Kickstarter visualized: movies are big, but design projects get more money

Kickstarter, now heading into its fourth year of operations, has become the site of choice to raise money for independent films, iPhone accessories, and many other projects. The New York Times has visualized three years of Kickstarter proposals by category and money raised, giving us a good look at what people are supporting. Unsurprisingly, the highest average funding went to design projects like the Pebble wristwatch, which has beaten all previous records with over $7 million in backing, but the film and video project category actually takes in fully twice as much in pledges: people have pledged $60 million to movies, compared to $29 million for design projects.

The tiny number of design projects, though, still makes the number above noteworthy. The average successful video project (of which there are over 7,000) takes in around $8,200, while a mere 850 live or successful design projects have made closer to $30,000 apiece — although some of that my be skewed upwards by highly successful projects like the Pebble. It’s also interesting to note which categories aren’t generating as much interest. Both publishing and comics, for example, have relatively few successful projects compared to the juggernauts of music and video, although there’s not much difference in how much the average successful proposal gets. Gaming, meanwhile, seems to have taken off suddenly of late, with several high-profile projects gathering huge support. Check out the whole graphic to see the rest of the categories, including the woefully undersupported dance section.