Author Brandon Sanderson, creator of The Stormlight Archive and Mistborn series, has broken the record for crowdfunded tabletop games on Kickstarter. In partnership with developer Brotherwise Games, Sanderson’s Cosmere RPG campaign raised a total of $14,558,854 from 52,658 total backers on Thursday, for an average pledge of $276.48 from each participant. The campaign is still accepting late commitmentsand currently stands at over $14.7 million in revenue.
The loot catapults the Cosmere campaign past the previous most funded board game, Frosthaventhe sequel to Darknesshaven published by Cephalofair Games. That campaign raised nearly $13 million in 2020. It’s also a good sign for Brooklyn-based Kickstarter, which in 2023 marked the second consecutive year of declining revenue in the tabletop category — a category that traditionally accounts for a third of the company’s total crowdfunding revenue.
The game’s popularity among Sanderson fans should come as no surprise given the universe in question. The Cosmere refers to the wider universal umbrella where many of Sanderson’s fictional series are set, including Mistborn, The Stormlight Archives, Elantris, Warbreakerand more. The Cosmere RPG will start by tackling the world of The Stormlight Archives, and will then move on to Mistborn, according to the Kickstarter description.
The success of the Cosmere RPG is Sanderson’s second record-breaking campaign on Kickstarter, and his third overall on that platform. His four-secret novel project remains the most funded campaign of any type on that platform, having raised nearly $42 million. A campaign for Stormlight Archive themed miniatures also raised over $4 million. Additionally, Sanderson ran a hugely successful $24 million Backerkit campaign for leather-bound books earlier this year. All told, that’s about $85 million raised via crowdfunding since 2022.