Exploding Kittens, a card game produced by the collaboration between video game designers Elan Lee and Shane Small and The Oatmeal illustrator Matthew Inman, has now achieved the feat of becoming the Kickstarter campaign with the most backers.
Since the launch of the card game's crowdfunding campaign on Jan. 20, Exploding Kittens has now raised almost $5 million as of the evening of Jan. 30, well beyond the initial goal of only $10,000.
Exploding Kittens has also drawn over 120,000 backers, already beating the previous record set by LeVar Burton's Reading Rainbow campaign of 105,857 backers in July of last year.
The crowdfunding campaign of the card game will last until Feb. 19, and with the popularity of Exploding Kittens, these already record-breaking figures will surely have grown by then.
Lee, in a CNN interview, described Exploding Kittens as a "strategic, kitty-powered version of Russian Roulette," with the game getting more intense over time due to higher chances of drawing into an exploding kitten card.
According to Kickstarter community manager for games Luke Crane, the success and popularity of Exploding Kittens is due to the combination of the online popularity of humor website The Oatmeal, the reputation of Lee in the gaming world, and the game-loving community of Kickstarter.
"They love being a part of making something new. And they've pledged a total of $305 million to games projects since Kickstarter first launched," said Crane, adding that Kickstarter had no idea that the popularity of Exploding Kittens will grow to epic proportions.
Shari Spiro, the CEO of Ad Magic, which is the company that will manufacture and ship Exploding Kittens, is thrilled with the success of the card game.
Spiro explained that the "world-class humor" of Exploding Kittens, along with its colorful and funny illustrations, largely contributed to the success of the card game's crowdfunding campaign.
Now, Ad Magic is busy staying on top of the campaign and has not yet thought of other publicity campaigns or events for Exploding Kittens, as the company anticipates just how much the card game will draw on Kickstarter and the number of orders involved.
"When it started taking off I was thinking $7 million, but now I'm thinking it could hit $10 million," said Spiro.
In an official blog post, the team behind the card game, however, attributed the success of Exploding Kittens not to money, publicity or graphics, but rather to the people that have passionately expressed their support.
"It has everything to do with you. You wonderful people have come together to form the largest community in Kickstarter history, and the numbers keep rising," the team wrote.
