TTRPG Crowdfunding Soars: Q1 2026 Sees 25% More $100K Campaigns YoY

The number of successful TTRPG crowdfunding projects in the first quarter of 2026 grew 35%, implying that TTRPG spending may see a surge this year.

21 TTRPG-themed crowdfunding campaigns raised $100,000 or more than the same quarter in 2025, according to TTRPG Insider’s analysis. That’s 35% more campaigns than Q1 2025 that successfully reached that milestone.

TTRPGs that passed the $100k bracket generated an estimated $8,058,431 in Q1 2026, approximately 25% more than the $5,989,278.06 raised Q1 2025. 2026 had the same number of $1 million campaigns as 2025, with only one campaign that ended as of March 31, 2026 reaching the $1 million mark.

The outstanding successes for the period include Italy-based Acheron Game’s Pumpkin Spice TTRPG about witches running a cafe and Altheya: the Dragon Empire, written by the team that made the High Rollers Actual Play.

February and January were notably slow for TTRPG creators, with only a few campaigns getting major traction.Zinetopia and Zinequest both launched in February, providing an opportunity for indie creators to fund smaller projects and create things they usually wouldn’t. While the majority of Zinetopia projects successfully raised enough funds to fulfill their campaigns, they only raised an average of $3,000 to $4,000, according to Web of the Gigantic Spider.

When mid-February/early March arrived, a number of major campaigns jumped into action. These included highly anticipated projects like the Numenara update from Monte Cook Games and Blades ‘68 from Evil Hat Games, which raised significantly more than one would expect.

Only 6 of the 21 featured games used Fifth Edition mechanics, a surprisingly low number compared to past quarters.

The one game that stood out to me was Gates of Krystalia, an Isekai-themed TTRPG that has gained some momentum despite the creator admitting to using AI-generated images in the book, a practice that many fans denounce. All other games use human-made art. This is arguably the highest TTRPG with AI imagery that has been raised.

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What Does This Mean?

The outstanding success of TTRPGs so far suggests that fans are eager to support projects they like, and that crowdfunding-related spending isn’t declining yet. While I originally suspected we would see spending drop as the economy grew more expensive and tariffs affected publishing, TTRPG creators and fans have not slowed down yet.

Non-D&D projects continue to find some success, though most successes stem from already popular properties. Altheya, for example, is a setting written by an established AP, Temeraire is based on a fantasy novel series, etc. Pumpkin Spice, a very different game type from most of what saw success this year, succeeded in part because of Simz Art’s very popular series of modern-day witches.

We’ll see if this momentum maintains. April already appears to be an extremely successful month based on the Dungeon Crawler Carl Backerkit and at least two major Backerkit “Months.” May will also feature Sword World, Avantris Entertainment’s sci-fi 5e conversion and Old School Essentials Month on Backerkit.

Methodologies

If you want to review my data, it is available here. This is so you can point out potential analytical errors if I got anything wrong, and so you can do the math yourself. I’m just one person, but I’m convinced I've got all the big players. 

The data above was gathered through a review of the Kickstarter, BackerKit, and GameFound platforms. Any campaigns featured in my dataset must meet the following criteria:

• A campaign must be successful. No failed campaigns are included here.

• The RPG project must be for a campaign setting or book. While dice projects like Heroforge’s Custom Dice did have substantial success this year, we’re focusing primarily on books and publishing.

• The campaign must have earned $100,000 or more. This is a ballpark metric that I think reflects a reasonable amount of success, and was inspired by Bob World Builder’s April 2025 video reviewing past subjects. This isn’t to say that a campaign that made $90,000 is lesser, but it likely has less market prominence than others.

• They wrapped up sometime between January 1, 2026, and March 31, 2026.

The estimates were drawn up directly after the campaigns wrapped up. Many Kickstarter campaigns experience a surge in pledges after the campaign ends, which can significantly increase the total amount earned. I chose to focus on what was earned at the time of the campaign’s end to ensure everything remains steadfast and will not change due to economic reasons.

Finally, I did my best to convert all pledges to USD using the exchange rates available as of April 19, 2026.

What are your thoughts? Send any scoops, tips or press releases to [email protected].

1  I considered including Crack the Sun, MCDM’s outstanding campaign that wrapped up on January 5, 2026 but it was included in our Q4 numbers, so I wanted to avoid counting twice.