Last week a woman named Rachel Perrie pledged to a film project called Cargo. At that moment she became the millionth person to have ever backed a Kickstarter project. Rachel backed the film because she knew the creator. People often support people they know on Kickstarter. People also back projects they discover via blog posts, tweets, Facebook, and our own site and newsletter. Whether to a friend or a stranger, a pledge simply says “I like what you’re doing and I’d like to be a part of it.” Rachel backed the film because she knew the creator. People often support people they know on Kickstarter. People also back projects they discover via blog posts, tweets, Facebook, and our own site and newsletter. Whether to a friend or a stranger, a pledge simply says “I like what you’re doing and I’d like to be a part of it.”



Thanks to these million people there are plays, comics, albums, books, video games, urban farms, documentaries, exhibits, performances, and thousands more creative works out in the world. Many couldn’t exist without their support, and all are certainly better for it. It’s a remarkable thing.



Thanks to these million people there are plays, comics, albums, books, video games, urban farms, documentaries, exhibits, performances, and thousands more creative works out in the world. Many couldn’t exist without their support, and all are certainly better for it. It’s a remarkable thing. We’re really excited about this milestone. A million people is a lot — more than ten Rose Bowls! To celebrate we’d like to take a closer look at Kickstarter’s first million backers.



New Backers by Month



Let’s start by defining what we mean by backer. Someone becomes a backer when they pull out a credit card and pledge money to a project. Being a backer is a higher bar than a user (someone who signs up for a site), and different than a pledge (the transaction itself). One million backers means one million different people from around the world have pledged money to a project on Kickstarter.



The above graph shows the cumulative path to 1,000,000 backers. The first 200,000 backers took 16 months; the last 200,000 took just three months. Currently about 75,000 new backers pledge to projects each month.



Backer Success Rate While projects successfully reach their goals 44% of the time, 89% of all backers have supported a successful project. Only 11% have never backed a successful project. This ties into data we previously shared showing that 85% of pledges are to successful projects. The overwhelming experience of a Kickstarter backer is success. Which backer has been the most successful? We looked at all backers that have pledged to 50 or more projects, and a backer from the UK, Neil Graham, stood out. To date Neil has backed 94 projects, and 83 of 84 have finished successfully (ten pledges are still live). A 98% success rate — well done, Neil! One-Time Backers vs Repeat Backers