Iron Harvest most successful video game Kickstarter in nearly a year
King Art Games' crowdfunded project the first to break $1 million in 2018
Iron Harvest has become the the most successful video game Kickstarter launched in nearly a year, raising $1.3 million in five weeks.
Inspired by the Scythe board game which raised $1.8 million in 2015, the real-time strategy game for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One managed to raise the most money of any game on Kickstarter since Ashes of Creation ($3.2 million) in May 2017.
Including all crowdfunding platforms, Iron Harvest is the first game in 2018 to raise over $1 million. It is developer King Art Games' fourth fully funded Kickstarter campaign, and by far it's most successful.
Supplementing the total was an additional $232,000 raised via the developer's own store.
"It has been a risk to ask for so much money for a new IP on Kickstarter in this day in age," said creative director Jan Theysen.
"But we knew we had a strong product and a sizable RTS community yearning for the next big RTS. So we took a chance and couldn't be happier. For us, this success is an obligation to make Iron Harvest the best game it can be."
The success and popularity of video games on Kickstarter has stagnated in recent years with only one project succeeding for every three that fail.
In 2017, the number of successfully funded video games was down slightly to 347 from 382 the year prior, and the total raised on Kickstarter stayed fairly consistent at around $15 million.
Ashes of Creation was the only video game last year to raise over $1 million on Kickstarter, and one of only three games to break that mark across all crowdfunding platforms, joined by Pillars of Eternity II and Noob the Video Game on Fig and Ulule respectively.