Kickstarter experiencing "the year of the game"

In a post on the official Kickstarter blog, co-founder Yancey Strickler and data engineer Fred Benenson have revealed that Games category leads in funding for 2012.

"Last week, Reaper Miniatures Bones and Planetary Annihilation became the 10th and 11th Kickstarter projects to cross $1 million in funding. Both projects belong to the Games category. In fact, seven of the eleven projects that have crossed $1 million this year are games, and an eighth is a comic about a game. This has been the year of the game on Kickstarter," the Kickstarter team wrote in the post.

Just over $50 million has been pledged in the Games category, way up from the $3.6 million pledged in 2011. The next biggest category is Film with $42 million, followed by Design with $40 million, Music with $25 million, and Technology with $16 milllion. 26 percent of all dollars pledged on Kickstarter were gaming-related, versus 3.6 percent in 2011.

The Kickstarter team believes the catalyst for the change was the Double Fine Adventure, which was the first high-profile gaming-related Kickstarter. Double Fine's Kickstarter drive began in February. In the prior month, Kickstarter saw 100 game projects launching, with that number rising to 150 in February. By March the number had risen to 225.

Gamers are also Kickstarter's most avid backers, funding 2.43 projects on average compared to 1.78 for all other backers.

Gaming is important to Kickstarter, and Kickstarter is important to gaming. Hopefully, most of these projects will be delivered or the honeymoon could come to an end.