According to Neowin, Cloud Imperium Games’ long-in-development sci-fi RPG Star Citizen has now officially raised over $900 million from its player community. The project hit the $800 million mark just eight months ago in April 2025, meaning it added another $100 million in under a year. Funding primarily comes from the sale of in-game starships and bundles, some costing thousands of dollars. The game remains in alpha, with the latest update, Alpha 4.4, adding the Nyx star system. The company also confirmed it’s aiming for a 2026 launch for the single-player Squadron 42 campaign, which is now in the polishing stage after being declared feature-complete in 2023.
The Money Keeps Flowing
Let’s just sit with that number for a second. Nine hundred million dollars. From selling digital spaceships for a game that isn’t finished. It’s a model that defies every conventional rule of game development and publishing. And the pace is actually accelerating. Hitting a new $100 million milestone in eight months is faster than the previous one. That tells you the community—or at least, the segment of it willing to spend big—isn’t shrinking. They’re doubling down. The funding tracker on the Roberts Space Industries site is basically a monument to sustained belief, or maybe sunk cost, on a scale we’ve never seen.
Alpha Forever, But Updates Keep Coming
Here’s the thing that often gets lost in the funding frenzy: they are building it. It’s not vaporware. The steady stream of updates in 2025, like orbital lasers, dynamic rain, alien NPCs, and now the entire Nyx system, shows a project that’s inching toward a more complete universe. But “inching” is the operative word. It’s still an alpha. A massively ambitious, staggeringly detailed alpha that you can play parts of, but an alpha nonetheless. The addition of whole star systems is significant, but it also highlights the sheer scale of what’s been promised. How many systems are needed for a “released” game? Nobody really knows.
The Squadron 42 Gamble
The biggest news for the project’s credibility might be the 2026 target for Squadron 42. After “plenty of delays,” having a feature-complete, star-studded campaign in the “polishing stage” is a tangible goal. If they can actually deliver a compelling, finished single-player experience next year, it could change the entire narrative. It would be proof that Cloud Imperium Games can ship a product. But that’s a huge “if.” Game development’s final polish phase is notoriously tricky, and a delay into 2027 or beyond wouldn’t surprise anyone. The pressure to make that campaign exceptional is immense, because it’s the nearest thing to a traditional release this project will ever have.
What Does a Billion Dollars Buy?
So we’re looking at a probable $1 billion crowdfunding total in 2026. It’s almost a certainty at this rate. The question becomes: what is the endgame? There is no publisher to satisfy, no shareholders demanding a return on investment in the traditional sense. The “shareholders” are the players, and their return is the game itself. This creates a development cycle that could, in theory, go on indefinitely, funded by new ship sales and concepts. It’s a completely closed loop. The real test will be if the eventual “1.0” release of the persistent universe can attract a massive, mainstream audience beyond the current dedicated backers. Because once you stop selling dreams and start selling a product, the rules change. For now, though, the money train shows no signs of slowing down.
