Kickstarter on Monday announced it surpasses $1 billion in pledges, more than half of which was pledged in the past 12 months.
The crowdsourcing platform, which launched in April 2009, has had a slow steady increase in pledges over the years as this chart shows:

Image: Kickstarter
The pledges meanwhile, came from 5,708,578 people in 224 countries across seven continents.
See also: Kickstarter Pledges Hit $913 Per Minute in 2013, With Few Breakout Hits
In a blog post announcing the milestone, Kickstarter highlighted some Kickstarter backers including author Neil Gaiman and Espen Artzen, a man who lives in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway, a two-hour flight from the North Pole. Despite his remote location, Artzen uses Kickstarter to connect with the world.
The post also notes that there have been 13 backers named dad, five named grandpa, 17 named grandma and 18 named Mom. "Clearly, moms are the best," the post adds.
Wednesdays are also the best day for pledging:

Finally, the post points out that the $1 billion could fund one Instagram. Not mentioned: The figure could also go towards 1/19th of WhatsApp.