Essen, October 27, 2025 – It was a fair of records: SPIEL Essen 2025, which took place from October 23 to October 26. With 220,000 people from all over the world, the largest board games fair surpassed the previous visitor record from 2019. The fair was sold out on all four days. A new exhibition space record of 77,500 m² was already announced before the event began, as a completely new hall, Hall 7, was opened for the first time and all areas were fully booked. 948 exhibitors from 50 nations brought more than 1,700 new releases to Essen. And a world record for the largest CATAN game was achieved on Friday. SPIEL 2025 was a massive festival for the gaming world.

New Record and New Hall

"Actually, I didn't want to open a new hall this year," says Carol Rapp, Managing Director of the organizing Merz Verlag. "But the demand for booth space from our exhibitors was so high that it was the only way we could fulfill the many requests—and we still had to open a waiting list after the registration deadline." Another positive effect of the new hall was that additional visitors could enter the premises. "After we were surprisingly sold out for the first time last year, we wanted to make it possible for more people to visit SPIEL this year," says Rapp. "With Hall 7, we were able to increase the number of available tickets. The fact that we were nevertheless sold out again on all days is absolutely impressive."

220,000 people over four days is a new visitor record. The Merz Verlag again stayed below the maximum capacity this year. "It doesn't help any of us if we cram people into the halls. We want traffic to flow in the aisles while at the same time allowing as many people as possible to visit us." The combination of available tickets per day, wide aisles, and logically structured halls achieved the goal: it was crowded but not overwhelming at the same time.

Success for Exhibitors and Organizers

The exhibitors at the fair are very pleased about the high demand for games. "We see the enthusiasm for the topic every day at our booth; all our tables are continuously occupied," says Hermann Hutter, owner of Hutter Trade/Huch! and Chairman of the Spieleverlage e.V. (German Game Publishers' Association). "For us as exhibitors, that is one of the most rewarding aspects of the fair, the direct feedback from people. Here we meet the fans of our games in person." Business meetings and appointments are also highly valued at SPIEL. "A lot of business takes place at the fair away from the gaming tables. We meet partners, designers, associations, and media who come from all over the world. There is nowhere else where you can cultivate contacts as efficiently as at SPIEL."

Robert Geistlinger, President of the American publisher Arcane Wonders, can only confirm this: “SPIEL is the most important fair for us to meet partners from all over the world and make new contacts. Especially in the current global situation, this coming together and talking to each other is more important than ever.” At the same time, he emphasizes how important the fair is for new releases. “The number of games from all over the world that are being released here for the first time is much higher this year than ever before. Everyone uses this show to present their new games because it is so big and delivery here is easier. We have eight new titles with us; normally we release about three at the fair.”

"For exhibitors at the fair the focus is also on the joy of the games. At the same time, an incredible number of effective business developments emerge here – and this happens naturally alongside everything else. I don't know of any other event that is as strong a springboard for a business's launch as SPIEL," says Florian Hess, Managing Director of Merz Verlag and Executive Board Member of Spielwarenmesse eG. "I have met exhibitors who started here a few years ago with a small booth and are now occupying several hundred square meters and selling games internationally. Experiencing this kind of B2B rocket launch never ceases to fascinate me."

Kosmos Verlag was also pleased that it was able to celebrate a new world record in the adjacent Grugahalle with CATAN – Connect. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of CATAN, the publisher invited people to the largest simultaneous game of all time as part of SPIEL: 1,170 people followed the call and set the new record.

New Stage Area Brings Supporting Program into the Halls

With a large stage area in Hall 4, Merz Verlag set new standards and brought the accompanying program of the SPIEL.talks directly to the people in the hall. Previously, this program, which included Educators Day, took place in conference rooms. By relocating it directly to the floor and utilizing the state-of-the-art stage, the extensive and exciting program was much more present and noticed by significantly more visitors. Stage events such as a talk about what jobs are available in the industry and how to get them, a Cosplay and Character Play Catwalk, a panel about the various international events, and a live role-playing game with actors attracted many people.

A special highlight was again the Golden Demon, the world-renowned miniature painting competition from Games Workshop, the European part of which takes place at SPIEL. Over 1,000 miniatures were submitted to be judged by the on-site panel and awarded prizes in 14 categories. The overall winner was Albert Moreto Font and received the legendary Slayer Sword as a trophy on stage.

New SPIEL Ambassador

This year, SPIEL again had an ambassador, Mháire Stritter, who carried the fair and the enthusiasm for gaming to an even broader audience. Stritter, known as a journalist, presenter, professional role-playing game master, and for her LARP and Cosplay, lives and loves gaming of all kinds. She demonstrated this both by walking through the halls and especially through an interactive live role-playing game on the stage, where the narrated action was presented with actors. Mháire Stritter is the second ambassador for the fair, following the project's very successful start last year.

Deutscher Spiele Preis (German Game Award) 2025

Germany's largest community award for board games, the Deutsche Spiele Preis, was presented on the Wednesday before the fair. With this award, everyone in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland can vote online for their favorite game of the current year.

• The 1st place went to SETI: Auf der Suche nach außerirdischem Leben by Tomáš Holek (CGE and HeidelBÄR Games publishers)
• The 2nd place went to Endeavor: Die Tiefsee by Carl de Visser and Jarratt Gray (Frosted Games and Board Game Circus publishers)
• The 3rd place went to Bomb Busters by Hisashi Hayashi (Pegasus Spiele publisher)
• The Best Children's Game was Die kleinen Alchemisten by Matúš Kotry (CGE and HeidelBÄR Games publishers).

After SPIEL is before SPIEL

It was a fantastic fair, and for four days, Essen was once again the center of the international gaming world. To ensure that SPIEL will be a festival for all game fans next year as well, Merz Verlag is starting to plan the next fair immediately. Feedback is being collected and evaluated, reflected upon, and discussed to determine what needs to be done for 2026. The next SPIEL will take place from October 22 to October 25, 2026, in Essen. 

Image material is available to you under the link SPIEL Essen 2025.