14 DAY TRIAL // Exploding Kittens has concluded its crowdfunding campaign, managing to become the most funded project in the games category, and the most backed Kickstarter project ever.
The quirky card game started out with a modest $10k / €8.9k funding goal, which it managed to smash through during its first day. Over the course of the rest of the campaign, Exploding Kittens raised a phenomenal $8.7 / €7.7 million, becoming the most funded games-related project and managing to snatch the record from previous holder, the Ouya Android-based microconsole.
The amount amassed by the Exploding Kittens campaign is the third-largest in Kickstarter history, across all available categories, and even surpassed the "Veronica Mars" movie.
The crowdfuding campaign garnered support from a number of 219,382 backers, making it the most popular project since the platform launched in 2009, and surpassing Reading Rainbow, the former record holder, by more than 100k.
Cats will take over the Internet
It's no wonder the project did so well, since the Internet loves cats and whimsy. The pedigree of the creators also had something to do with its massive and unexpected success.
The card game is easy to pick up and fun, being designed by Xbox game designers Elan Lee and Shane Small, and illustrated by famous web cartoonist Matthew Inman, the creator of The Oatmeal.
The basic premise revolves around drawing cards from a pile until you draw a kitten that goes boom, and the catch is that you can use various cat-defusing cards like laser pointers and catnip sandwiches, or even more devious ones that hamper your opponents' plans, in order to sow some good-natured chaos in the whole experience.
In case you missed the campaign but still want to get on board, you can visit the Exploding Kittens website and sign up to be notified by email when everything is ready to go.