Do patreon donations count as revenue?

I don’t know where else to post this, so I guess I’ll post it here. (If anyone knows the proper place to post this, please let me know.)

I’m using a unity personal license which means I can’t make over 100K USD (in a fiscal year) in revenue from my game, otherwise I need to buy a unity pro license.

However, I was wondering whether a Patreon link in the steam description of the game (or whichever platform I publish the game on) would count as revenue made from the game since it would only be there for donations and would not impact people installing/playing the game in any way.

If I made over 100K through that Patreon link, would I need to buy the unity pro license despite the 100K coming from donations? What about a Kickstarter? Does that count as revenue too?

This doesn’t really matter as if I do end up getting over 100K in a year from this game, purchasing a unity pro license wouldn’t be a big deal but I am curious so please let me know. Thanks!

Would you get those sweet kickstarter or patreon dollars without using Unity? If the answer is “yes”, then it doesn’t count. If the answer is no, because you’re gathering income by providing a game made with Unity, then they count toward your revenue in terms of Unity licensing. This is if you aren’t using a legal entity to do your business. If you do, all of your revenue count.

I am not a lawyer, this is my own interpretation of the rules. Read the terms and conditions carefully and make your own educated decision or talk to a lawyer.

ps: Unity probably will change these documents very soon to contain the controversial price changes of this month. So expect changes and come back to reread them soon. For example they are eliminating the Plus tier.

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In the vast majority of countries, this kind of income also counts as tax-relevant revenue for your company (unless it is registered as a charity), so I would be surprised if Unity would see it differently. At least if the product you get the donations for is clearly an Unity game.

If you started a kickstarter engine-independently, it could be an interesting question. However it’s unlikely that you get from a no-engine status at the end of the kickstarter, to the shipped product within one year anyways.

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