Kickstarter’s new head of games is ex-Exploding Kittens, Greater than Games sales specialist Maggie Clayton

Kickstarter has named Exploding Kittens Inc’s senior sales manager Maggie Clayton as its new head of games, as the crowdfunding giant continues its battle against tabletop-focused competitors Gamefound and BackerKit.

Clayton spent almost three years at Exploding Kittens as senior sales manager and North American sales manager, following a four-year stint working in sales and marketing at tabletop publishers Greater Than Games.

She replaces Jon Ritter-Roderick, who will lead creator strategy on the new Kickstarter Performance team after two years as head of games – one of the crowdfunding heavyweight’s biggest categories.

Kickstarter highlighted Clayton’s expertise working with both large and small publishers across mass market, specialty, and distribution sales, as well as product development and operations.

Clayton’s hire comes amid rising pressure on Kickstarter from new competitors in the tabletop crowdfunding space.

Gamefound, which began life as a Kickstarter pledge manager in 2015, has emerged as a major player since transitioning to the medium in 2022 – with Kickstarter’s own revenues in the sector dropping in both years since according to data supplied to Polygon by Tabletop Analytics.

Kickstarter declined to provide Polygon with annual revenue data this year for the first time in almost a decade, but Tabletop Analytics’ data showed its tabletop revenue falling from a record $270m in 2021 to about $226m last year – a drop of more than 16%, following seven years of consecutive revenue rises from 2014.

Despite that continued drop, 2023’s figure from Tabletop Analytics remains well above the $176.3m revealed by Kickstarter as its 2019 revenue – the last year before the Covid-19 pandemic and resultant lockdowns caused a temporary surge in tabletop game purchases across the board.

Kickstarter has not commented on the accuracy of the 2023 figures, but Polygon said its analysis of Tabletop Analytics’ historical data found that it had always closely matched Kickstarter’s publicly released numbers in the past.

Kickstarter has said that it saw a 17% increase in the number of successful projects in 2023, and a 14% increase in the number of games projects launched compared to 2022.

Gamefound scored the biggest tabletop fundraising campaign of 2023 with sci-fi survival horror game Nemesis’ standalone expansion Nemesis: Retaliation raising more than $12.1m – the third biggest board game crowdfunding campaign of all time behind Frosthaven ($12.9m) and Kingdom Death Monster 1.5 ($12.3m).

Gamefound also proved it had strength in depth by scoring five of the top 10 most-funded board games of the year. They included The Witcher: Path of Destiny ($6.4m), S.T.A.L.K.E.R The Board Game ($4.7m) and The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal Of The Second Era ($4.6m).

Kickstarter scored big raises of its own with games including Battletech: Mercenaries ($7.5m), but was kept from holding all of the remaining five slots of the top ten by BackerKit’s Gloomhaven Grand Festival campaign ($5.5m) – a powerful early success for the new platform.

A major blow for Kickstarter’s tabletop revenue came in February this year, when board game crowdfunding major CMON signed an exclusivity deal with Gamefound after 12 years of running Kickstarter projects.

CMON launched four Kickstarter projects last year representing about $11.9m, with its biggest successes comprising Marvel United: Multiverse at $4.8m, Zombicide: White Death at $3.8m and DCeased – A Zombicide Game at $2.6m.

Other former Kickstarter-using publishers which have since launched campaigns on Gamefound include Matagot and Chip Theory Games.

Nick Yulman, Kickstarter’s director of outreach, said, “Maggie’s deep industry experience and respected standing make her an ideal leader for our games team.

“Her background in marketing and sales at Exploding Kittens, and her collaborations with indie creators at Greater Than Games, give her a comprehensive understanding of what it takes to bring games to life.

“It’s striking how beloved she is in the industry – experienced creators and former colleagues have all sung her praises. I’m excited for her to bring a fresh vision to Games at Kickstarter, build on our success, and ensure that we remain the premier platform for launching games.”

Clayton added, “I am thrilled to join a platform that has consistently been at the forefront of bringing innovative projects to life.

“Kickstarter’s commitment to the games community is evident, and there’s an exciting new momentum around our efforts to provide creators with the tools they need to succeed.

“I look forward to building upon that foundation to continue meeting the evolving needs of creators and helping them achieve success.”