5 December 2025

Star Citizen Has Now Raised Over $900 Million

By newsgame

Star Citizen, the highly ambitious space simulation game, has reportedly passed another significant funding milestone, having raised over $900 million from early backers. Despite Star Citizen‘s massive crowdfunding, there still appears to be no release date in sight, with the highly anticipated title remaining in alpha/early access at the time of writing. Although a 1.0 launch is being planned by the developers, Cloud Imperium Games, fans are skeptical about whether or not it will ever leave early access.

Pre-production of Star Citizen began all the way back in 2010, before the founding of Cloud Imperium Games in 2012. The project is helmed by Chris Roberts, who co-founded the studio and previously worked on the iconic Wing Commander franchise in the 1990s. Star Citizen was then officially revealed in the same year as Cloud Imperium Games’ inception, quickly becoming a highly anticipated release for science fiction lovers due to its ambitious ideas. The game has remained in development ever since, with fans first being able to play tidbits of Star Citizen in 2013, followed by an official early access release in 2017. It has since continued to receive a steady stream of updates, but as funding continues to mount, many are questioning when it will receive a full 1.0 launch.

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Star Citizen Has Raised $900 Million In Funding

Initially, Star Citizen received funding through a Kickstarter campaign and raised more than $2 million in fan donations. These days, however, it generates funds via in-game transactions. Players are even able to purchase an ‘Ultimate Explorer Pack’ for more than $1,000. These controversial prices have now led Star Citizen to surpass another funding milestone, as Entertainment Niche reports the space title has now hit $900 million in lifetime crowdfunding. In just 2025 alone, Star Citizen has managed to raise over $120 million, making it an astonishing year for Cloud Imperium Games. Unfortunately, as its funding approaches the shocking $1 billion mark, fans are continuing to question why there is still no release date in sight, despite being in development for well over a decade.

Cloud Imperium Games’ single-player title Squadron 42 is speculated to be one of the reasons. While Star Citizen is an MMO sci-fi game, Squadron 42 is its single-player counterpart, which the studio supposedly believes may launch in 2026. However, much like Star Citizen, the title has been in development for over a decade and has also faced countless delays. It also features an absolutely stacked cast of Hollywood actors, including Mark Hamill, Gary Oldman, Gillian Anderson, Mark Strong, Andy Serkis, Henry Cavill, Damson Idris, and many more.

There’s no denying that Star Citizen is one of the most ambitious titles of all time, as it is attempting to incorporate numerous large-scale features into a single game. One single universe with hundreds of systems, planets, and moons, all seamlessly explorable. Space combat, trading, mining, exploration, intricate ship systems, and more – Star Citizen is attempting to be one of the biggest games in video game history, so it’s no surprise that it has been in development for over a decade.

However, fans are beginning to grow impatient and question where the hundreds of millions of dollars raised are going. Constant delays and expensive in-game microtransactions, which some have labelled as “pay to win,” are just some of the reasons why Star Citizen isn’t just one of the most anticipated games of all time, it’s also one of the most controversial.

If Star Citizen surpasses $1 billion in crowdfunding, which it is expected to do in the next 12 months if it continues on the same trend, it will be a part of an elite club. For reference, the next most expensive game developed and released so far is Grand Theft Auto 5, which cost approximately $265 million in total. However, reports now suggest that the next installment in the series has already cost more than $1 billion. If true, Grand Theft Auto 6 and Star Citizen would be the only two games in existence with such monumental budgets. The two titles, both of which are the most highly anticipated games of all time, also share something else in common: delays. Grand Theft Auto 6 was delayed once again this year, pushing it back to November 19, 2026.