Spiel

For the musical composition, see Spiel (Stockhausen). For the Office Dog album, see Spiel (album). For the culture/media journal, see SPIEL (journal).

Internationale Spieltage SPIEL, often called the Essen Game Fair after the city where it is held, is an annual four-day boardgame trade fair which is also open to the public held in October^[1] (Thursday to the following Sunday) at the Messe Essen exhibition centre in Essen, Germany. It began in 1983.^[2] With 1,021 exhibitors from 50 nations in 2016, SPIEL is the biggest fair for board games in the world.^[3] Many new games are released at the fair each year, especially (but not exclusively) European-style board games.

Spiel
Spiel 2008
Genre	Board game trade fair
Frequency	Annual
Venue	Messe Essen
Country	Germany
Inaugurated	1983 (1983)
Attendance	193,000 (2023)
Website	www.spiel-essen.de/en/

Messe Essen, the event venue

At SPIEL board games are offered which are hard to find in retail because a lot of international and small exhibitors present their products. While the prices for buying the games at the fair do not tend to be significantly lower than those in retail, the games are typically available sooner than in regular board game shops, come with promotional materials (mostly extra cards or tokens with a few more game mechanics, but also T-shirts and similar merchandise) and it is an occasion where passionate board gamers can meet and chat with game designers, illustrators, and famous game reviewers.^{[citation needed]}

year	attendance	source
2011	147 000	^[4]
2012	149 000	^[5]
2013	156 000	^[6]
2014	158 000	^[7]
2015	162 000	^[8]
2016	174 000	^[9]
2017	182 000	^[10]
2018	190 000	^[11]
2019	209 000	^[12]
2020	^[a]0	^[13]
2021	93 600	^[14]
2022	147 000	^[15]
2023	193 000	^[16]

See also

• Going Cardboard (documentary)

Notes

1. Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and replaced by a digital convention.^[13]

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. 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.
4. "147 000 Besucher bei der Spielemesse in Essen". WAZ. 2011-10-23. Retrieved 2019-06-04.
5. "149 000 Besucher kamen zur Spielemesse Spiel 12 nach Essen". WAZ. 2012-10-21. Retrieved 2013-09-18.
6. "Spiel '13: Con Report". Big Shiny Robot. 2013-11-01. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
7. Friedhelm, Merz Verlag. . Archived from the original on 2015-07-08. Retrieved 2015-07-28.
8. Markus, Böhm. "Spiel 15: Das sind die Neuheiten der Spielemesse". Spiegel online (in German). Retrieved 2015-10-29.
9. Mendelsohn, Tom (2016-10-22). "Essen 2016: Best board games from the biggest board game convention". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2016-11-11.
10. "Spielemesse Spiel'17 endet mit Besucherrekord". WAZ. 2017-10-29. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
11. "„Spiel 2018" bricht Besucherrekord: 190.000 Gäste kommen nach Essen". WAZ. Retrieved 2018-10-29.
12. "Spielemesse in Essen endet mit mehr als 200 000 Besuchern". RTL. Retrieved 2019-10-28.
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. Volkmann, Andre (2022-10-10). "Spielemesse: Neuheitenrekord lockt Spielefans nach Essen". Supertipp (in German). Retrieved 2022-10-10.
16. Volkmann, Andre (2023-10-09). "SPIEL Essen: No record number of visitors". Spielpunkt. Retrieved 2023-10-09.

External links

 

Look up Spiel or spiel in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Official website
• Essen FAQ at BoardGameGeek

51°25′41″N 6°59′39″E / 51.4280°N 6.9942°E / 51.4280; 6.9942