2024 was Kickstarter’s biggest year yet. Here are the creators who raised $706 million.

In mid-2024, Kickstarter highlighted how more creators are using its platform to crowdfund projects that are offshoots of their usual content. YouTube animator CircleTunesHD, for example, raised $729,197 to bring his fantasy tabletop game Fool’s Blade to life. Then there’s YouTuber and inventor Simone Giertz, who raised nearly $1.2 million across two projects: foldable hangers and a habit calendar. Plus, we here at Tubefilter are currently keeping an eye on Twitch streamer Saren, whose artbook project became an official Kickstarter “Project We Love” and has raised $54,273 of an $18,000 goal…so far.

Basically, creators can thrive when they use platforms like Kickstarter to give their fans a way to provide direct financial support for their projects. And creators embracing Kickstarter helped drive the platform to its biggest year yet.

The platform just released its 2024 postmortem, showing that creators, inventors, writers, artists, gamemakers, and more raised $706,446,298.66 total across 35,512 projects last year.

Some other notable stats:

• $116.32—the average campaign contribution per backer, a 5% bump from the average in 2023
• $138,815—the most money pledged by a single backer (they supported 111 projects total)
• 2,053—the most individual projects backed by a single backer (they spent $28,523)

Kickstarter also revealed the top most-funded projects in all major categories, including some that hit the news cycle previously, like Brandon Sanderson‘s record-setting Cosmere RPG. It raised a whopping $15 million in its first 24 hours on Kickstarter, setting the new record for the most money pledged in that time period. Sanderson, a fantasy author, is a regularly Kickstarter creator who’s raised over $85 million since 2022.

Here are the projects that brought the most fan funding in 2024:

Tech Project
Valerion VisionMaster
$10,921,452 across 4,824 backers

Video Game
My Time At Evershine–The Next My Time Tale from Panthea Games
$2.29 million raised across 33,933 backers

Comic Book
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero from Skybound
$3.37 million across 10,490 backers

Tabletop Project
Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere RPG by Brotherwise Games
$15.1 million raised across 55,106 backers

Short Film

Nadine–A Golden Era by Tasha Ann Ladwig
$61, 246 raised across 425 backers

Animated Project
Animating Cradle: Bestselling Fantasy Novels Come To Life! by Will Wight.
$1,275,446 million raised across 8,224 backers

Publishing Project
World of Eragon: Collectible Saphira Statue from Wraithmarked Creative
$1.67 million raised across 9,320 backers

Theatrical Production
Cinderella’s Castle–A New Fairy-Tale Musical from StarKid Productions.
$529,000 raised across 7,473 backers

(StarKid is a name we haven’t heard in a while…but as we’re looking back through some of YouTube’s historic top videos in preparation for its 20th anniversary, we’ve been reminded of this iconic production.)

Kickstarter adds that over the course of 2024, potential backers searched most for projects producing watches, tarot cards, dice, keyboards, and coffee.

This is cool data from a platform that allows independent creators to connect with fans who want what they’re making. We’ve seen fans’ willingness to directly, financially support creators grow since the early days of the COVID pandemic, and sites like YouTube and Twitch are always developing more tools to facilitate this connection (and get a cut of the cash for themselves).

With Kickstarter’s record year, it’s clear people are willing to pay for what creators make–and that helps keep the $250 billion creator industry growing.