The most funded Kickstarter of all time is the eufyMake E1 UV printer: $46,762,258 from 17,822 backers in 2025. It took the record from Brandon Sanderson’s Secret Novels ($41,754,153 in 2022), so a desktop printer now leads one of fantasy’s biggest authors by about $5M.

Below are the 20 most funded (and most successful) Kickstarter projects, with totals as of October 18, 2026, and the habits behind their numbers that work at any budget.

Key Facts

• Most funded Kickstarter ever: eufyMake E1, $46,762,258 from 17,822 backers (2025)
• Second most funded: Surprise! Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson, $41,754,153 from 185,341 backers (2022)
• Most backed: Exploding Kittens, 219,382 backers (2015)
• Fastest to $1M: Kingdom Death: Monster 1.5, in 19 minutes
• Totals as of: October 18, 2026

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Top Kickstarter Projects Ranked by Amount Raised

This ranking orders the projects by total raised in US dollars. Each total includes late pledges, which Kickstarter now counts in a project’s headline figure.

1. eufyMake E1: the First Personal 3D-Texture UV Printer

Creator: eufyMake
Year launched: 2025
Funding goal: $500,000
Amount raised: $46,762,258
Number of backers: 17,822

The eufyMake E1 prints color images with raised texture onto more than 300 materials, from wood and leather to metal and glass. Anker’s eufyMake brand built it for makers and small businesses, the same audience Kickstarter credited when it announced the record.

The price did most of the work. Tiers ran from $1,699 to $2,752, and 90% of backers chose an early-bird tier, bringing the average pledge to about $2,624. The brand helped, too. The same account had raised $8.9M for the AnkerMake M5 printer in 2022, and the E1 passed $5M in its first hour.

2. Surprise! Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson

Creator: Dragonsteel Entertainment
Year launched: 2022
Funding goal: $1,000,000
Amount raised: $41,754,153
Number of backers: 185,341

Brandon Sanderson revealed four novels he wrote in secret and sold straight to readers through his own company, Dragonsteel Entertainment. Backers received the books through 2023, with swag arriving quarterly or monthly depending on the tier.

The readers were already lined up. Dragonsteel’s previous campaign, a 10th-anniversary leatherbound edition of The Way of Kings, raised $6.8M in 2020. This one passed $7.5M in its first six hours and set an all-time record in three days. The tiers did the rest: books started at $40, and 38,224 backers chose a full “Year of Sanderson” package priced between $360 and $500.

3. The Official Cyberpunk Trading Card Game

Creator: WeirdCo
Year launched: 2026
Funding goal: $100,000
Amount raised: $28,353,088
Number of backers: 50,773

WeirdCo made the game in partnership with CD Projekt Red, owner of the Cyberpunk franchise. According to Kickstarter’s case study, WeirdCo pitched the campaign as a fix for card scarcity: every backer gets the cards, and the pledge count sets the size of the retail print run.

The crowd showed up early. The pre-launch page passed 48,000 followers, the campaign funded in five minutes, and it reached $5M in just under three hours. Collectors did the heavy lifting from there. The most popular tier was the $349 Netrunner Starter Kit, with 22,644 backers, but 838 backers paid $7,999 for a “Night City Legend” tier, worth at least $6.7M between them.

4. Snapmaker U1 Color 3D Printer: 5X More Speed. 5X Less Waste.

Creator: Snapmaker
Year launched: 2025
Funding goal: $100,000
Amount raised: $20,614,548
Number of backers: 20,680

The Snapmaker U1 is a color 3D printer with four toolheads, all loaded and heated before you print. Its SnapSwap system cuts the wait between colors from about two minutes to five seconds.

Snapmaker arrived with a track record: two earlier campaigns, including Snapmaker 2.0, which raised $7.9M in 2019. Before launch, it put 46 machines in the hands of testers, creators and journalists and gave them almost no content guidelines, according to a Snapmaker talk Kickstarter published. A $30 pre-launch deposit unlocked $100 off the $749 early-bird price, and 9,997 backers took that tier. Within 42 hours, Snapmaker’s own update called the U1 the most funded 3D printing project on Kickstarter.

5. Pebble Time: Awesome Smartwatch, No Compromises

Creator: Pebble Technology
Year launched: 2015
Funding goal: $500,000
Amount raised: $20,338,986
Number of backers: 78,471

Pebble Time followed the original Pebble smartwatch with a color e-paper display and up to seven days of battery life. It also ran all 6,500+ existing Pebble apps and watchfaces from day one.

Pebble had previously held the Kickstarter record. The original Pebble raised $10.3M in 2012, the biggest total on the platform at the time. Pebble Time drew 54,568 backers in its first week and took the record back within days. Partway through, Pebble announced a second model, the Pebble Time Steel, which gave the campaign fresh news to share. The $159 early-bird tier, capped at 10,000 units, sold out.

6. XGIMI TITAN Noir Series: A Dual Iris 4K RGB Laser Projector

Creator: XGIMI Tech
Year launched: 2026
Funding goal: $100,000
Amount raised: $19,372,823
Number of backers: 6,178

XGIMI arrived on Kickstarter as an established projector brand. Its campaign page says the company has sold more than 7 million units since 2013. Before launch, XGIMI previewed TITAN Noir at CES 2026 and took deposits on its own site, as we noted in our list of the 10 most funded Kickstarter campaigns of Q2 2026, which TITAN Noir topped.

One tier carried the campaign. The $2,999 Launch Special for the TITAN Noir MAX drew 5,260 of the 6,178 backers, 85% of the total, and XGIMI reported $5M in the first hour. Its closing press release lists the standard Noir at $3,999 after the campaign and keeps the MAX exclusive to Kickstarter backers.

7. AWOL Vision Aetherion: Pixel-Clarity RGB Laser UST Projector

Creator: AWOL Vision
Year launched: 2026
Funding goal: $500,000
Amount raised: $18,649,456
Number of backers: 7,050

The Aetherion is an ultra-short-throw laser projector designed to sit close to the wall and project an image up to 200 inches wide. The top model, the Aetherion Max, is rated at 3,300 ISO lumens.

AWOL won on price. The Max went for $2,199 against AWOL’s stated retail price of $4,499, and 5,462 backers took that tier, 77% of the total. Bundles ran from $3,999 to $8,999, and only about 7.5% of backers chose one, so the projector on its own at roughly half price carried the campaign. AWOL reported $6M in the first hour. It also knew the category: its sister brand Valerion raised $10.9M on Kickstarter in 2024.

8. HeyGears G1X: First Desktop Full-Color 3D & UV Printer

Creator: HeyGears
Year launched: 2026
Funding goal: $100,000
Amount raised: $18,136,327
Number of backers: 4,081

The G1X combines full-color 3D printing and UV printing in one desktop machine. It was HeyGears’ first Kickstarter campaign.

With no Kickstarter history to lean on, HeyGears gave people reasons to commit early. A $50 pre-launch deposit came with free white UV ink, and anyone backing in the first 48 hours entered a draw for a free printer. The campaign passed $4M in two hours. Its backers spent heavily: 2,499 of the 2,520 super early bird slots at $3,599 sold, and 974 people took the $4,999 Deluxe Bundle. The average pledge came to about $4,443, the highest of any project in this top 20.

9. Neon Odyssey: Space Opera in D&D by Legends of Avantris

Creator: Legends of Avantris
Year launched: 2026
Funding goal: $60,000
Amount raised: $16,139,970
Number of backers: 49,116

Neon Odyssey is a space opera setting for Dungeons & Dragons from Legends of Avantris, the team behind a D&D actual-play series. Kickstarter calls it the most funded tabletop RPG in crowdfunding history, ahead of the Cosmere RPG at #10.

The team’s first campaign, The Crooked Moon, raised $4M in 2023 and took 6.5 hours to reach $1M. Neon Odyssey reached that mark in under 20 minutes. Co-founder Mikey Gilder told Kickstarter that VIPs from the pre-launch list and the team’s Discord kept “the hype at critical mass for three full months.” The tiers left room for superfans to spend: they ran from a $30 PDF to a $999 All-In Box, and 5,503 backers chose the top one.

10. Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere RPG

Creator: Brotherwise Games
Year launched: 2024
Funding goal: $250,000
Amount raised: $15,149,874
Number of backers: 55,106

The Cosmere RPG turns Brandon Sanderson’s fantasy universe into a tabletop roleplaying game, starting with his Stormlight Archive series. It held the record for the most-funded tabletop RPG on Kickstarter until Neon Odyssey passed it in 2026, and it puts Sanderson’s name on a second top-10 entry.

Brotherwise Games came in experienced: its creator account lists 15 Kickstarter projects. The campaign passed $1M in its first hour and $5.25M by its second day. The two biggest tiers were the $385 Collector, with 17,193 backers, and the $295 Game Master, with 16,167. The team unlocked every planned stretch goal, then added more.

11. Roller Pro Carry-On Luggage by Peak Design

Creator: Peak Design
Year launched: 2025
Funding goal: $100,000
Amount raised: $13,408,553
Number of backers: 24,219

The Roller Pro carry-on was Peak Design’s 14th Kickstarter campaign and its biggest. It hit its goal in about a minute and passed $1M in 53 minutes, the kind of speed 13 earlier campaigns buy you. Backers paid $415 to $525, up to 29% off retail, and late pledges at $599 took the total past $13M.

12. NestWorks C500: Next-Gen Smartest CNC with Industrial Power

Creator: NestWorks
Year launched: 2025
Funding goal: HK$388,633 (about $50,000)
Amount raised: $13,297,727
Number of backers: 3,541

The C500 is a desktop CNC machine from NestWorks, a company incubated by Elephant Robotics. NestWorks says it built the machine after spending over $1 million a year on outsourced manufacturing. Most backers went all in: 2,148 of the 3,541 chose the All-in-One Bundle at about $4,000, bringing the average pledge to about $3,755.

13. COOLEST COOLER: 21st Century Cooler That’s Actually Cooler

Creator: Ryan Grepper
Year launched: 2014
Funding goal: $50,000
Amount raised: $13,285,226
Number of backers: 62,642

The Coolest Cooler packed a cooler with gadgets, funded in under 36 hours and held the Kickstarter record until Pebble Time passed it. Most backers paid $185. Grepper later admitted the cooler cost far more to make and ship than that, and about 20,000 backers never got one. The page now reads “Kickstarter has restricted this creator.” Ironically, it tops our list of the biggest Kickstarter scams.

14. Frosthaven

Creator: Isaac Childres
Year launched: 2020
Funding goal: $500,000
Amount raised: $12,969,608
Number of backers: 83,193

Frosthaven is the standalone sequel to Gloomhaven, with about 100 scenarios and 16 new character classes. It raised $5M in its first 24 hours, and in its final hours, it passed Kingdom Death: Monster 1.5 to become the most-funded board game on Kickstarter. Six years later, it still holds that title, with an average pledge of about $156.

15. Pebble 2, Time 2 + All-New Pebble Core

Creator: Pebble Technology
Year launched: 2016
Funding goal: $1,000,000
Amount raised: $12,779,843
Number of backers: 66,673

Pebble’s third campaign offered two new watches and a 3G wearable called Pebble Core. It passed its $1M goal in the first hour and closed as the third most funded Kickstarter of its time. Five months later, Fitbit bought key Pebble assets and Pebble shut down. Pebble 2 shipped, Time 2 and Core never went into production, and backers got refunds. It appears in our scams roundup too.

16. Makera Z1 Desktop CNC: Entry-level CNC, Pro-level Power

Creator: Makera
Year launched: 2025
Funding goal: HK$776,800 (about $100,000)
Amount raised: $12,432,267
Number of backers: 8,284

The Z1 is a desktop CNC machine priced for hobbyists: 6,655 backers took the early-bird tier at about $899. It was Makera’s third campaign, after Carvera ($1.7M) and Carvera Air ($3.5M), and each one raised more than the last. Makera spent months warming up its waitlist and past backers, and the Z1 raised $1.5M in its first hour.

17. Kingdom Death: Monster 1.5

Creator: Kingdom Death
Year launched: 2016
Funding goal: $100,000
Amount raised: $12,393,140
Number of backers: 19,264

Kingdom Death: Monster 1.5 updated a board game the creator first funded on Kickstarter in 2012. It reached $1M in 19 minutes, still the Guinness record for a crowdfunded project, and passed the original campaign’s total within two hours. Its 19,264 backers averaged about $643 each, and it held the board-game record until Frosthaven passed it in 2020.

18. EcoFlow DELTA Pro: The Portable Home Battery

Creator: EcoFlow
Year launched: 2021
Funding goal: $100,000
Amount raised: $12,179,651
Number of backers: 3,199

EcoFlow’s third Kickstarter campaign pitched the DELTA Pro as a portable home battery, and its 3,199 backers paid an average of about $3,807 each. It raised $1M in under an hour. When it closed, it was the most funded project in Kickstarter’s Technology category, about $4.3M ahead of the previous leader, Snapmaker 2.0.

19. Travel Tripod by Peak Design

Creator: Peak Design
Year launched: 2019
Funding goal: $500,000
Amount raised: $12,143,436
Number of backers: 27,168

Peak Design spent four years redesigning the tripod for its ninth Kickstarter campaign. Backers chose between aluminum at $289 and carbon fiber at $479, and 18,883 chose carbon, more than twice the 7,821 who picked aluminum. Six years later, the same team’s Roller Pro raised even more, landing at #11 on this list.

20. Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina Animated Special

Creator: Critical Role
Year launched: 2019
Funding goal: $750,000
Amount raised: $11,385,449
Number of backers: 88,887

Critical Role asked its fans to fund an animated special of The Legend of Vox Machina, and they cleared the $750,000 goal in 40 minutes. It’s still the most funded Film & Video project on Kickstarter. With 88,887 backers, it's the sixth most-backed project ever, all from the team’s first and only Kickstarter campaign.

Campaigns TCF Ran

None of our campaigns have cracked the all-time top 20 yet, but four of them are worth a closer look. Work like this is part of why Kickstarter made us a Premier Partner.

1. BB-777: The Iconic Boombox, Perfectly Recreated

Creator: Bumpboxx
Year launched: 2026
Funding goal: $50,000
Amount raised: $7,133,869
Number of backers: 9,337

Bumpboxx had fans. What it lacked was fans who knew how to use Kickstarter: almost none of the BB-777’s audience had backed a project before, and a $749 pledge on an unfamiliar site is an easy checkout to abandon. So we spent much of the 1.5-month pre-launch teaching people how to pledge, through WhatsApp groups, emails and ads.

The how-to-back ads became some of the strongest performers of the whole campaign, returning 4.8 to 6.8 on ad spend.

On launch day, founder Rob Owens shared the result with backers: “In just 1 hour… you pushed us past $1,000,000.” The campaign closed past $7M at a 4.4 return on ad spend.

2. Circular Ring 2: World’s Most Advanced Health Tracking Ring

Creator: Circular
Year launched: 2025
Funding goal: $10,000
Amount raised: $4,078,500
Number of backers: 13,695

A day before launch, Kickstarter told us to remove two phrases from the page: “FDA-cleared” and “medical-grade”. The ring had FDA clearance, and the whole page was built around saying so. We rewrote it overnight around what the ring does for the person wearing it, and moved the regulatory story to email, ads and WhatsApp, where the founders explained it on video.

With no samples ready for reviewers, the founders became the proof, down to filming the $1M milestone next to the Eiffel Tower.

The ring funded in four minutes at $239, a price that had beaten the planned $209 in our pre-launch tests, and went on to raise $4M+.

3. Kode Dot: The All-In-One Device for Makers, Hackers & Geeks

Creator: Kode.
Year launched: 2025
Funding goal: $5,000
Amount raised: $3,366,566
Number of backers: 16,193

Kode Dot is a pocket-sized device for makers tired of breadboards and loose wires, built by two founders who were also its first users. Pre-launch data showed a niche product with no breakout in sight, so we set an internal target of $500K and planned to adjust as backers arrived.

Ten days in, traffic held steady and conversions stalled. A survey of backers kept returning one request, NFC, so we worked with the founders to move NFC and RFID down the stretch goals, and conversions changed almost overnight.

Launching before Black Friday helped too. By the time Q4 ad costs spiked, our ads had been tuning for weeks. In the final week, Kode Dot hit #1 in Kickstarter’s popularity ranking, and it closed at more than six times that $500K target.

4. Kamingo: Turn Your Bike into a 750W E-bike in 10 Sec

Creator: Kamingo
Year launched: 2025
Funding goal: $10,000
Amount raised: $1,813,977
Number of backers: 4,640

Kamingo turns a regular bike into a 750W e-bike in about 10 seconds, and it launched into a micromobility market crowded with conversion kits. It needed people outside the campaign vouching for it, so we built the launch around PR.

Before going live, we pitched journalists under embargo, focusing on reporters who cover e-bikes and city commuting, which locked in launch-day coverage. Once pledges started coming in, we went back to the journalists still on the fence and used the numbers as proof of demand. Coverage ran in Yahoo Finance, New Atlas, Bikerumor and Wired Italy, fed our ads and emails, and drove more than $60K in tracked pledges.

Kamingo funded in 10 minutes and won Best PR Campaign at the 2025 US Agency Awards.

Most Backed Kickstarter Projects

The most backed list ranks different projects. Exploding Kittens has more backers than any campaign on Kickstarter, yet its $8.8M sits below the top 20 by funding. Four of these five averaged $40 to $62 per backer, a fraction of what the most-funded projects took per pledge. Brandon Sanderson’s Secret Novels is the only project on both lists.

The Biggest Kickstarter Ever And Other Records

The biggest Kickstarter ever is the eufyMake E1, and the top spot moves faster than it used to. Five projects have held it since 2012: the original Pebble, Coolest Cooler, Pebble Time, Brandon Sanderson’s Secret Novels and the eufyMake E1. Pebble Time kept it for seven years. Sanderson lasted three years before a UV printer took it.

Most Funded Kickstarter Projects by Category

Games hold three separate records. The Cyberpunk TCG raised more than any other game, Neon Odyssey leads tabletop RPGs, and Frosthaven still holds the board-game record it took from Kingdom Death: Monster 1.5 in 2020. Video games lag far behind: Shenmue 3, the most funded, raised $6.3M in 2015, less than a quarter of the Cyberpunk TCG’s total.

What the Most Funded Kickstarter Projects Have In Common

1. Most of the top 20 had launched before

At least 12 of the 20 came from creators with an earlier Kickstarter campaign behind them. Roller Pro was Peak Design’s 14th launch, Brotherwise Games’ account lists 15 projects, and Makera raised more on each of its three campaigns. A first campaign builds the backer list, the reviews and the trust a second one launches into.

2. One offer usually carries the campaign

On the biggest hardware campaigns, most backers converged on a single deal. Nine in ten eufyMake E1 backers took an early-bird tier, 85% of XGIMI TITAN Noir backers chose the $2,999 Launch Special, and 77% of AWOL Aetherion backers picked the Max at $2,199. Build one obvious best deal and price your reward tiers around it.

3. Big pledges can stand in for a big crowd

Six projects in the top 20 averaged more than $2,500 per backer, and none of them passed 18,000 backers. HeyGears G1X reached $18.1M with 4,081 people, about 2% of Sanderson’s crowd. A $3,000 product needs thousands of backers. A $40 card game needs hundreds of thousands, which is why Exploding Kittens holds the backer record at $8.8M.

4. Low goals make fast starts

Eleven of the 20 set goals of $100,000 or less, and several cleared them in minutes. The Cyberpunk TCG funded in five, and Kingdom Death: Monster 1.5 hit $1M in 19. A low goal turns the first hour into a headline. The money in that hour comes from people who followed the pre-launch page, joined a waitlist or clicked a pre-launch ad.

5. Other people vouch for the product first

Snapmaker put 46 U1 printers in the hands of testers, creators and journalists before launch, with almost no content guidelines. Neon Odyssey’s team kept its pre-launch VIPs and Discord buzzing for three months. Reviews and community chatter carry more weight than a campaign page, which is why crowdfunding PR starts weeks before launch.

6. Price for delivery

Coolest Cooler sold most of its units at $185, and Ryan Grepper later admitted the cooler cost far more than that to make and ship. About 20,000 backers never got one. A record raise only counts once the product reaches backers, so price every tier against real production and shipping costs.

Conclusion

Kickstarter’s record book moves faster every year. Five of these 20 launched in 2026, and ToolDance X1 passed $12.4M in its first four days, so expect a different list by next October.

If your campaign is aiming for a spot, the work starts months before launch day, and we’d like to hear about it while there’s still time to shape it.

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FAQ

What is the most funded Kickstarter ever?

The eufyMake E1 UV printer, with $46,762,258 from 17,822 backers in 2025. It took the record from Brandon Sanderson’s Secret Novels, which raised $41,754,153 in 2022.

What are the top 10 most funded Kickstarter projects?

As of October 18, 2026:

1. eufyMake E1: $46,762,258
2. Surprise! Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson: $41,754,153
3. The Official Cyberpunk Trading Card Game: $28,353,088
4. Snapmaker U1: $20,614,548
5. Pebble Time: $20,338,986
6. XGIMI TITAN Noir Series: $19,372,823
7. AWOL Vision Aetherion: $18,649,456
8. HeyGears G1X: $18,136,327
9. Neon Odyssey: $16,139,970
10. Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere RPG: $15,149,874

The full ranking above goes to #20, with goals and backer counts.

What is the most backed Kickstarter?

Exploding Kittens, with 219,382 backers in 2015. It raised $8.8M, well below the most funded projects, because most backers pledged the price of a card game. Sanderson’s Secret Novels comes second, with 185,341 backers.

What is the fastest-funded Kickstarter project?

Kingdom Death: Monster 1.5 reached $1M in 19 minutes on November 25, 2016, according to Guinness World Records.

What is the most funded Kickstarter game?

The Official Cyberpunk Trading Card Game, with $28,353,088 in 2026. The most funded board game is Frosthaven, at $12,969,608 in 2020. Neon Odyssey leads tabletop RPGs at $16,139,970, and Shenmue 3 leads video games at $6.3M.

What is the most successful Kickstarter book?

Surprise! Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson, with $41,754,153 from 185,341 backers. It’s also the second most funded Kickstarter project overall.

What percentage of Kickstarter campaigns succeed?

42.74% of Kickstarter projects have reached their funding goal, according to Kickstarter’s stats page as of January 21, 2026. That’s the latest figure Kickstarter has published. Its stats page now redirects to its year in review.

What is the biggest Kickstarter failure?

Coolest Cooler raised $13,285,226 from 62,642 backers in 2014, and about 20,000 of them never received a cooler. Kickstarter now shows “Kickstarter has restricted this creator” on the page. We cover it, along with other cases, in our posts on the biggest crowdfunding failures and Kickstarter scams.