Spiel
Boardgame trade fair in Essen, Germany
title: "Spiel" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["annual-fairs", "fairs-in-germany", "gaming-conventions", "trade-fairs-in-germany", "1983-establishments-in-west-germany", "recurring-events-established-in-1983"] description: "Boardgame trade fair in Essen, Germany" topic_path: "geography/germany" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiel" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Boardgame trade fair in Essen, Germany ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox recurring event"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| logo | SPIEL logo.svg |
| image | Essen 2008 50120.jpg |
| caption | Spiel 2008 |
| genre | Board game trade fair |
| frequency | Annual |
| venue | Messe Essen |
| country | Germany |
| first | |
| attendance | 220,000 (2025) |
| URL | |
| :: |
| logo = SPIEL logo.svg | logo_caption = | image = Essen 2008 50120.jpg | caption = Spiel 2008 | genre = Board game trade fair | frequency = Annual | venue = Messe Essen | country = Germany | first = | attendance = 220,000 (2025) | URL = 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{{cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/news/business/21669930-table-top-games-are-booming-video-game-age-not-twilight-sunrise |title=Not twilight, but sunrise. Table-top games are booming in the video-game age |newspaper=The Economist |date=2015-10-03 |accessdate=2015-10-29}} (Thursday to the following Sunday) at the Messe Essen exhibition centre in Essen, Germany. It began in 1983.{{cite book |author=Stewart Woods |title=Eurogames: The Design, Culture and Play of Modern European Board Games |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GPdRVOl8fU0C&pg=PA64 |date=2012-08-16 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-6797-6 |page=64}} 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. {{Cite web |url=https://www.polygon.com/best-new-board-games-spiel-essen-2025/ |title=The 10 best board games we played at Spiel Essen 2025 |last=Samantha |first=Nelson |date=2025-11-04 |website=polygon.com/ |language=en |access-date=2025-11-05}} |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/31/board-gamers-germany-essen-spiel-exhibition |title=For board gamers, heaven is a place on earth – located in Germany |last=Duffy |first=Owen |date=2015-10-31 |newspaper=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077 |access-date=2016-11-11}} Many new games are released at the fair each year, especially (but not exclusively) European-style board games.
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Messe-Essen-Eingang-Sued-2016.jpg" caption="date=November 2016}}"] ::
Years and attendance
::data[format=table]
| Year | Attendance | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 147 000 | {{cite web |
| 2012 | 149 000 | {{cite web |
| 2013 | 156 000 | {{cite web |
| 2014 | 158 000 | {{cite web |
| 2015 | 162 000 | {{cite web |
| 2016 | 174 000 | {{Cite news |
| 2017 | 182 000 | {{Cite news |
| 2018 | 190 000 | {{Cite news |
| 2019 | 209 000 | {{Cite news |
| 2020 | 0 | {{Cite web |
| 2021 | 93 600 | {{Cite web |
| 2022 | 147 000 | {{Cite web |
| 2023 | 193 000 | {{Cite web |
| 2024 | 204 000 | {{Cite web |
| 2025 | 220 000 | {{Cite web |
| :: |
NOTOC
Notes
References
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::