Music and film/video projects make up over 50% of finished projects on Kickstarter. While technology only represents 2% of total finished projects currently, that number is expected to rise fast. The success rates and average sizes of projects varies significantly depending on the category. Games, technology, and design tend to have both higher success rates and larger average funding amounts compared to categories like art and dance. The fastest growing categories on Kickstarter based on changes in live project market shares seem to be games, publishing, and fashion.

1. By
the
Numbers
June
2012
Michael
Wolf
about.me/wolf
2012
-­‐
Michael
Wolf
-­‐
h>p://about.me/wolf

2. What categories are king on Kickstarter?
Today’s
its
music
and
video,
tomorrow
will
see
other
categories
grow
• Music
and
Film/video
make
Total
Finished
Projects
by
Category
up
over
50%
of
finished
Technology;% Theater;%5%%
projects.
2%%
Comics;%2%%
Art;%9%% Dance;%2%%
Publishing;%
Design;%3%%
10%%
• Technology
only
represents
Photography
;%3%%
Fashion;%3%%
2%
of
total
finished
projects,
but
expect
that
to
rise
fast
Music;%24%% Film%&%
Video;%30%%
• Finished
publishing
projects
likely
kept
low
due
to
ease
of
self-­‐publishing
on
e-­‐book
Games;%4%%
Food;%3%%
plaMorms
2012
-­‐
Michael
Wolf
-­‐
h>p://about.me/wolf

3. How often to projects succeed?
Well,
it
differs
by
category…
• Dance
and
theater
have
the
highest
success
rates,
in
part
Success
Rates
by
Category
due
to
lower
average
80%#
financing
goals
70%#
69%#
64%#
• Fashion
has
the
lowest
60%#
48%#
54%#
success
rate
at
21%,
but
50%# 44%#
40%#
45%#
40%# 41%# 38%#
35%#
overall
there
have
been
only
30%# 27%#
34%# 32%#
29%#
391
fashion
projects
as
of
20%#
June
26th
10%#
0%#
• Music’s
54%
success
rate
is
l#
Co t#
De e#
Fa n#
#V #
Ga #
Ph M #
no g#
Th gy#
Da #
r#
#
og c#
bl y#
n
od
es
ics
eo
Al
Ar
te
impressive
given
that
music
ot usi
Te shin
nc
Pu ph
sig
m hio
m
lo
Fo
id
m
ea
ra
s
i
#&
ch
represents
nearly
a
quarter
Fil
of
all
finished
projects
2012
-­‐
Michael
Wolf
-­‐
h>p://about.me/wolf

4. What is average size of a successful
project?
The
average
size
of
a
successful
project
varies
dras?cally
by
category…
• There
are
three
major
outliers
when
looking
at
average
project
size:
Design
Average
Successful
Project
Size
($)
($49k
avg),
Games
($38k
avg),
Technology
($36k
avg)
!$60,000!!
• Large
average
successful
project
sizes
!$50,000!!
!$49,095!!
are
driven
by
large
outlier
projects.
An
!$40,000!! !$38,152!!
example
is
the
Pebble
watch
($10.3
!$36,396!!
million),
which
drove
average
project
!$30,000!!
size
for
design
way
up
!$20,000!!
• On
average,
certain
categories
such
as
!$9,226!!
!$8,784!! !$9,438!! !$8,854!! !$5,346!! !$5,599!!
art
and
dance
tend
to
have
smaller
!$10,000!!
!$4,301!! !$3,460!! !$6,982!! !$4,980!! !$4,199!!
project
sizes
due
to
lower
overall
!$.!!!!
financing
needs
for
typical
projects
in
l!
Co !
!
e!
n!
!& n!
!
!
!
og c!
y!
g!
!
r!
t
ics
eo
od
es
gy
Al
Ar
i
te
ph
nc
in
sig
io
us
m
lo
id
m
Fo
ea
ish
sh
this
space
Da
ra
M
De
Ga
no
!V
Fa
Th
bl
ch
Pu
ot
m
Te
Ph
Fil
2012
-­‐
Michael
Wolf
-­‐
h>p://about.me/wolf

5. How big is each Kickstarter category in total
successful projects and aggregate revenue?
Some
categories
have
small
total
project
counts,
but
big
total
financing
totals
due
to
outliers
Total
Successful
Projects
and
• As
can
be
seen
by
size
of
Revenue
($USM)
by
Category
categories
and
ver_cal
placement,
music
and
film
lead
Music$
all
others
by
large
margin
7,446$
Film$&$Video$ $45M$
6,713$
$72M$
• Art,
theater
and
publishing
have
significant
numbers
of
Art$
2,548$ Publishing$
projects,
but
total
revenues
are
$13M$ 1,861$
$13.5M$ Theater$
more
on
part
with
other
topics
Design$
674$
Food,$
698$
1,910$
$9M$
$40M$ $8.7M$Games,$
Comics$ 709$ Photo,$ Technology,$
Dance$ Fashion,$ $31.7M$ 753$ 333$
605$
• The
size
of
games
and
$6.5M$
582$
$2M$
391$
$3.7M$
$5M$ $14.6M$
technology
circles
indicate
Key:
Size
of
circle
indicates
rela?ve
size
of
aggregate
successful
bigger
average
successful
project
revenue,
ver?cal
placement
indicated
rela?ve
#
of
total
finance
thresholds
reached
successful
projects
in
a
given
category.
2012
-­‐
Michael
Wolf
-­‐
h>p://about.me/wolf

6. What are the fastest growing
categories on Kickstarter?
RelaBve
Difference
in
Share
Between
Live
• When
comparing
the
current
Projects
and
Finished
Projects
share
of
a
live
projects
by
category
to
what
the
historical
Games$ 37%$
share
a
category
has
had
of
Publishing$ 35%$
finished
projects,
games,
Fashion$ 34%$
publishing
and
fashion
seem
to
Food$ 26%$
be
growing
fastest.
Comics$ 24%$
• While
a
category
may
have
gone
Design$ 20%$
up
or
down
rela_ve
to
others
0%# 5%# 10%# 15%# 20%# 25%# 30%# 35%# 40%#
and
its
historical
share,
it’s
likely
ALL
categories
of
projects
are
Note:
This
chart
show
the
percentage
difference
between
a
growing
as
the
crowdfunding
category’s
current
share
of
live
projects
(live
cat/total
live
projects)
and
historical
share
of
category
(finished
proj’s
by
_de
li`s
all
boats
cat
/total
finished
projects)
2012
-­‐
Michael
Wolf
-­‐
h>p://about.me/wolf

7. How successful are each project by
size?
There
is
slight
varia?on
by
category,
but
not
much…
• Art,
dance
and
theater
tend
to
Successful
Projects
Percentage
by
have
the
smallest
projects
by
Size
&
Category
size
band,
with
90%
of
projects
100%# by
Category
in
these
categories
under
$10
90%#
thousand
80%#
$1M+$
70%#
• Design
has
the
largest
60%# $100kC$$999.9k$
percentage
of
successful
50%# $20kC$$99.9K$
projects
over
$10k
or
bigger,
40%#
30%#
$10K$C$$19.99K$
with
nearly
50%
of
successful
20%#
$1K$C$$9.99K$$
design
projects
in
that
funding
10%#
>$$1k$
band
0%#
Co t$
Da $
De e$
Fa n$
$& n$
$
Ga $
Ph M $
og ic$
Th gy$
bl y$
no g$
r$
ics
eo
od
es
Ar
te
Pu ph
Te shin
nc
sig
m hio
us
m
lo
• Design
and
games
have
the
id
m
Fo
ea
ra
$V
s
i
ch
ot
largest
percentage
of
successful
Fil
projects
at
$100k
or
larger,
with
6.5%
and
4.9%
respec_vely
2012
-­‐
Michael
Wolf
-­‐
h>p://about.me/wolf

8. How do unsuccessful projects
break down by percent funded?
Looking
at
complete
misses
and
near
hits…
• While
projects
that
don’t
achieve
their
goal
usually
miss
by
over
50%,
Unsuccessful
projects
by
percentage
there
are
some
that
come
very
funded
by
category
close.
Technology
has
the
most
near-­‐hits,
with
1.6%
of
projects
geang
over
80%
of
goal.
100%#
90%#
• While
22%
of
total
projects
get
no
funding,
some
categories
usually
80%#
do
be>er
in
garnering
some
70%#
support.
Only
10%
of
food
projects
60%#
81-99%#Funded#
get
no
funding,
and
11%
of
design
50%# 61-80%#Funded#
41-60%#Funded#
projects
see
no
support.
40%# 21-40%#Funded#
• When
projects
do
fail,
it’s
in
part
1-20%#Funded#
30%#
0%#Funded#
because
they
can’t
get
past
a
20%#
certain
threshold.
This
is
illustrated
10%#
by
the
fact
only
5.6%
of
0%#
unsuccessful
projects
raise
over
t$
$
e$
d$
n$
n$
$
ic$
g$
$
$
$
r$
ics
es
eo
hy
gy
Ar
te
in
nc
sig
io
o
us
m
lo
ap
m
id
Fo
ea
ish
sh
Da
M
De
Ga
no
$V
Co
gr
Th
Fa
bl
40%
of
their
target
$&
ch
to
Pu
m
o
Te
Ph
Fil
2012
-­‐
Michael
Wolf
-­‐
h>p://about.me/wolf

9. Is there a magic threshold which
projects must hit to gain momentum?
It
appears
once
projects
get
past
20%
funded,
likelihood
of
success
goes
up
• The
vast
majority
of
unsuccessful
projects
get
DistribuBon
of
Unsuccessful
Projects
by
stuck
at
20%
or
below
of
Funding
Threshold
Hit
funding
• Talking
to
crowdsourcing
plaMorms,
some
believe
once
you
cross
30%
funded
threshold,
it
gains
momentum
by
moving
outside
of
your
own
personal
network
and
a>racts
strangers.
This
distribu_on
appears
to
confirm
that.
2012
-­‐
Michael
Wolf
-­‐
h>p://about.me/wolf

10. Methodology
• All
founda_onal
data
is
from
Kickstarter
available
on
their
stats
page
• Kickstarter
updates
their
data
daily,
so
the
data
does
change
slightly
every
day.
The
date
of
the
sta_s_cs
used
for
this
analysis
was
June
26,
2012
2012
-­‐
Michael
Wolf
-­‐
h>p://about.me/wolf