UK Crowdfunding

2021

Globally, $23,323,927 was raised across 408 successful video game campaigns, representing a better performance in terms of both money raised and projects funded than the previous four years. Six projects raised more than $500k in 2020, with those games raising more funds in 2020 than $500k+ projects raised in any single year 0f 2016-2019. (ICO Partners, Jan 2021)
Three successful UK video game projects raised over £100k on Kickstarter in 2020. They were:
- The Last Faith by Kumi Souls Games (£210,075)
- Billie Bust Up by Blueprint Games (£146,270)
- Deathground by Jaw Drop Games (£118,097)

UK Video Games Projects Kickstarter Revenue. (ICO Partners, Mar 2020)

UK games projects on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter raised £3.16m in pledges in 2019, a 105% increase on 2018 revenues (£1.54m), reversing the steady decline of the previous four years. Of those projects, £2.9m (91%) was pledged to successful projects. (ICO Partners, Mar 2020)
- 159 UK video game projects received at least one pledge, an 8.5% decline on the previous year and a continuation of the trend since the peak of 379 projects in 2014.
- Of those 159 game projects, 42 campaigns (29%) reached their funding target.
- Of the 42 funded projects, 24 met funding targets of less than $10k and a further 12 met targets of between $10k and $50k. 5 funded projects acheived minimum targets of between $50k and $100k and one project was successfully funded to more than $500k. Please note that this final project is an adult game not elsewhere classified as a part of the UK games industry by Ukie. As such, it is absent from the table below and from Ukie's other industry analyses. (ICO Partners, Mar 2020)

Globally, $20m was pledged across 330 crowdfunded video games in 2016. (GI.biz & ICO Partners, December 2016)

Looking at UK Kickstarter video games projects, between Sep 2011 and Jan 2015, 119 (18% of total) projects were successful in reaching funding target, raising £5.5m in total. (Nesta Feb 2015)

The top 25% of projects raised 91% of the funds, similar to other creative markets usually dominated by a few blockbusters followed by projects with smaller budgets. (Nesta, Feb 2015)

Project	Developer	Date Funded	Total Funds Raised / £	Number of Backers
Yooka-Laylee	Playtonic	17 Jun 2015	2,090,104	73,206
Elite: Dangerous	Frontier Developments	05 Jan 2013	1,578,316	25,681
Godus	22cans	21 Dec 2012	526,563	17,184
Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse	Revolution Software	22 Sep 2012	474,818	14,032
Carmageddon: Reincarnation	Stainless Games	07 Jun 2012	404,739	15,736
Sunless Skies	Failbetter Games	03 Mar 2017	377,952	11,739
Battalion 1944	Bulkhead Interactive	03 Mar 2016	317,281	10,096
War for the Overworld	Brightrock Games	03 Jan 2013	211,371	8,351
The Last Faith	Kumi Souls Games	19 Jun 2020	210,075	4,053
Xenonauts 2	Goldhawk Interactive	20 Jul 2018	191,107	6,827
Lightseekers	PlayFusion	04 Nov 2016	183,850	1,635
Sui Generis	Bare Mettle Entertainment	30 Nov 2012	160,055	6,931
Billie Bust Up	Blueprint Games	05 Dec 2020	146,270	2,531
Maia	Machine Studios	28 Nov 2012	140,481	8,115
Knights and Bikes	Foam Sword	03 Mar 2016	126,447	4,796
Deathground	Jaw Drop Games	15 Aug 2020	118,097	3,650
Strike Suit Zero	Born Ready Games	17 Nov 2012	110,170	4,484
Survive the Nights	A2Z Interactive	10 Aug 2014	108,398	6,262
Witchmarsh	Inglenook Games	15 Jun 2014	102,430	5,420
Sunless Sea	Failbetter Games	03 Oct 2013	100,803	4,271

Figures in italics have been converted from US dollars