Kickstarter is a massively useful tool for the games industry. Not only does it allow us to show the gaming world what we’re interested in (and what there’s a niche for) but it allows us to get our hands on some brilliant gaming experiences too. Experience that (most likely) would never have made it to release if a stat-obsessed publisher had been at the helm. It means that anyone, anywhere, with a great idea has the chance to make their video game brainchild a reality. But Kickstarter also has its downsides. Namely, there have been a few cases or developers not delivering on promises or just hightailing it with the money altogether. Nonetheless, 2014 was a record year for games on the crowdfunding platform, according to official statistics.

Kickstarter in 2014: By the Numbers

The biggest figure that Kickstarter is boasting about is ‘$89.1 million’. That’s the amount of money that was raised by gaming Kickstarters alone. This massive figure went towards 1980 games, including games like Norse adventure Jotun and fairy tale platformer Woolfe.

But in the larger non-gaming scheme of things, Kickstarter saw a massive 22,252 projects achieve funding on the service, totalling $529 million across the year. Which, fact fans, is just over $1000 being pledged per minute. We also know that August was the biggest month for successful Kickstarter projects in 2014 as 2311 hit their goals in that time alone and that Wednesday was the day that most people pledged money.

And, if anyone was worried about the Kickstarter train slowing down, with 2.2 million people placing their first pledges last year the crowdfunding platform has effectively added a new set of wheels, an engine and given their train a paint job. Brilliant news for Kickstarter’s bottom line, potential Kickstarter project owners and fans alike.

What Does It Mean for Gamers?

Mostly good things.

As mentioned, Kickstarter has paved the way for games that publishers would most likely overlook, scrap or want to tailor to a trend or what a spreadsheet tells them is going to sell. That’s especially the case given the high development costs of triple A gaming these days – with high risk needs to come high reward. Through Kickstarter we’ve been gifted lots of games with female protagonists, queer characters and even LGBTQ gaming conventions have managed to get funding, all of which are important to representation in the medium.

Ultimately, although Kickstarter’s growth might mean that we see more scams on there or more developers who are a little overzealous in making promises they can’t keep, more of us know what sort of dangers to look out for and developers are steadily learning when and how to use the platform correctly. So here’s to Kickstarter in 2015 I say, and let’s hope that it brings us even more exciting titles!