Kickstarter has funded 10,000 Games projects since its inception according to a post on the company's website.

The very first gaming project posted on the platform was for a series of crossword puzzles created by Eric Berlin. Mr. Berlin had experience creating puzzles for publications such as MAD Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. He was curious to see if he could get people to fund a suite of crossword puzzles with an interconnecting theme, and he was successful - 163 backers contributed $2,265 to make his project a reality.

It did not take long for a game maker to realize the crowdfunding platform's potential: Mr. Berlin's crowdfunding campaign for some crossword puzzles was created the day after Kickstarter began operations. His campaign was the pebble that started an avalanche - since then, 2.46 million people have contributed $613 million total towards various gaming projects. Of the people who contributed to gaming projects, 1.45 million put their money into more than one project.

The page for the games campaigns sorted by most funding highlights some of the successes of the crowdfunding platform - counted among the success stories of Kickstarter are Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, and many others. While Kickstarter has had its share of success, other platforms such as IndieGoGo and Fig have popped up, the latter of which has run campaigns for Wasteland 3 and Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire and uses an alternative method of being a publisher as well.

Despite the competition, Kickstarter will likely be in the game funding business for quite a while yet. If you'd like to take a peek at some of our favorite picks for crowdfunding campaigns (regardless of platform) you can check out our Crowdfunding Spotlight feature.

What do you think of Kickstarter as a crowdfunding service? Do you think they've been beneficial or detrimental to the games industry as a whole? What do you think is the best example of a good gaming crowdfunding campaign? Let us know in the comments below!