Beginning as a Kickstarter project seeking US$10,000 in crowdfunding, it exceeded its goal in eight minutes.

[2] The first playtest of Exploding Kittens was recorded on YouTube by Smosh Games, who had the first deck.

[8] It launched with an initial goal of US$10,000, but by the end of the first day, the campaign had raised $1,333,586 from nearly 35,000 backers.

With the first stretch goal accomplished, the company expanded the NSFW deck to a full stand-alone game.

[15] The creators released four expansion packs, most of which require a copy of Exploding Kittens to play.

[16] It introduced the cards/mechanics of Alter the Future, Draw from the Bottom, and Reverse from the mobile game, and the new Imploding Kitten card/mechanic.

On July 30, 2017, the Exploding Kittens Party Pack went on sale exclusively at Target.

Its 15 new cards/mechanics included Mark, Swap Top and Bottom, Catomic Bomb, Curse of the Cat Butt, Garbage Collector, Super Skip, and the Streaking Kitten.

[21] Microsoft's Zo chatbot offered a single-player version of Exploding Kittens.

[26] In April 2022, an adult animated television series was also announced by Netflix and was co-produced by Bandera Entertainment and Chernin Entertainment, with King of the Hill creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels serving as executive producers, alongside Peter Chernin.

[26] The series had a first-look preview at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 14, 2023.