The anticipation is building! The ticket sale for SPIEL Essen 2025, the world's largest public fair for board games, which takes place from October 23 to 26 in Essen, will begin soon. Check our channels around mid of July, because that's when you can secure your tickets in the online shop and plan your visit early.

Last year, we were overwhelmed by the immense demand: For the first time, the fair was sold out. This year, we've responded: Thanks to the use of an additional hall, more tickets are available than ever before. We've also optimized our ticket offerings to make your visit even easier and more personalized.

Despite sharply increased costs, prices only minimally raised

We are delighted that despite significantly increased costs for collective wage agreements, energy costs, and inflation, we only had to make minimal adjustments to the admission prices for SPIEL Essen 2025. A day ticket costs only 50 cents more than last year. This is possible through a clever adjustment of our ticket offerings, which helps us keep the financial burden on you as low as possible.

Unfortunately, we can no longer offer 4-day tickets for SPIEL Essen. After long consideration, we decided on this step to allow more people access to SPIEL Essen while avoiding a significant increase in ticket prices.

4-day tickets and the ticket quotas they blocked would have necessitated a price increase of several euros for each ticket to operate SPIEL Essen economically this year. That was out of the question for us!

4-day tickets blocked other tickets

Previously, for every 4-day ticket, we had to block four individual day tickets. This was because, for safety reasons, we are only allowed to have a certain number of people on the exhibition grounds at any given time. 4-day tickets meant that we had to reserve the corresponding number of tickets, and therefore, fewer tickets could be released to you. This was the only way we could ensure all safety aspects were considered.

The switch to day tickets only allows us much more flexible capacity planning for individual fair days. This means more tickets for all of you.

We closely examined visitor flows from previous years and found that 4-day tickets were only used on all four days by a very small portion of our visitors. The vast majority of these ticket holders came for three days. With this year's pricing, a three-day visit now costs the same as a 4-day ticket would have cost this year.

Secure your Early-Bird discount for your tickets

For all those who decide quickly, we are once again offering an Early-Bird discount! Until July 31, you save one euro per ticket. Take advantage of this opportunity for reduced admission prices.

All detailed prices and, starting mid of July, the direct link to the ticket shop can be found on our website. Tickets will then be available exclusively in this online shop.

• Adult Day Ticket Early-Bird: 22.50 Euro (from August 1, 2025: 23.50 Euro)
• Reduced Day Ticket Early-Bird: 19.50 Euro (from August 1, 2025: 20.50 Euro)
• Child Day Ticket Early-Bird: 14.00 Euro (from August 1, 2025: 15.00 Euro)
• Family Day Ticket Early-Bird: 60.00 Euro (from August 1, 2025: 62.00 Euro)
• Business Visitor Day Ticket: 42.00 Euro

We will no longer offer on-site box office sales this year. Demand has been almost non-existent in recent years, and this would also have incurred massive service costs that we would have had to pass on to you. But don't worry: If tickets are available, you can still spontaneously purchase them directly on-site via your smartphone in the ticket shop. Our service staff will, of course, be happy to assist you with any problems.

Attractive Add-Ons for your individual fair experience

This year, you can also enhance your fair experience with various additional offers. After some combinations were not possible last year (e.g., Lootbag and Golden Demon Ticket together), we have simplified the system: You can now combine any Add-On as you wish!

• Add-On Lootbag: 20.00 Euro – filled with exclusive SPIEL Essen merchandise.
• Add-On Golden Demon: 12.00 Euro
• Add-On Catan – Connect Play: 15.00 Euro
• Add-On Catan – Connect View: 3.00 Euro (system charge)
• Add-On Educators Day Certificate of Participation: 5.00 Euro – A separate ticket is no longer required to participate in Educators Day itself. A certificate of participation is available for a small processing fee.

Information on the individual Add-Ons can be found on our website and in the ticket shop.

We look forward to seeing you at SPIEL Essen 2025 and experiencing four days full of board game enthusiasm together!