Spiel

Last updated
Spiel
SPIEL logo.svg
Essen 2008 50120.jpg
Spiel 2008
Genre Board game trade fair
FrequencyAnnual
Venue Messe Essen
CountryGermany
Inaugurated1983 (1983)
Attendance220,000 (2025)
Website www.spiel-essen.de/en/ OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Internationale Spieltage SPIEL, often called the Essen Game Fair after the city where it is held, is an annual four-day public boardgame trade fair held in October [1] (Thursday to the following Sunday) at the Messe Essen exhibition centre in Essen, Germany. It began in 1983. [2] With 220,000 people attending, 948 exhibitors from 50 nations presenting more than 1700 new board games in 2025, SPIEL is the biggest fair for board games in the world - a title it had for over a decade. [3] [4] Many new games are released at the fair each year, especially (but not exclusively) European-style board games.

Contents

Messe Essen, the event venue Messe-Essen-Eingang-Sued-2016.jpg
Messe Essen, the event venue

At SPIEL, board games that are often hard to find in retail are offered by international and small exhibitors. While the prices for buying these games at the fair do not tend to be significantly lower than in retail, games are typically available sooner than in regular board game shops and may come with promotional materials (mostly extra cards or tokens with a few more game mechanics, but also T-shirts and similar merchandise). SPIEL also provides an environment for board gamers to meet and chat with game designers, illustrators, and game reviewers.[ citation needed ]

Years and attendance

YearAttendanceSource
2011147 000 [5]
2012149 000 [6]
2013156 000 [7]
2014158 000 [8]
2015162 000 [9]
2016174 000 [10]
2017182 000 [11]
2018190 000 [12]
2019209 000 [13]
2020 [a] 0 [14]
202193 600 [15]
2022147 000 [16]
2023193 000 [17]
2024204 000 [18]
2025220 000 [19]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and replaced by a digital convention. [14]

References

  1. ↑ "Not twilight, but sunrise. Table-top games are booming in the video-game age". The Economist. 2015-10-03. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
  2. ↑ Stewart Woods (2012-08-16). Eurogames: The Design, Culture and Play of Modern European Board Games. McFarland. p. 64. ISBN   978-0-7864-6797-6.
  3. ↑ Samantha, Nelson (2025-11-04). "The 10 best board games we played at Spiel Essen 2025". polygon.com/. Retrieved 2025-11-05.
  4. ↑ Duffy, Owen (2015-10-31). "For board gamers, heaven is a place on earth – located in Germany". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2016-11-11.
  5. ↑ "147 000 Besucher bei der Spielemesse in Essen". WAZ. 2011-10-23. Retrieved 2019-06-04.
  6. ↑ "149 000 Besucher kamen zur Spielemesse Spiel 12 nach Essen". WAZ. 2012-10-21. Retrieved 2013-09-18.
  7. ↑ "Spiel '13: Con Report". Big Shiny Robot. 2013-11-01. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
  8. ↑ Friedhelm, Merz Verlag. "Exhibitor information". Archived from the original on 2015-07-08. Retrieved 2015-07-28.
  9. ↑ Markus, Böhm. "Spiel 15: Das sind die Neuheiten der Spielemesse". Spiegel online (in German). Retrieved 2015-10-29.
  10. ↑ Mendelsohn, Tom (2016-10-22). "Essen 2016: Best board games from the biggest board game convention". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2016-11-11.
  11. ↑ "Spielemesse Spiel'17 endet mit Besucherrekord". WAZ. 2017-10-29. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
  12. ↑ "„Spiel 2018" bricht Besucherrekord: 190.000 Gäste kommen nach Essen". WAZ. Retrieved 2018-10-29.
  13. ↑ "Spielemesse in Essen endet mit mehr als 200 000 Besuchern". RTL. Retrieved 2019-10-28.
  14. 1 2 Jarvis, Matt (2020-05-19). "Cancelled Essen Spiel 2020 board game convention replaced by online event Spiel.Digital". Dicebreaker. Gamer Network Limited, ReedPop. Retrieved 2021-10-09.
  15. ↑ Hutchins, Robert (2021-07-12). "Face masks will be mandatory at Essen Spiel '21 along with vaccination or negative Covid tests". ToyNews. Retrieved 2021-10-09.
  16. ↑ Volkmann, Andre (2022-10-10). "Spielemesse: Neuheitenrekord lockt Spielefans nach Essen". Supertipp (in German). Retrieved 2022-10-10.
  17. ↑ Volkmann, Andre (2023-10-09). "SPIEL Essen: No record number of visitors". Spielpunkt. Retrieved 2023-10-09.
  18. ↑ Slater, Ellen (2024-10-07). "Spiel Essen 2024 breaking records". Toybook. Retrieved 2024-10-08.
  19. ↑ "SPIEL Essen: Ausverkauf und Besucherrekord / sold out with visitor record". Spielbox (in German and English). 2025-10-27. Retrieved 2025-10-28.

51°25′41″N6°59′39″E / 51.4280°N 6.9942°E / 51.4280; 6.9942

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