Ambitious sci-fi title Star Citizen saw its crowdfunding drop in 2017, but the project still raised more cash than the total raised by video games on Kickstarter.

As reported by Polygon, the numbers from developers Roberts Space Industries and Cloud Imperium Games are self-reported and say that Cloud Imperium's space epic raised $34.91m in 2017 - around double what video game Kickstarter projects made in total. That figure, as reported earlier this week, is $17.25m.

The amount raised for Star Citizen is actually down year-on-year, too, on the $36.11m made in 2016.

There are some caveats, however. There's a slight margin of error on the Kickstarter figures, as 85 per cent to 88 per cent of money went to successful projects, with Polygon reporting the 88 per cent figure.

Meanwhile, the Star Citizen figures do not include money returned to backers. Some consumers have been asking for their money back due to the project being massively behind schedule.

For example, the 3.0 Alpha update was set to roll out in 2016, before being pushed to the summer of 2017 and eventually being pushed out just before the end of last year.

The developers behind this project are also being sued by troubled software firm Crytek over what that company believes to be breaches of contract.