvia, Spain, Turkey
Backerkit's April
The top 5 campaigns on Backerkit in April were:
- Druskara: A Brutal Fantasy World Setting for Shadowdark RPG by Dungeon Damsel Publishing ($281,337.00 from 1,291 backers)
- ION Heart Multiplayer - A Lo-Fi Mech TTRPG by Parable Games ($175,289.77 from 1,049 backers)
- VHS: Very Horror Stories - Rule of Three by Aces Games ($107,867.08 from 476 backers)
- Imaria: Beyond the Veil by Lynnvander Studios ($66,678.00 from 444 backers)
- Inkvein - A MÖRK BORG Megadungeon by Space Penguin Ink LLC ($48,306.00 from 838 backers)
| Month | % US creators |
|---|---|
| Zinetopia 2026 | 58.33% |
| Orbital Blues Month | 83.33% |
| Megadungeon Month | 88.46% |
| Old-School Essentials Month | 88.24% |
| Pocketopia 2026 | 42.11% |
| Overall Backerkit (2026) | 66.23% |
Gamefound's April
- Mythic Battles: The Roleplaying Games by Monolith Board Games ($134,040.38 from 697 backers)
- Archmage's Gate: A Solo RPG Adventure Gamebook by Archmage Arispen ($92,967.60 from 848 backers)
- Fabula Ultima - Bestiarium & Deluxe-Edition by Ulisses Spiele ($42,836.81 from 217 backers)
- Epic Fantasy Battle Maps: 1400 Rpg Maps + 3200 Portraits by Agnesagraphic ($413.99 from 14 backers)
Gamefound is a really strange place for TTRPG projects. The most consistent projects I've seen there over the past 6 months or so are German translations of popular games and AI-driven projects (either map packs or solo games usually). Last year's RPG Party was a very mixed success, with 16 of 22 projects successfully funding. Rascal News talked to Cam Bradley. Gamefound's business manager, about what this year's RPG Party will look like, and it seems that the company is focused on two main things: projects with a physical component (a requirement) and serving as an incubator for up-and-coming talent. I have my doubts about how effective this will be overall (rooted primarily in the volatile costs of producing physical components nowadays and Bradley's shifting of blame for the failed projects from Gamefound onto the creators who displayed "an unwillingness or inability to network"), but it makes sense for them to try to carve out this niche. Kickstarter is where most people go to fund their projects, while Backerkit is leaning ever more heavily on their themed Months and the bundled shipping they are starting to provide for projects associated with said Months, so if Gamefound wants to be a serious alternative they need to find something they're particularly good at. Only time will tell if this will work.
Kickstarter's April
- Heliana & Ryoko's Guide to Mythozoology by DnD Shorts ($4,360,638.00 from 18,220 backers)
- When Society Collapsed: Dam Nation - A Tabletop RPG by Luke Humphris ($817,977.00 from 5,587 backers)
- Public Access Analog Horror Mystery TTRPG by The Gauntlet Gaming Community ($564,982.00 from 7,189 backers)
- Fomoria - Epic Folk Horror Roleplaying by Johan Nohr ($314,299.83 from 3,191 backers)
- Godzilla: The Roleplaying Game by IDW Games ($251,676.00 from 2,428 backers)
The overwhelming lesson from this April on Kickstarter is that it literally pays to have an audience/community. This is certainly not news to anyone, but just look at the top 5 from this month: DnD Shorts and Luke Humphris both have 550K+ YouTube channels, The Gauntlet is a thriving design community that also facilitates play of its own games, Johan Nohr is an indie TTRPG legend (and Tania Herrero, the other designer, is a well-known and award-winning designer herself), and Godzilla is...Godzilla.
In fact, it's notable that the hugely successful, decades-spanning IP tie-in game barely cracked the top 5. You can probably attribute that to the difficulty of turning the general Godzilla fan onto this specific TTRPG adaptation, as opposed to the other 4 projects on here, whose audiences are all specifically based in TTRPGs.
Does this mean that there is no benefit to Kickstarter as a platform? Absolutely not, you still benefit immensely from discoverability, but you can't rely on it. Don't be dependent on the platform - make them dependent on your ability to bring people in who otherwise might not come around.
April 2024 vs 2025 vs 2026
| 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Campaign count | |||
| Backerkit | 8 | 51 | 21 |
| Kickstarter | 137 | 150 | 127 |
| Money pledged | |||
| Backerkit total | $845,617.27 | $2,180,147.02 | $900,727.16 |
| Backerkit average | $105,702.16 | $42,747.98 | $42,891.77 |
| Backerkit median | $66,034.46 | $7,565.50 | $10,209.76 |
| Kickstarter total | $5,683,707.15 | $7,745,262.30 | $9,220,865.57 |
| Kickstarter average | $41,486.91 | $51,635.08 | $72,605.24 |
| Kickstarter median | $5,094.00 | $3,841.24 | $4,716.00 |
| AI | |||
| Campaign count | 33 | 49 | 41 |
| Money pledged | $310,089.95 | $213,130.42 | $196,777.28 |
| D&D 5E | |||
| Campaign count | 70 | 82 | 60 |
| Money pledged | $2,486,126.48 | $2,136,602.54 | $5,878,186.03 |
- April 2024 had 1 big Kickstarter campaign: Monsters of Drakkenheim - 5E Monsters with Lore Lairs & Loot by Dungeon Dudes, raising $1,065,710.00 from 8,078 backers
- April 2025 had 2 big Kickstarter campaigns:
- ALIEN RPG - Evolved Edition and Rapture Protocol by Free League, raising $2,407,782.82 from 11,741 backers
- Shadowdark RPG: The Western Reaches Setting by The Arcane Library, raising $2,405,108.00 from 12,923 backers
- April 2026 had 1 big Kickstarter campaign: Heliana & Ryoko's Guide to Mythozoology by DnD Shorts, raising $4,360,638.00 from 18,220 backers
- April 2024: $4,617,997.15
- April 2025: $2,932,371.48
- April 2026: $4,860,227.57
