Kickstarter is an online global crowdfunding platform headquartered in New York, New York that has quickly become one of the world’s most popular and fastest growing websites. The company’s stated mission is to help bring creative projects to life. Artists, inventors, and creators use Kickstarter to choose a deadline and minimum funding goal and go directly to their audience to fund their work, while backers of Kickstarter projects are offered tangible rewards and special experiences in exchange for their pledges. Launched in 2009 by Perry Chen, Yancey Strickler (pictured above), and Charles Adler, Kickstarter has since opened to projects based in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Norway. Over the company’s five-year history, over $1.3 billion has been donated to Kickstarter projects while over 70,000 projects have successfully met their goal. Here are five Kickstarter numbers from 2014 that will jump out at you.
5. 148 Kickstarter-Funded Games
148 Kickstarter-funded games are now available to play on Kickstarter’s Play Now page. Unveiled in June of this year, Play Now is a collection of Kickstarter-funded games available to play on Steam, an Internet-based digital distribution, rights management, multiplayer, and social networking platform developed by Valve Corporation. Games like Wasteland 2 and The Banner Saga have received tens of thousands of backers.
4. 1,073 Kickstarter-Funded Films
This year’s fourth annual Kickstarter Film Fest received 1,073 Kickstarter-funded submissions. Celebrating features, shorts, documentaries, animations, and other video art made by Kickstarter creators, the Kickstarter Film Fest has taken place in Brooklyn, New York (July 18) and Los Angeles, California (September 12) and plans for a London, England event later this year. Featured selections include Obvious Child, Rich Hill, and Kung Fury.
3. 3 Kickstarter Comics
Out of the many Kickstarter-funded comics released this year, three Kickstarter comics were nominated for the prestigious Eisner Award. The Eisner Awards–named after Will Eisner, a writer and artist that pioneered artist rights–are seen as the Academy Awards for comic books. The three Kickstarter comics nominated this year were Failing Sky, the Thrilling Adventure Hour anthology, and Watson and Holmes–which was nominated twice.
2. 105,857 Reading Rainbow Backers
105,857 people backed the Reading Rainbow Kickstarter project this year, which currently holds the record for the Kickstarter project with the most backers. The project–which originally had a goal of $1 million–raised over $5.4 million, making it the sixth most successful Kickstarter campaign by total funds pledged. The project will “bring Reading Rainbow‘s library of interactive books and videos field trips to more platforms and provide free access to classrooms in need.”
1. $10 Potato Salad
Zack Brown’s Potato Salad project was one of the Internet’s biggest stories of 2014. Brown originally set out to raise just $10 on Kickstarter, writing “Basically I’m just making potato salad. I haven’t decided what kind yet.” on the project’s page. The humorous Kickstarter campaign eventually hit the spotlight and received over $55,000 from 6,911 backers. Brown decided to put the funds towards a free PotatoStock festival in Columbus, Ohio. All proceeds will be donated to help the homeless population of Central Ohio and the Columbus Foundation.
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