Has Ares Studios Passed Peak Patrons?

Does several days of zero growth signal donor fatigue with Axanar producer Alec Peters?

Once again, the Ares Studio Patreon campaign has ground to a halt, this time for three days in a row, with no new pledges and zero new donors, stuck just $2 shy of $1,800.

We’ve seen this before, in an effort by Axanar producer Alec Peters to get fans to pay for his warehouse. In 2017, he used Indiegogo to try to keep the former Industry Studios, into which he’d sunk three-quarters of a million dollars with no part of Axanar produced inside.

Just as we saw in 2017, the campaign started strong, quickly tumbled, and has had a few temporary upswings. While the Indiegogo ultimately petered out, we can’t come to the same conclusion here. Yet.

Too early to say, especially since Patreon is an ongoing effort rather than limited by a deadline like Indiegogo. Also, Patreons typically suffer from churn — patrons who leave even as others may join.

To be fair, AxaMonitor has projected the Patreon effort will continue to raise money.

However, Friday marked the first time the Patreon got no bump in donors prompted by an episode the same night of eitherAxanar: Confidential or Reel Trek.

Three straight days of zero new patrons and pledges, particularly following one of Peters’ livestreams, could be a warning sign that Axanar may have saturated its remaining donor base.

The Ares Studios Patreon serve as a bellwether for how much donor fatigue Peters will face in his upcoming effort to raise $250,000 to make the Axanar shorts will be. In that campaign he’s constrained by his lawsuit settlement with CBS/Paramount from publicly raising money as he has for Ares Studios.