Board games have emerged as one of the champions of Kickstarter, with many high-profile success stories. Able to guarantee a market and raise funding in advance, Kickstarter board games can allow themselves to be ambitious and experimental, whether it be through the use of new IPs, in-depth and detailed mechanics, or high-quality materials like miniatures.
Although not every board game on Kickstarter raises millions, there have been several projects that captured the attention of thousands of backers. Making at least several million in funding, Kickstarter has seen board games be famously successful before they've become anything more than an idea.
10 Darkest Dungeon Brought The Stressful Video Game To The Tabletop
Board games that are adaptations of popular video games often do well on Kickstarter. Already a surprising success as a video game, Darkest Dungeon came to Kickstarter in 2020, promising to recreate the tense game of attrition and dark setting in a tabletop format.
The campaign received $5,657,479 in funding from nearly 29,000 backers. Propelled in part by the video game's popularity, this saw Darkest Dungeon become fully backed almost instantly with a number of stretch goals completed as well. Although Darkest Dungeon has not yet been fully released, an online demo is playable on Tabletop Simulator.
9 Tainted Grail: The Fall Of Avalon Is A Co-Op Arthurian Adventure
Despite a great many board games being competitive experiences that pit player against player, cooperative games have thrived in recent years, particularly on Kickstarter. Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is one of these. It's a storytelling cooperative adventure game that has 1-4 players make their way through a world full of Arthurian and Celtic mythology.
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon earned $5,938,963 in support on Kickstarter, and saw a physical release in 2019. It has since had distribution waves and expansions, including in other languages, that released through to 2022. In addition, a video game called Tainted Grail: Conquest was released and a video game adaptation of The Fall of Avalon is in development.
8 Nemesis: Lockdown Is A Standalone Sci-Fi Horror Expansion
Awaken Realms do very well on Kickstarter and have a number of notable successes. In addition to the Tainted Grail series, another game that reached the highest ranks of Kickstarter board games is Nemesis: Lockdown, a standalone expansion to Awaken Realms' earlier title, Nemesis.
Nemesis is a sci-fi horror game, casting the players as unlikely survivors who attempt to stand their ground against the horrors pursuing them. Lockdown is playable without the base game, but also compatible with it. The game expands the playable roster, enemies, and other materials. It raised $6,220,340 from over 41,000 backers.
7 The Witcher: Old World Is Tabletop Monster Slaying
Drawing in fans of both the books and the video games, The Witcher: Old World uses the setting and the monsters of The Witcher series, but takes the action away from Geralt of Rivia. Instead, players control one of five Witchers, and seek to explore the world, go on adventures, and slay monsters.
Old World can be played either competitively or cooperatively; players either work together to defeat fearsome threats or seek to outdo the others with their feats. The game raised $7,020,146 on Kickstarter. Despite an expected release in June 2022, the game's release has been pushed back due to production complications.
6 The Binding Of Isaac: Four Souls Requiem Captures Its Video Game Origins
One of the most popular Roguelike games ever made, The Binding of Isaac is a complex and difficult video game. It's designed to make the player to fail repeatedly until luck and skill see them successful. Much of this energy is brought to its video game adaptation, The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls, including its expansion, Four Souls Requiem.
Four Souls Requiem takes the faithful translation of the base game and adds in even more mechanics, characters, and modifiers to help the board game stand out and to capture even more of its origins. Building on the positive word-of-mouth for Four Souls, Four Souls Requiem achieved $6,720,471 in funding.
5 The 7th Continent - What Goes Up Must Come Down Adds A Huge Amount Of Exploration Content
On Kickstarter, expansions to board games can do as well as or better than the base game itself. The 7th Continent is an exploration board game that takes inspiration from the Choose Your Own Adventure books, guiding the player as they explore a mysterious new landmass and attempt to break a curse afflicting them.
What Goes Up Most Come Down is an expansion to The 7th Continent, adding hours of additional content and exploration for players to engage with. It far outdid its parent game, receiving $7,072,757 in support on Kickstarter ahead of its release.
4 Exploding Kittens Broke Records
A simpler and less prop-heavy game than many of the other Kickstarter success stories, Exploding Kittens is an elimination-based card game. Players have to draw cards from the deck while avoiding the titular kittens, which remove a player from the game when drawn. They use their other cards to manipulate draws, look at the deck, and interfere with other players.
Released with a goal of just $10,000, Exploding Kittens earned a total of $8,782,571 from over 219,000 backers, becoming notable and newsworthy for how well-supported it was. Exploding Kittens has held the record for the most-backed project on Kickstarter, while also being high up the list of the best-funded.
3 Marvel Zombies Combined A Beloved Game With A Good License
Zombicide is a zombie apocalypse board game that has been very successful in numerous iterations on Kickstarter. The most successful of these versions is Marvel Zombies, adapting the game for the well-loved Marvel comic series, also recently seen in What If....?
With rules for playing as either zombified heroes or the last superpowered survivors of humanity, the game expands on the base Zombicide ruleset in a number of ways. The combination of previous successes and the Marvel IP saw Marvel Zombies reach $9,032,583 on Kickstarter, and has begun physical production.
2 Kingdom Death: Monster 1.5 Updated A Modern Classic
One of the most beloved artisanal board games of recent years is Kingdom Death: Monster. It's a grim and nightmarish game that's set in a dark world where the player characters hunt monsters to upgrade their settlements. Kingdom Death: Monster has become infamous and popular for its lurid imagery and twisted storytelling, as well as its high quality miniatures.
Kingdom Death: Monster received an updated ruleset and more availability with Kingdom Death: Monster 1.5. Due to the high prestige of the original game and the quality of the improved rules, Kingdom Death: Monster 1.5 quickly proved immensely popular on Kickstarter. It earned $12,393,139 in backing and vastly overshot its high expectations.
1 Frosthaven Is The Sequel To A Beloved Game
Few games have been more successful in recent years than Gloomhaven, a tactical dungeon-crawler that tells an evolving narrative campaign as players experience it. Although only modestly successful on Kickstarter, Gloomhaven quickly attracted prestige. It's described as one of the best board games ever made.
As such, its sequel, Frosthaven, sparked immediate interest. Frosthaven received a total of $12,969,608, well in excess of its $500,000 goal. It is the highest-funded game ever backed on Kickstarter, and is scheduled for release in September 2022.