Star Citizen crowdfunding passes $800 million, raising $100 million every year since 2022

[Daniel Sims]

The big picture: Star Citizen and its single-player component, Squadron 42, have faced repeated delays since Cloud Imperium Games first announced the ambitious space sandbox project nearly 13 years ago. Despite ongoing skepticism and accusations that the company's crowdfunding campaign is a scam, recent years have marked its most financially successful period. While many continue to question whether the games will ever reach version 1.0, others have started to place bets on whether Cloud Imperium will surpass $1 billion in funding first.

Crowdfunding for Star Citizen currently stands at just over $801 million. Although the space MMO has been in development for more than a decade with no official release date, Cloud Imperium Games raised over $100 million in the last year alone.

Wing Commander series creator Chris Roberts launched the crowdfunding campaign in 2012 with the goal of creating a spiritual successor to the iconic sci-fi franchise. Star Citizen aims to blend spaceflight simulation with first-person shooter gameplay, enabling hundreds of players to interact seamlessly across different planets and while flying through space.

Credit: This and other in-game screenshots below were taken by hasgaha. See more of his work here.

Although still in its alpha phase after so many years, the game is playable and receives frequent updates. Backers can download the alpha client, and the game occasionally hosts free-to-play events. While many features are still in active development and bugs remain common, a dedicated community continues to explore and test each new release.

The alpha reached version 4.0 in December, introducing a new solar system with multiple explorable planets and debuting Star Citizen's much-anticipated server meshing feature. This system allows multiple servers to work together, letting players travel between different areas – stations, cities, and planets – without loading screens.

Up to 500 players can currently interact within a single server group. In recent months, Cloud Imperium has also added new ships, weapons, environments, AI behaviors, and numerous gameplay tweaks.

For the eventual full release, the company promises a main storyline, base building, crafting systems, a player-driven economy, and various social features. The space simulation will also expand to include more planets, a deeper persistent universe, life support mechanics, radiation hazards, ship engineering, taxes, insurance systems, and even an in-game sports league.

The single-player story mode, Squadron 42, has likewise seen its share of delays. Last year, the company released an hour-long gameplay showcase of the cinematic space adventure, featuring performances by Gillian Anderson, Henry Cavill, Gary Oldman, and Mark Strong. Promising 30 to 40 hours of narrative-driven gameplay, Roberts has stated that Squadron 42 is now expected to be ready by 2026.

Despite the project's lengthy development cycle and unprecedented budget, funding has accelerated significantly since 2020. Cloud Imperium raised more than $100 million in each of the past three years, with its most successful months – such as May 2023 and November 2024 – bringing in over $20 million each.

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Star Citizen crowdfunding passes $800 million, raising $100 million every year since 2022

 

[Squid Surprise]

Well, got to hand it to Chris Roberts…. One of the most successful games in history and hasn’t had to spend a dime… or deliver a finished product…

Cue the “is it a scam or not debate” now…

 

[NumberNine]

Maybe when he passes away his descendents will be able to finish the game.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Maybe when he passes away his descendents will be able to finish the game.

My guess is that, eventually, someone will buy him out (or he dies) and hire competent people to finish the game. Kind of how Freelancer went… whether that finished game will be any good is another story…

 

[psycros]

If the game offered tactical ship combat (think Star Trek or EVE Online) right out of the gate I'd have already signed up. No interest in playing "biplanes in space".

 

[toooooot]

My guess is that, eventually, someone will buy him out (or he dies) and hire competent people to finish the game. Kind of how Freelancer went… whether that finished game will be any good is another story…

I fear an alternative scenario. Someone buys it and slaps extreme monetization inside to get their money back.

 

[Eldrach]

Well - suckers will be suckers. Always someone willing to pay a huge amount of money for hopes and dreams

 

[yRaz]

If the game offered tactical ship combat (think Star Trek or EVE Online) right out of the gate I'd have already signed up. No interest in playing "biplanes in space".

As someone who plays EvE, that's not what they're going for.

 

[Puiu]

I still don't get who is still giving them so much money for so many years.

 

[Peter Farkas]

Has it become a money laundering operation by now? How can so much money be spent on an unreleased game?

 

[Anton Longshot]

It amuses me to see that the slogan "Save the Whales" serves no purpose: there are plenty whales out there. :-D

 

[guillejp]

"Despite the project's lengthy development cycle and unprecedented budget, funding has accelerated significantly since 2020. Cloud Imperium raised more than $100 million in each of the past three years, with its most successful months – such as May 2023 and November 2024 – bringing in over $20 million each."

Wow... Just wow... So teasing Squadron 42 ACCELERATED the inflow of money... Wow

 

[mgwerner]

It amuses me to see that the slogan "Save the Whales" serves no purpose: there are plenty whales out there. :-D

In the 80s there was a button I saw on a guitar strap, said "Nuke the gay whales for Christ." Maybe we are supposed to save them from that fate.......
https://buttonmuseum.org/buttons/nuke-gay-whale-christ

 

[VitalyT]

Maybe when he passes away his descendents will be able to finish the game.

No, his descendants will carry on scavenging for more funds, faithful to the original spirit.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

"Despite the project's lengthy development cycle and unprecedented budget, funding has accelerated significantly since 2020. Cloud Imperium raised more than $100 million in each of the past three years, with its most successful months – such as May 2023 and November 2024 – bringing in over $20 million each."

Wow... Just wow... So teasing Squadron 42 ACCELERATED the inflow of money... Wow

You gotta hand it to him, he found his mark - millions of "gamurz" willing to throw their wallet at a project founded on hopes and wishes. He gets to live in his mega mansion, drive a lambo, and never have to work a day in his life while those with sunk cost fallacy fight tooth and nail to defend $20000 digital starship NFTs.

In two years we'll be looking at the first BILLION dollar game in history. Adjusted for inflation, that's more then two entire HALO trilogies, and taken longer to boot. It's more expensive then 5 "Marvel's Spider Man" titles. That's almost 4x the cost of both development and marketing of GTA V. Everspace 2 cost $15 million to make, and many compare it to star citizen's ship combat and gameplay. We've had entire console generations during this games' dev time And was it worth it?

 

[godrilla]

According to a Google search Squadron 42 is targeted to release in 2026. Don't hold your FTL breaths!

 

[lonetac]

Funny how everyone looses their minds on EA games and Switch 2 prices and then you have this...

 

[nitebird]

As an SC player, try it during the free trial periods (next one in May I think) and you'll see why people don't mind backing the project. A buggy mess yes, but promising.

 

[RobJoy]

I still don't get who are giving them so much money for so many years.

People who actually take time and listen to their developer diaries every week, and play the game.
Yes, there is a game. Buggy in some aspects, but loads of content none the less, and getting better and better every year.

If you want a game on a silver platter that says "FINISHED" on the label, you won't get it, until it actually launches.

 

[scavengerspc]

In the 80s there was a button I saw on a guitar strap, said "Nuke the gay whales for Christ."

Oh, God!
I bet those are the whales we used to hear about that bit off the tips of Navy submarines and
sucked out all the Seaman.

 

[RaXelliX]

People who actually take time and listen to their developer diaries every week, and play the game.
Yes, there is a game. Buggy in some aspects, but loads of content none the less, and getting better and better every year.

If you want a game on a silver platter that says "FINISHED" on the label, you won't get it, until it actually launches.

What I want is them to lock down the endless feature creep. Finish what you have and polish it to release it. Instead what they're doing is constantly adding more and more to an never-ending train.

No one cares how good or big the game actually is. Most people might even be okay with minor bugs on launch, but until it launches it's just a playable alpha.

If you're ok giving your money to something like that for ten years without a finished product then fine. Im not your mom, but don't expect others to not call it a scam at worst and a failed project at best after ten years, 800m raised and not even a slice of the game properly released.

If they want to release they have to lock it down and release it as 1.0. Then they can work on 2.0 for the next ten years. Until they commit to this I see it as nothing but a failure.

 

[BobHome]

My guess is that, eventually, someone will buy him out (or he dies) and hire competent people to finish the game. Kind of how Freelancer went… whether that finished game will be any good is another story…

I worked for a defense company a while back and someone had a sign up:
'At some point you have to shoot the engineer and put the product into manufacturing.'

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

You gotta hand it to him, he found his mark - millions of "gamurz" willing to throw their wallet at a project founded on hopes and wishes. He gets to live in his mega mansion, drive a lambo, and never have to work a day in his life while those with sunk cost fallacy fight tooth and nail to defend $20000 digital starship NFTs.

In two years we'll be looking at the first BILLION dollar game in history. Adjusted for inflation, that's more then two entire HALO trilogies, and taken longer to boot. It's more expensive then 5 "Marvel's Spider Man" titles. That's almost 4x the cost of both development and marketing of GTA V. Everspace 2 cost $15 million to make, and many compare it to star citizen's ship combat and gameplay. We've had entire console generations during this games' dev time And was it worth it?

Yeah, but that's how the "profit-before-production" model works. Roberts gets to live and play like a fat cat video game producer without actually having to launch a game.

 

[Godel]

People who actually take time and listen to their developer diaries every week, and play the game.
Yes, there is a game. Buggy in some aspects, but loads of content none the less, and getting better and better every year.

If you want a game on a silver platter that says "FINISHED" on the label, you won't get it, until it actually launches.

You frequently won't get it until after it launches, and publishers have provided several attempts at bug fixes.

 

[yannus]

I don't know much about this game, but it doesn't look more absurd than all the AAA games that people buy. At least, it looks ambitious and the graphics look cool.