Skip to main content

Kickstarter just had its biggest year ever

Kickstarter just had its biggest year ever

/

More than half a billion dollars pledged from 3.3 million people

Share this story

2014 was a big year for Kickstarter: a total of $529 million was pledged to projects on the crowdfunding site last year. That money came in from 3.3 million people, 2.2 million of whom were brand new backers, and 773,000 of whom backed multiple projects. It's a slight jump from the company's previous best year, 2013, when the site brought in $480 million in pledges from 3 million backers.

"We are extreme optimists on the future of creativity."

It wasn't just a record-breaking year for Kickstarter overall, but also for several individual projects. Last year saw a Reading Rainbow revival break the record for most backers with over 100,000, while a crazy new cooler took in more money than any other project before. A total of 22,252 projects were funded in 2014, with the majority — nearly 8,000 of them — covering the worlds of film, video, and music. But when it comes to cash, tech projects continue to rake in the most, and by a substantial margin: technology-related Kickstarters took in $125 million last year, with design and games-related projects sitting at $96.7 million and $89.1 million, respectively.

"We are extreme optimists on the future of creativity," says Kickstarter CEO Yancey Strickler. "More opportunity brings challenges — competition for attention chief among them — but circumstances are far better for creators and fans than what existed before: a world where creativity was limited by access, geography, and the conservatism of big entertainment corporations."