Kickstarter have posted some facts and figures about their 2011, compared with 2010:
The largest categories continued to be Film ($32 million pledged) and Music ($19 million pledged), however Design saw the biggest growth in launched projects (235 in 2010 vs. 1,060 in 2011), Games saw the largest percentage increase in backers (up 730%), and Dance had the highest success rate (74%). All 13 categories saw at least $1 million in pledges.
I took the numbers and had a play to see if there were any interesting observations to be made.
| $ Pledged | # Successful | # Backers | Avg. pledged1 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Art | $5,900,166.14 | 1,172 | 78,558 | $75.11 |
| Comics | $1,763,628.48 | 267 | 27,544 | $64.03 |
| Dance | $1,054,763.95 | 292 | 14,377 | $73.36 |
| Design | $9,180,637.55 | 319 | 99,923 | $91.88 |
| Fashion | $1,351,659.85 | 182 | 16,793 | $80.49 |
| Film & Video | $32,473,790.40 | 3,284 | 308,541 | $105.25 |
| Food | $2,809,503.31 | 241 | 30,682 | $91.57 |
| Games | $3,616,530.88 | 253 | 45,622 | $79.27 |
| Music | $19,801,685.21 | 3,653 | 260,178 | $76.11 |
| Photography | $2,116,261.93 | 343 | 26,897 | $78.68 |
| Publishing | $5,134,388.55 | 774 | 74,280 | $69.12 |
| Technology | $4,673,470.41 | 125 | 39,341 | $118.79 |
| Theatre | $4,051,962.62 | 931 | 50,144 | $80.81 |
| Totals | $93,928,449.28 | 11,836 | 1,072,880 | |
| Averages | $7,225,265.33 | 910 | 82,529 | $84.11 |
So while the film and video category attracted the most pledges ($35 million worth) and the largest number of backers (308,541), it was the music projects that had the highest number of successful campaigns (3,653). Meanwhile, the technology projects seem to attract the highest average pledge.2
The big categories are film and video (35% of money pledged), music (21%) and design (10%).
Money pledged to Kickstarter projects in 2011, by category.
The pie chart for number of successfully funded projects by category looks similar, but art (10%) and theatre (8%) projects are clearly in demand.
Number of successful Kickstarter projects in 2011, by category.
Also, while 10% of the money pledged on Kickstarter goes towards design projects, that category accounts for only 3% of successful campaigns.
Any lessons?
Sure: Create a musical about an artist that you also plan to adapt into a film.
(via 2011: The Stats – kickstarter.com/blog)
- The average amount pledged is calculated by dividing the total amounts pledged by the number of backers.
- That’s probably all the Apple fans buying iPod Nano watch straps, tablet pen devices, iPhone camera accessories etc. etc.
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