I’ve been a huge supporter of Kickstarter for a few years, throwing some cash towards a large number of video game, comic, and film projects. With the growing success of crowdfunding projects, many mainstream artists have turned to the service to fund their projects, from the Veronica Mars film adaptation to Elzhi’s new album, as well as many, many independent studios and companies funding their dream projects.

Recently, Kickstarter released their statistics from 2013, and they’re very lofty numbers. Three million people across 214 different countries pledged $480 million to various projects last year, with close to 20,000 projects (19,911 projects to be exact) being successfully funded. Crowdfunding has seen a growth in popularity in recent years, with Kickstarter and IndieGoGo being the top two services offered. 2014 should be an even bigger and better year for aspiring creatives.

[via Kickstarter]