in Stockholm, 2018. The Kurzgesagt YouTube channel was created on 10 July 2013 (with their first video coming out on 12 July 2013), shortly after the founder, Philipp Dettmer, graduated from
Munich University of Applied Sciences. The first video, which explained
evolution, was published two days later with the voice of Steve Taylor, who has remained the channel's commentator. In ten years the channel evolved from a passion project worked on during Dettmer's free time to a design studio with about seventy on the team. In 2015, Kurzgesagt was commissioned to create a video on the end of disease by the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. A video about the
COVID-19 pandemic, called
The Coronavirus Explained & What You Should Do and released in March 2020, was posted on all three of their channels. It shared how the human body responds to
COVID-19 and how effective the measures are in evading
SARS-CoV-2. The English version has over 89 million views, making it the most viewed video on the channel. A study published in
Visual Resources said that the video "is an example of an aesthetically compelling explanation of the biological processes of a Covid infection," and it "includes fantastical depictions that convey the message in a more comprehensible straightforward manner." Kurzgesagt has received several awards. In 2019, Kurzgesagt became the first German channel to surpass 10 million subscribers on YouTube. In December 2020, fellow YouTuber
Marques Brownlee honoured Kurzgesagt, with his "Streamys Creator Honor" award in the
10th Streamy Awards.
Immune: A Journey Into The Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive In November 2021, Kurzgesagt announced the release of their first book, "Immune: A Journey Into The Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive" written by Philipp Dettmer, the channel's founder. A publication by the
Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations, a German think tank, recommended the book among others for books on the
COVID-19 pandemic, describing it as "full of stories of invasion, strategy, defeat, and noble self-sacrifice", in introducing the complex world of the
immune system.
Daniel M. Davis, the Head of Life Sciences and Professor of
Immunology at
Imperial College London, described it as "the feast we have been waiting for" due to the public interest in the mechanisms of the immune system, such as
antibodies,
T cells, and
B cells, during the COVID-19 pandemic, which were "rarely discussed outside of research labs and scientific talks". In the book, the author acknowledges the feedback and help of a Dr. James Gurney, Professor Thomas Brocker, the director of the Munich Institute for Immunology, and Professor Maristela Martins de Camargo of the
University of São Paulo.
Sources of funding In 2015, the channel received a US$570,000 grant from the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In March 2022, Kurzgesagt received €2.97 million in a grant via
Open Philanthropy, which the channel said was being used for translating their videos into various languages, and for funding the creation of content for
TikTok. In a January 2023 statement, Kurzgesagt stated that 65% of their income from 2020 to 2022 came from viewers via the sale of merchandise from their shop, such as
mugs,
posters and
toys,
crowdfunding via
Patreon, and
Google AdSense revenue, with commercial or institutional
sponsorships and
grants accounting for only 24% of income. The statement said that the channel treats all data sceptically, that their sources for statements are always given, and that all research work is done in-house, with no editorial influence from sponsors or donors—a condition they say is included in every deal they have signed. some of their earlier work received criticism. In 2016, the
Art Libraries Society of North America criticised the studio's occasional lack of credible sources and professional consultation, and use of emotive language. In 2019, Kurzgesagt released a video saying that while they now had all their arguments fact-checked by experts, they had not always done so in the past. They added they were removing two of their videos uploaded in 2015 that did not meet their current standards, namely
The European Refugee Crisis and Syria and
Addiction. A collaboration between Kurzgesagt and journalist
Johann Hari,
Addiction came to be one of the most popular on their channel at the time, despite also being one of their most criticised. The video was accused of misleadingly summarising the conclusions of the contentious
Rat Park experiments.
Star Birds In June 2024, the studio announced they had partnered with
Toukana Interactive, the creators of
Dorfromantik, to create a video game called
Star Birds that will be centred around
asteroid mining. The game was released on 10 September 2025 in early access with a 10% discount as an introductory offer. == References ==