Tabletop gaming trade organisation GAMA has opened nominations for its 2027 Power Retail Awards, inviting gamers and industry professionals from around the world to spotlight stores and cafés they believe represent the industry’s best.
The annual awards, which have now been running for 17 years, aim to act as a showcase and celebration of business practices, community-building and operational innovations that other hobby retailers can learn from.
More than 750 retailers were submitted for inclusion in last year’s awards, with nominations coming from Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS) customers before being voted on by a GAMA committee of retailers and emeritus ‘team retail’ members.
The awards cover four categories: Retailer of the Year, Innovation in Games (Retail), Outstanding Contribution to Games Industry (Retail) and Outstanding Store Design, with winners of each receiving a one year GAMA membership, recognition in its online database and in the Spring issue of its Around the Table magazine.
That prize was reduced by GAMA last year, with retailer of the year having also previously receiving $1,000 and the other category winners $500 each.
Any tabletop retail business can be nominated regardless of country or GAMA membership status, although US-based businesses have heavily dominated the awards since they were launched in 2010, picking up 50 out of the 63 wins to date.
That total does not include the 2021 Retailer of the Year award, which was presented to every GAMA retailer member at the time to recognise and celebrate them having survived the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Arizona-based Silver Dragon Games scooped Retailer of the Year in the 2026 awards, adding to the Innovation In Games (Retail) and Outstanding Store Design titles it won at the same awards in 2024.
They were joined this year by Illinois-based Fantasy Books and Games, which won the Innovation in Games (Retail) award, Minnesota’s The Gamers Den, which sealed Outstanding Contribution to the Games Industry (Retail), and Wisconsin-based Oddwillow’s Game Haven, which won Outstanding Store Design.
Team Members from Oddwillow’s Game Haven, the winner of this years’ Outstanding Store Design Power Retail Award || Photo Credit: GAMA
UK retailer Eclectic Games remains the only non-US winner in the past two award cycles, having scooped Outstanding Contribution to the Games Industry in 2025, while Mexico City-based La Piramide is the only store from outside of the US, Canada or the UK to win an award, which it claimed during the inaugural contest in 2010.
Nominations are open to stores that have been operating for at least one full year, while previous winners cannot win the same category twice.
Anyone interested in nominating an outstanding hobby retailer can do so here.
Editor’s note: GAMA is one of the sponsors of the BoardGameWire newsletter
The Origins Awards, one of tabletop gaming’s longest-running prizes voted on by industry professionals, has crowned its latest group of winners after whittling them down from 120 nominees.
Jon Perry’s Hot Streak continues to live up to its name as far as award wins go, adding party game of the year to a pair of Golden Geek Award wins, casual game of the year in the American Tabletop Awards, and a ‘recommended’ accolade in the Spiel des Jahres.
Railroad Tiles, designed by Hjalmar Hach and Lorenzo Silva, took Gateway Game of the Year, while Will Thompson’s Winter Rabbit was named Light Strategy Game of the Year at the award ceremony, which took place at Origins Game Fair last month.
Railroad Tiles, designed by Hjalmar Hach and Lorenzo Silva
The awards also recognised Matt Brown and Zara Reid’s conservation-themed board game Kavango with a Sustainability Award, which aim to celebrate games with thoughtful production and publishers which “have taken strides towards sustainable manufacturing to reduce the impact on the natural environment”.
Outside the board game categories, James Parks and Ben Costa’s Land of Eem won Roleplaying Game of the Year, while in the trading card and collectible game categories Riftbound: Proving Grounds won Fixed Constructible Game of the Year, while the Gudnak: Expansion Bundle took the Randomized Constructible Game award.
Goblin Hobbies’ Stampin’ Plates claimed the Paint/Hobby Accessory award, while Luis Silva’s TCG design Shard Bugs claimed Fan Favorite Game of the Year, voted on by Origins attendees.
GAMA made an effort to rectify that error with its announcement of the award winners, including not only the names of the designers but also the artists who worked on each title.
The Origins awards, which were first presented in 1975, have been in heavy flux over the past few years, going from 10 categories in 2019 to 24 in 2024 – with the make-up of those categories significantly shaken up from year to year.
GAMA briefly introduced categories in 2024 which represented its membership having expanded beyond just retailers, publishers and wholesalers – including recognition for artists, writers and media.
But those segments were quickly dropped again in 2025, with categories cut including Best Media Production, Best Game Related Writing and Best 2D Artwork – although the miniatures segment was expanded from two categories to three, covering games, the miniatures themselves, and paint and accessories.
Separate from the main slate of awards, the trade organisation also revealed its hall of fame entrants this year, awarded – like the Origins Awards – by its division the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design.
AAGAD describes itself as “a peer based network of gaming industry professionals whose mission is to promote innovation and excellence in design and production of games and game related materials”.
Individuals inducted into the hall of fame this year include Richard Borg, famous for his design of the Command and Colors system used by games including Memoir ’44, and Antoine Bauza, the creator of designs including 7 Wonders, Hanabi and Tokaido.
Magic: The Gathering, Pathfinder RPG and Dungeons & Dragons artist Wayne Reynolds was also inducted into the hall of fame.
Origins Awards 2026 – Full Results
Gateway Game of the Year Railroad Tiles Publisher: Horrible Guild Designers: Hjalmar Hach and Lorenzo Silva Artists: Francesco De Benedittis and Barla Tranquilli
Party Game of the Year Hot Streak Publisher: CMYK Designer: Jon Perry Artist: Cécile Gariépy
Light Strategy Game of the Year Winter Rabbit Publisher: Absurdist Productions Designer: Will Thompson Artists: Kindra Swafford and Jonni Ketcher
Heavy Strategy Game of the Year Speakeasy Publisher: Eagle-Gryphon Games Designer: Vital Lacerda Artist: Ian O’Toole
Cooperative/Solo Game of the Year The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship Publisher: Z-Man Games Designer: Matt Leacock Artists: Jared Blando and Cory Godbey
Roleplaying Game of the Year Land of Eem Publisher: Exalted Funeral Designed & Written by: James Parks and Ben Costa Artists: Justin Gerard, Sean Kiernan, Anneliese Mak, Sam Mamei, Rosario Mendez and Rob Gatto
Roleplaying Game Supplement of the Year Call of Cthulhu: The Sutra of Pale Leaves – Twin Suns Rising Publisher: Chaosium Designers/Authors: Yukihiro Terada, Jason Sheets, Damon Lang, and Andrew Logan Montgomery
Miniatures Game of the Year Blood Bowl Third Season Edition Publisher: Games Workshop
Miniature of the Year Warhammer: Age of Sigmar – Festus, The Leech Lord Publisher: Games Workshop
Paint/Hobby Accessory of the Year Goblin Hobbies Stampin’ Plates Producer: Goblin Hobbies Designed by: Brent Amberger and Casey Alden
Fixed Constructible Game of the Year Riftbound: Proving Grounds Publisher: UVS Games & Riot Games Designers: David Smith and Jon Moormann
Randomized Constructible Game of the Year Gudnak: Expansion Bundle Publisher: Chaotic Great Games Designer: Tim O’Brien and Ian Oliver Artist: Vittoria Pompolani
Fan Favorite Game of the Year Shard Bugs Publisher: Shard Bugs LLC Designer: Luis Silva Artists: Ray of Sand, Nelygibi, Julio E. Jácome Paz, María Ayuso, Alma Faustica, Pietro Desirò, Ninamarie, Steve Ozminkowski, Erick Mezart
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