2023 was a huge success for Star Citizen as the space-sim game achieved the biggest crowdfunding year to date.
Space games are never an easy game to develop, space is vast, it is endless and it is an incredibly notable feat to try and simulate that. While most projects that try to simulate space, end up falling flat, things seem to be looking promising for Star Citizen as the massive space sim game has once again achieved the biggest crowdfunding year – six years in a row.
Star Citizen is still an ongoing project and has been that way for quite some time now. The game first entered development in 2011 and was slated for a 2014 release, but as stated earlier, games that attempt to replicate the vastness of space tend to underestimate the sheer scope of such a project and tend to underdeliver. Such was the case with the initial release of No Man’s Sky or more recently, Star Field.
Sadly, due to the scope of the project, the game was continually delayed and as of writing has yet to get a full release date. That doesn’t mean the game isn’t doing well, in fact, fans have pledged nearly $117.5 million dollars to the project in 2023 alone.
This also marks an important part in the game’s development history and is the sixth year in a row that Cloud Imperium Games has successfully reached its crowdfunding tally. This is a massive improvement compared to previous years which showed that fans were losing interest in the project, starting from 2017. Another achievement for the project is that it has passed 5 million registered accounts.
Star Citizen is looking better and better with each passing year, there seems to be an ever-growing interest in the project, even during rough patches in its development as seen in March 2023, with the less than desired release of Alpha 3.18 due to new unstable technology.