Spiel

For other uses, see Spiel (disambiguation).

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.

Messe Essen, the event venue

Spiel
Spiel 2008
Genre	Board game trade fair
Frequency	Annual
Venue	Messe Essen
Country	Germany
Inaugurated	1983 (1983)
Attendance	220,000 (2025)
Website	www.spiel-essen.de/en/

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

Year	Attendance	Source
2011	147 000	[5]
2012	149 000	[6]
2013	156 000	[7]
2014	158 000	[8]
2015	162 000	[9]
2016	174 000	[10]
2017	182 000	[11]
2018	190 000	[12]
2019	209 000	[13]
2020	[a]0	[14]
2021	93 600	[15]
2022	147 000	[16]
2023	193 000	[17]
2024	204 000	[18]
2025	220 000	[19]

See also

• Going Cardboard (documentary)
• Spiel des Jahres (award)
• Gen Con
• UK GamesExpo
• Festival International des Jeux
• Origins Game Fair

Notes

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