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by evoxed 4903 days ago

  TEXT-ONLY VERSION FOR MOBILE BROWSERS &C;
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From groundbreaking projects to inspiring stories, 2012 was a year of many memorable moments on Kickstarter.

To celebrate the year that was, our team put together this look back at some of our favorite projects and moments. We hope you enjoy!

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Let's begin with some numbers

In 2012 2,241,475 people

pledged a total of $319,786,629

and successfully funded 18,109 projects

Backers pledged $606.76 per minute to projects in 2012

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Of the 2.2 million people who backed a project in 2012

570,672 people backed two or more projects

50,047 people backed ten or more projects

452 people backed 100 or more projects

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People in 177 countries backed a project in 2012

That's 90% of the countries in the world

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Of Kickstarter's 13 creative categories

Music had the most funded projects with 5,067

Games had the most money pledged at $83 million

Art, Film, Music, Publishing, and Theater each had more than 1,000 funded projects

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17 projects raised $1 million+ in 2012

1 comments

January

10% of the films at Sundance are Kickstarter-funded

19 films selected; four win top prizes (http://www.kickstarter.com/pages/Sundance2012?ref=yir2012)

FUBAR hits the New York Times Best Sellers List (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1607639297/fubar-2-empir...)

The Kickstarter Popsicle Little Bee Pops celebrates backers with a new flavor (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/730155451/little-bee-pop...)

Incident in New Baghdad nominated for an Oscar Second Kickstarter-funded film to be nominated (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1941167757/incident-in-n...)

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February

Double Fine Adventure (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doublefine/double-fine-a... ) kicks off a huge year for games

Games in 2012: 561,574 backers $83,144,565 pledged 2,796 projects

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March

Backers make Chattanooga the first US city with its own font Font integrated into bike lanes, billboards, and even the public library, then released online for free (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chatype/chatype-a-typefa...)

Stanford teaches Kickstarter for class credit (Our Kickstarter School is still free) (http://www.kickstarter.com/pages/storyviz?ref=yir2012)

A Kickstarter-funded bus stop in Georgia Athens artist spices up the morning commute (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1016187241/the-love-shac...)

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April

Google Maps integrates images from DIY mapping project (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1775485688/balloon-mappi...)

Dark Sky app predicts the weather (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jackadam/dark-sky-hyperl...)

Air Quality Egg makes fighting pollution awesome (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/edborden/air-quality-egg...)

Kickstarter turns three (http://www.kickstarter.com/blog/happy-3rd-birthday-kickstart...)

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May

Classical music goes open source Musopen and Open Goldberg Variations release recordings to the public domain (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/Musopen/record-and-relea...) (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/293573191/open-goldberg-...)

Cards Against Humanity tops the Amazon charts Friends make irreverent card game, sell 100,000+ copies, ruin family gatherings forever (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/maxtemkin/cards-against-...)

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June

A Kickstarter-funded opera premieres at the Kennedy Center 188 backers help produce Paola Prestini’s Oceanic Verses (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/MexicoSings/oceanic-vers...)

MaKey MaKey inspires the world’s first banana piano One project, infinite possibilities (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joylabs/makey-makey-an-i...)

Open source geiger counters measure radiation levels in Japan (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/seanbonner/safecast-x-ki...)

Musician writes songs for backers, including his grandma The cutest thing we saw all year (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2031742392/he-said-she-s...)

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July

Kentucky sixth-graders send a camera to space (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/scifres/the-edge-and-bac...)

Design firm Final Frontier develops a civilian space suit (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/872281861/final-frontier...)

Publisher's Weekly calls Kickstarter the #2 publisher of graphic novels (http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/co...)

Kickstarter gets parodied The New Yorker, The Daily Show, Portlandia, McSweeney's, The Onion, Funny or Die, and others make us laugh (http://www.newyorker.com/humor/issuecartoons/2012/07/30/cart...) (http://www.kick-stopper.com/) (http://www.ifc.com/portlandia/videos/portlandia-kickstarter) (http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/welcome-to-the-official-k...) (http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/70f7ef3d34/bar-refaeli-s-se...)

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August

T-Rex wins Olympic gold Boxer Claressa Shields, subject of the doc T-Rex, triumphs in London (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zcdc/t-rex/posts/286163)

87 projects go to Burning Man Art cars, bathroom beacons, laser lights, oh my! (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/search?term=burning+man)

Kickstarter-funded journalists cover the world (http://www.kickstarter.com/pages/journalism?ref=yir2012)

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September

Amanda Palmer debuts in the Billboard Top Ten Thanks 24,883 backers with a block party (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/amandapalmer/amanda-palm...)

The world's first pizza museum Philadelphians pay tribute to the glory that is pizza (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2023690459/pizza-brain-t...)

Kindergarten class launches experiments into space (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1569698176/1000-student-...)

XOXO Fest explores the creative universe Kickstarter-funded festival unites artists, creators, and technologists (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/waxpancake/xoxo-festival...)

Projects transform public spaces The Lowline, Kulturpark, and Logan Parklet create new urban environments (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/855802805/lowline-an-und...) (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1353197694/kulturpark?re...) (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/122241678/lets-build-the...)

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October

The first hackerspace opens in Baghdad (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bilal/baghdad-community-...)

Kickstarter opens to UK creators Picade first to launch, Chime Pavilion first to succeed (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pimoroni/picade-the-arca...) (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/georginanaishmsa/the-chi...)

Photography exhibition travels across Afghanistan (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/52943134/streets-of-afgh...)

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November

OpenROV sends underwater robots around the world (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/openrov/openrov-the-open...)

Atlanta's first squirrel census Turns out, there are even more squirrels than we thought (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jamiewashere/inman-park-...)

Windowfarms grow in the American Museum of Natural History (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/windowfarms/learn-to-gro...)

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December

63 Kickstarter-funded films (http://www.kickstarter.com/pages/filmsintheaters?ref=yir2012) open in theaters

The first marriage proposal via Kickstarter project (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1042570429/the-last-door...)

The Griz Coat (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hansr/griz-coat?ref=yir2...) makes bear hugs even better (Aaron's dancing skills not included)

2012: The Stats

  Total pledged
  $319,786,629
  +221% from 2011
  
  Total collected
  $274,391,721
  +238% from 2011
  
  Total backers
  2,241,475
  +134% from 2011
  
  Pageviews
  709 million
  +279% from 2011
  
  Unique visitors
  86 million
  +252% from 2011
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  Category      Launched        Successful      Pledged         Pledges
  Art           3,783           1,837           $10,477,939     155,782
  Comics        1,170           542             $9,242,233      177,070
  Dance         512             381             $1,773,304      23,807
  Design        1,882           759             $50,124,041     536,469
  Fashion       1,659           434             $6,317,799      83,067
  Film & Video  9,600           3,891           $57,951,876     647,361
  Food          1,828           688             $11,117,486     138,204
  Games         2,796           911             $83,144,565     1,378,143
  Music         9,086           5,067           $34,953,600     522,441
  Photography   1,197           427             $3,283,635      46,550
  Publishing    5,634           1,666           $15,311,251     262,738
  Technology    831             312             $29,003,932     270,912
  Theater       1,787           1,194           $7,084,968      95,225
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Thank you!

Thanks to everyone for making 2012 an unforgettable year. Here's to an amazing 2013!

Love, Team Kickstarter Perry, Yancey, Charles, Lance, Cassie, Fred, Andrew, Brett, Cindy, Daniella, Cedric, Samuel, Kendel, Mike, Justin, Meaghan, Tieg, Elisabeth, Jed, Jared, Cooper, Nicole, Aaron, Zack, Stephanie, Aurora, Callan, Jessica, Alex, Chris, Andrew, Dan, Brandon, Tomasz, Katherine, Bridget, Erik, Emily, Shannon, Niina, Bethany, Ian, Luke, Michal, Aaron, Eli, Chris, Leland, Michael, Ellen, Shayne & Jake (http://www.kickstarter.com/team?ref=yir2012)

P.S.: We're hiring! (http://www.kickstarter.com/jobs?ref=yir2012)