The median funded campaign
has 147 backers.
We measured 461 funded United States Kickstarter campaigns that closed between June and September 2026. Here are the figures, with the method and its limits stated.
What the sample shows
Of 461 funded United States campaigns, 60% finished with fewer than 200 backers, 84% with fewer than 500, and 91% with fewer than 1,000. The median raised $10,455 at 372% of goal. The largest campaign in the sample drew 8,946 backers, which is why the average of 437 is a worse description of a normal campaign than the median of 147.
Where 500 comes from
Kickstarter's own handbook tells creators: If you're working with over 500 packages,
consider working with a fulfillment partner.
That is a reasonable line to draw. It also
means the advice starts above where most funded campaigns finish.
The handbook counts packages and this sample counts backers. For most campaigns the two sit close together, since a backer usually receives one parcel. Tiers that ship several units to one address move the count in the other direction.
84% of the funded campaigns measured here stay below that threshold. A creator with 147 backers still has 147 parcels to pack, address and post, and reads that the industry starts paying attention at 500.
What is being funded
The sample skews hard toward print and tabletop:
- Comics: 31% of campaigns (142)
- Games: 22% of campaigns (101)
- Publishing: 16% of campaigns (75)
- Design: 11% of campaigns (51)
- Technology: 8% of campaigns (38)
- Art: 4% of campaigns (20)
Those categories share a fulfillment shape: many small parcels, several variants per campaign, and sorting that matters as much as packing. A comic with four cover editions is a sorting job before it is a shipping job.
How the sample was built
The figures come from 461 campaigns marked successful on Kickstarter's public discovery endpoint, filtered to the United States, that closed between June 13, 2026 and September 2, 2026. Only aggregate numbers are published here. No creator, project or link from the sample appears on this page.
The limit worth stating: collection retains only campaigns with 50 backers or more. Everything smaller is missing from these percentages, so the real share of funded campaigns below each threshold is higher than the figures above. The bias runs against our own argument, not for it.
Our rates for a campaign of this size are on the Kickstarter fulfillment page, and the fulfillment guide covers the arithmetic behind them.