Kickstarter, the popular crowd-funding website, has so far managed to attract over $1 billion in pledges. Games make up the single most popular area of crowd investment, with $216 million put up by fans so far.
The site has been in business since 2009, but its snowballing popularity means that half of the pledges made by the community were made in the last 12 months. Another interesting factoid is that pledges have come from 224 countries in all seven continents (yes, that includes Antarctica where 11 backers pledged $3,707).
Pledges may have totaled $1 billion, but the number actually paid to projects sits closer to $859 million. Successful examples of games related projects that have made it through to being financed include Double Fine's Broken Age, Elite: Dangerous, Planetary Annihilation, Wasteland 2 and the Ouya console and Oculus Rift.