Spiel Essen has broken its visitor record for the fourth consecutive year by hitting a record 230,000 attendance – with publishers reporting bumper sales despite increasingly fierce competition for attention from more than 2,000 new releases.

The world’s largest board game fair once again sold out all four days this year, drawing 10,000 more visitors than in 2025 after expanding into an eighth exhibition hall and taking over the entirety of the Messe Essen exhibition centre – its home for over 40 years – for the first time.

Almost 1,000 exhibitors from 53 countries packed into the 2026 show – up 5% compared to last year – while the event’s floorspace grew to a record 81,200 sq m – larger than 15 American football fields.

The new record attendance continues a period of rapid growth for Spiel, which attracted 193,000 visitors in 2023, 204,000 in 2024 and 220,000 last year – the latter of which outstripped the show’s previous record attendance of 209,000 from just prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

But that ability to squeeze in larger and larger crowds has now reached its limit, Merz Verlag managing director Carol Rapp confirmed to BoardGameWire, with any further growth set to come via new events and experiences rather than increased attendance or exhibition space.

She said, “It will stay at 230 [thousand]”, adding that although the show was technically below its “legal maximum” attendance, the current levels allowed for visitors to make their way around the already crowded show floor more easily.

A shortage of exhibition space, however, has already been a recurring problem for Merz Verlag – which has been forced to introduce waiting lists for prospective exhibitors in each of the last three years, despite repeatedly expanding the show.

Organisers had to repeatedly rearrange hall layouts ahead of the 2024 show in order to accommodate as many publishers as possible while keeping safe amounts of aisle space. Expanding out into Hall 7 last year failed to eliminate the problem, and despite another expansion into Hall 8 this year, all available stands were booked up ahead of the April 30 application deadline.

That leaves the organiser facing the prospect of turning away more prospective exhibitors in future years, with no further exhibition halls available to accommodate them.

BoardGameWire reported in March this year that Spiel organiser Merz Verlag had “no intention” of relocating the show away from Essen in order to continue its expansion, saying that the event would remain in its current home “for the foreseeable future”.

Rapp has now doubled down on that sentiment, saying, “We are well aware that we are pushing Messe Essen to its absolute limits. But to immediately dispel any rumors: A relocation is not on the table.

“Our focus now is on continuing to refine and develop Spiel at the Essen location in the coming years.”

Expanded Focus

That development had already been apparent in recent years, with Spiel beginning to break out from its long-time status as a game-buying fair and opportunity for business meetings by adding a series of new events.

They include introducing Games Workshop’s Golden Demon miniature-painting competition in 2024, running a world record-setting game of Catan – Connect with more than 1,100 people in 2025, and adding the TCG Awards and Warhammer 40,000 laser tag this year.

The organiser also launched Essen spielt! in 2026, a partnership with the city which brought gaming events to venues across Essen during the fair – and said it plans to develop the initiative further in 2027.

Other new developments for 2026 included a business matchmaking platform aimed at helping publishers, designers, retailers and other industry professionals find potential business partners and arrange meetings before arriving at the fair.

Rapp told BoardGameWire she was pleased with how this year’s expansion had worked out – particularly the addition of a new northern entrance, which noticeably helped spread visitors more effectively across the exhibition halls, and helped reduce the vast queues which have formed at the start of each day in previous years.

She added that the new Hall 8 had also exceeded expectations, despite initial uncertainty about how exhibitors would make use of the slightly unusually-shaped space.

US publisher Allplay took Spiel up on an offer to move into a central position in the new Hall 8 – and COO Joe Wiggins told BoardGameWire that shift had paid off handsomely, with sales up 40% compared to the previous year’s show, marking the publisher’s most successful Spiel to date.

He picked out Enchanted Ivy as one of its big hits of the show, saying demand for the 450 copies of the title it brought was “non-stop” until the game was sold out at 3pm on opening day.

Wiggins said sales were good across its portfolio, from light titles to heavier strategy games – adding that the new location right at the show’s main entrance meant visitors were far more likely to discover its booth.

That interest was capitalised upon by Allplay through its decision to run a large number of demo tables as part of its booth, with Wiggins saying seeing games in action had helped draw people in, even if they weren’t a “typical” Allplay customer.

German publisher Pegasus Spiele also reported stronger-than-expected sales, despite arriving at Essen with relatively conservative expectations.

Company co-CEO Karsten Esser told BoardGameWire on Friday afternoon that sales were already ahead of the equivalent point in 2025, even without the benefit of a single major award-winning release driving demand.

Pegasus brought more than 40 new releases to the event, and said the breadth of its portfolio had helped compensate for the absence of an obvious blockbuster title.

Other exhibitors BoardGameWire spoke to also reported substantial sales increases, while the consensus generally was that last year’s busy Friday, Saturday and Sunday were added to this year with a Thursday which felt like a return to pre-Covid crowds.

Spiel Squeeze

While most halls saw attendees flowing easily, if slowly, around them during the fair, the long and narrow Hall 3 once again proved the trickiest to get around – especially given the enormous queues which formed at several different booths during the show.

Chief among those were the queues at Spanish publisher Combo Games, which snaked along one whole end of the hall and out of the doors – creating a line Carol Rapp said was among the longest she had ever seen at the show.

Combo had benefitted from its new release Queen Alice, which combines elements of chess with eurogame mechanics and an Alice in Wonderland-inspired setting, being the ‘most-thumbed’ title on BoardGameGeek’s Spiel Essen preview – leading to a sea of attendees trying to reach the booth to get their hands on the game.

Company co-founder Antonio Guillamó told BoardGameWire on the show floor that it had brought about 2,000 copies of the game to Essen, including stock earmarked for fulfilling Gamefound pledges, but had sold out by around lunchtime on Friday.

Demand was so intense that the Combo team was forced to concentrate purely on sales rather than demoing its games – and the huge buzz created other problems for the publisher.

Guillamó told BoardGameWire that Spiel had been “fighting” the publisher over the long queues, which ended up blocking access to other booths such as the nearby Dice Throne.

Rapp told BoardGameWire Spiel had provided advice on how to guide the queue to avoid it blocking other booths, as well as providing extra security from Messe Essen – which Combo had to pay for – to help manage the line.

She said, “They had one of the hottest titles of the show, and nobody can plan for that. I get that, and the team gets that. But if the crowd waiting to buy is turning into a safety issue, then we have to do something.”

Rapp said her team was always “counting the seconds on the first day” to find out where the biggest queues were emerging, in order to step in quickly and help prevent any blockages.

She added that another blockage at the 2026 event had arisen at Pegasus Spiele, with large groups of people congregating by the booth after buying their games – saying that Pegasus was told to fix the issue or their booth would be closed. That problem was sorted the next morning by introducing a guard rail, she said.

Rapp said in an interview with German board game channel Brettspiel-Kollektiv that one exhibitor had repeatedly ignored instructions intended to keep queues under control, leading organisers to prohibit further sales for the remainder of the day. The publisher involved was not identified.

She stressed to BoardGameWire that managing congestion was essential to keeping the event safe and enjoyable, particularly as the number of visitors and exhibitors continued to grow.

“As long as the people are moving, everything is fine,” she said. “As soon as you have a block, a cluster or whatever, in the aisles, and it’s taking too long, people will go crazy.”

The pressure of accommodating record numbers at Spiel also extended beyond the exhibition halls, with severe crowding on Essen’s public transport system each morning in the run-up to the show opening.

Standing Out

The growing scale of Spiel has also brought fresh challenges for publishers trying to stand out among the thousands of games competing for attention.

This year’s 2,012 new releases represented another increase on the prior record, with the volume of new titles becoming a significant consideration for companies deciding when and how to launch their games.

The head of one large board game publisher who spoke to BoardGameWire at the show suggested that while smaller publishers often needed the exposure provided by major events such as Spiel, the rising competition on site might make it more beneficial for them to spread releases more evenly through the year.

He argued that publishers should consider whether launching at a quieter time of year might make it easier for their games to attract attention – particularly given that consumers were increasingly buying board games year round rather than concentrating their purchases around Christmas.

The challenge was echoed by other industry figures at the event, who described an increasingly crowded market in which the quality of new games continued to improve, but with individual releases potentially struggling to establish themselves.

Value Judgement

For publishers, however, Spiel’s value continues to extend well beyond the opportunity to sell games directly to consumers – something especially crucial given the high cost of running even a small booth at the event.

While the base cost of the smallest booth option – 15 sq m – comes in at about €1,500, that figure can easily balloon to several thousand euros after adding mandatory charges for booth partitions, waste disposal, and the cost of transporting, paying for and accommodating even tiny numbers of booth staff.

Pandasaurus Games told BoardGameWire ahead of the event that it had heavily downsized its Spiel Essen booth this year, having previously spent more than €50,000 ($57,000) attending Spiel with its larger setup.

The US publisher shifted to using European Player Network, Asmodee‘s specialist English-language sales and distribution operation in the region, to handle its stock and sales at the giant German show this year – removing the need for Pandasaurus to transport and store hundreds of games, staff its own retail operation and devote much of its booth to selling them.

Pandasaurus CEO Nathan McNair estimated to BoardGameWire that the costs under its current model would fall between $20,000 and $25,000, with the expectation of selling similar numbers of games under the new setup.

Archona Games, the publisher of titles including Small Star Empires and Pest, told BoardGameWire at the event, “Our focus here isn’t the sales so much. It’s always nice to sell, and I mean, I’d love to have the success of some of the other currently hot games out there – I wouldn’t say no!

“But I think for us, the strategic sort of part of it is really what we do with our community as well as our partners.”

They said in-show meetings with potential partners had already created promising opportunities for 2027, and added that demoing games, gathering feedback and building customer relationships were all key reasons for attending the fair.

IELLO communications manager Roger Anthony-Gerroldt told BoardGameWire at the show that it had brought six staff dedicated to scouting new games and localisation opportunities, with three project managers seeking new designs for its main catalogue, two looking for titles to bring to the French market, and another representing its children’s games brand Loki.

He told BoardGameWire the team spent much of the event moving between meetings with designers and publishers, hoping to discover games capable of becoming long-term commercial successes.

He said, “They just take meetup after meetup after meetup, and they look at a lot of designs, and they hope that they find the diamond that will take the place in the market and stay here.”

But he acknowledged that identifying those potential hits was increasingly difficult, with IELLO typically finding only one or two games each year that met its ambitions – and some promising projects ultimately failing to make it into the company’s catalogue.

That challenge has become more pronounced as the number of new releases continues to grow, Anthony-Gerroldt said, with even successful titles increasingly struggling to maintain sales beyond their first year or two.

Ukrainian publisher Boardova, meanwhile, described its first experience running a booth at Spiel as a valuable opportunity for promoting its games and building relationships – while stressing that the costs of attending meant the event should be viewed as a wider marketing investment rather than simply a sales opportunity.

Pegasus Spiele co-CEO Karsten Esser told BoardGameWire that direct sales at Spiel remained an important part of covering the company’s costs of attending, saying, “Well, to be honest, we run the company because we want to earn money. Of course, we love games, but we are also interested in earning money. I have to say, therefore, yes – the number of games that we sell here do matter, and they help us to break even. And maybe we can even reach a surplus. We will see.”

But he added that the longer-term value of the fair came from the market intelligence it provided, particularly the opportunity to gauge consumer demand across the company’s new releases, and identify which titles might become future commercial successes.

AI Divide

The ongoing debate over the use of generative AI in tabletop gaming was also visible at this year’s Spiel, with an anti-AI sign campaign from Neon Hope publisher Hopeful Games taking place, while some publishers and accessories sellers were clearly making use of generative AI for their artwork.

Spiel organiser Merz Verlag has yet to introduce restrictions on exhibitors using AI-generated artwork, in contrast to several other major tabletop conventions which have adopted explicit policies in the past year.

UK Games Expo introduced a strict AI policy several weeks ago, prohibiting exhibitors from displaying or selling products created wholly or substantially using generative AI, while PAX Unplugged bans the sale of products incorporating substantial AI-generated content.

Origins Game Fair also requires products sold or distributed at the event to be created by human artists and creators. Gen Con, meanwhile, prohibits AI-generated imagery in its Art Show, although it has not introduced an equivalent general ban for exhibitors.

The issue has particular significance for Spiel, which faced widespread criticism in 2023 after using AI-generated illustrations on its official tickets, posters and app.

Merz Verlag subsequently abandoned AI-generated artwork for its 2024 marketing campaign, citing criticism from industry professionals and consumers, alongside continuing legal uncertainty around the technology.

Rapp told BoardGameWire at the time that the organiser had reconsidered its approach following the backlash, but did not believe it was Spiel’s place to make decisions about the wider industry’s use of AI.

The absence of a general exhibitor ban three years later leaves Spiel as an outlier among the major tabletop game conventions.

BoardGameWire contacted Merz Verlag in September with a series of questions about whether the show planned to follow suit with its own AI policy, but was told by a spokesperson that the topic was too wide ranging to be able to address while preparations for this year’s event were taking place.

Future Plans

With its exhibition halls full and visitor numbers now capped, Spiel’s organisers face the challenge of finding new ways to develop the event without increasing its physical footprint.

Rapp told BoardGameWire during the show that Merz Verlag was still exploring what that might look like, with the company due to hold its annual planning workshop this month.

“Maybe it’s focusing more on events, like you said, or celebrating the industry. I don’t know yet, but we will have some good stuff coming up next year,” Rapp said.

Spiel Essen 2027 is scheduled to take place from October 21 to 24.

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By Kaysee and Max

Disclosure: bought the game, used the 4E Rulebook, beat all the scenarios

On a recent trip to Belgium, we spontaneously decided to visit a local board game shop. While we thought that most games there would be in French and only one of us can read French, we hoped to find something that’s not language dependent. Imagine our surprise when we saw some copies of the French version of Eternal Decks. This game had been on our radar for a while, even though we thought it would be difficult to get our hands on it. When we returned home, we were very eager to start playing.

The setup and the Rulebook

Eternal Decks is a cooperative card placement game that has some communication limit and stunningly beautiful art. The initial setup for the game is not the most difficult. It doesn’t have plenty of components. It only has a cloth that serves as a player board, different sets of cards, and a few wooden tokens. But the setup isn’t the easiest eiether; we’re not sure if it has something to do with us trying to figure out which deck or set of cards is which or us looking back and forth between the English and the French rulebooks to make sure that we got the correct cards. Understanding the rules, at least for the beginner mode, was easier for us than doing all the setup as it doesn’t have complex mechanics related to the concepts in the game.

The theme and the scenarios

We both really like the theme and the campaign of eleven scenarios in Eternal Decks. It tells the story of a group of explorers travelling through the Eternal Realm to preserve the existence of life in their own world. The art style is very pretty and it has a very minimalist theme with some abstract concepts, which doesn’t mean that the game itself is abstract or not thematic. It just means that while the theme and the art are already there to help with the world building, it still requires the theater of the mind. The non-restrictiveness of the theme allowed us to craft the world based on our own subjective and shared experiences.

As for the scenarios, each of them could be played independently, but we think it’s very much worth it to play through them in order at least once. The story might be told in a minimalistic way, but it’s still a good story and the mechanics do a great job of evoking the appropriate feelings. We really felt like explorers in a strange new world, learning how it works step by step. We also noticed that each scenario teaches the skills required to overcome the challenges of the next.

It’s all about the energy, dude

No matter which scenario, each player gets Energy cards and can play them on the Field rows or the River row on the mat. The Field card on the Field row (imagine it as one of the player’s starting points in the game) provides the information as to which type of Energy card (i.e. the color and the number) is required. But all Field rows share two basic rules: it’s not permitted to play two cards of the same Energy color or the same number next to each other. To us, the Energy cards represent the energy of a specific life form that we need to provide in order to revive an Eternal of our choice. Reviving an Eternal in return provides a set of Energy cards which in turn helps us to revive other Eternals.

As if all of this were not tricky enough to navigate, the Field rows in each scenario have varying Field cards that provide additional restrictions on the cards that can be placed in the row that they affect. Early examples are the Mountain and the Cave. The Mountain requires players to placed Energy cards in ascending order, while the Cave, its mechanical opposite, demands descending order. On the higher difficulty levels some rows have a deck of Field cards so that conditions change every time an Eternal is revived.

The Eternals

Most of the Eternals in the game are based on mythical creatures found in different cultures. They’re complicated. Some may argue they are friends, but some may think of them as foes. In any case, they are essential to preserve the cycle of life in the game. While they provide Energy cards, they also afflict the players with a Curse. Mechanically, this provides additional restrictions in terms of the type of cards that can be played.

Players can choose which Eternal to revive. This choice is very often a deliciously difficult one. There are quite a few factors to take into consideration when choosing. First, it matters who does the reviving, as this is the main way to gain more cards and running out means game over. Second, every Eternal afflicts everyone with a different type of Curse, so choosing the least bad one is essential. For instance, reviving the Skeleton will forbid all twos and eights from being played to the field, which is bad if either or both of the players are very likely to have those cards. Third, especially in the later scenarios it also becomes crucial to take into account which exact cards you gain from the Eternal, as you often need very specific combinations of cards to fulfill your objectives.

But fear not the Curses! They can be lifted if you add some specific combinations of Energy cards to the River for a Jewel, which you provide to the revived Eternal of your choice.

While any Energy card can be played to the River at any time, the River is not infinite. By filling it with Energy, you can gain a River Rare card, which functions like a joker mechanically. However, these are limited and can run out. Throwing too much Energy, a non-physical object, into the River will result in a gameover. Please keep the rivers clean.

Winning and losing

The winning condition in the game is dependent on which scenario it is, even though it always involves unlocking either Stars or Keys by fulfilling various objectives. We never felt frustrated when we lost in any scenario of the game, which is something we’ve felt in other games with similar systems. We wanted to try again and again. The last time we’ve felt this way was when we were playing Slay the Spire (the video game). We experienced losing multiple times in Stage C+, one of the advanced scenarios of the game, where winning sometimes seemed impossible (it took us five times before we were able to beat this stage). What we liked about this stage is it allowed us to improve and assess our strategies, thinking that there must be a way for us to solve the impossible. It could have ended as an eternal cycle of repeated loss.

Communication

When it comes to the communication limit, we think it’s really well implemented. We think that it is almost at the same level of communication limit as Gloomhaven, where open hand and mentioning what cards you have are not allowed. If anything, there is more information that can be communicated in Eternal Decks, as there are some types of cards that can be disclosed to the other players and an ability card where players may show their cards to the others. On top of that, each player has two Communication discs in their color that they can place on spaces where they think they could play some cards. Especially by placing a token on a spot further along a row it can be possible to give significant information about the cards in your hand. This allowed us to coordinate our strategies and work together effectively.

The degree of limitation, both of verbal communication and the use of (emblematic) gestures, is also determined by which scenario it is. Some scenarios do not allow some form of communication that is typically allowed in many scenarios. This also required us to come up with a different strategy and apply some more theory of mind, where we try to observe and understand what the other person is thinking when they perform an action.

Our final thoughts

We’ve never played anything like Eternal Decks. The intriguing world-building, the colorful art and the razor-sharp mechanics combine to create an immersive and stimulating experience for both of us. The later scenarios are very engaging and challenging even if one of them requires essentially perfect play in addition to a decent dose of luck. But what we like the most is how well it plays even if it’s just the two of us.

We also like that there’s a creative mode. We tried creating our own scenario only to realize that it was imbalanced. We’re still working on it and are very excited to try it again. It also made us realize how difficult it must be to design a game for the very first time which made us respect game designers even more.

One thing that we have to say though, is while we’re ok with the structure of the Rulebook, there’s a part in the Stage E setup in the Stage Description book where the placement of the text makes it difficult to interpret whether it is within the scope of a specific set up. We were only able to figure it out by reading the rules for that scenario.

But that one small bit didn’t affect the quality of our gameplay. And we can imagine playing this game multiple times and crafting our own story each time.

Kaysee’s rating: 4.5/5
Max’s rating: 5/5

Combined rating: 5/5

Title: Eternal Decks (2025)
Game Design: Hiroken
Artist: MUJUNSHA
Edition: French
Publishers: Tricktakers Games, Pixie Games

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By Kaysee and Max

August – the month when Obon and summer festivals usually happen in Japan, which means more fireworks, or hanabi as it’s called in Japanese, in Japan. We’re not in Japan this August, but it’s also summer here in Germany, which means it’s still very much the travel season now. This also means it’s the time for long train trips (at least for both of us) and so we’ve been looking for a small game to play during our travels. We already have some games that are travel friendly, but we wanted to test whether the cooperative card game Hanabi, which also happens to have won the 2013 Spiel des Jahres award, is the ultimate travel game for us.

It’s a very accessible game in terms of how easy to get a copy of it and in terms of the price. In terms of the rules, it is also very accessible. At its core, Hanabi is a set collection game. The rules for two players are the same for any number of players. Players have to assemble five stacks of five cards with five different colors in ascending order from one to five. There is, however, a big twist. The game doesn’t allow players to see their own hand, only the hand of the other player. They have to choose one of three options on each turn; they can give a hint to another player, discard a card, or play a card. Giving a hint requires turning over an unused clue token and allows the player to chose one color or one number and tell the other player which of their cards are of that color or number. We tried to use the clue tokens as efficiently as possible, as there’s only limited number of them and using them all removes the option of giving a hint for the next turn.

Discarding a card, conversely, requires turning over a used clue token and as such is the main way of gaining the ability to give more hints. The player then has to draw another card to replace the discarded one. Playing a card means selecting it and then turning it over to see whether it fits one of the existing stacks or start a new one, if it’s a one of a new color. If the card doesn’t fit, one of the three error tokens has to be turned over. If all three of them are turned over, the players lose the game. Whether the play was successful or not, the player has to draw a new card to replace the one they played.

The twist means that memory and deduction are crucial to succeed. Players need to remember the hints they were given. They can reorder their hand to help their memory, but this can backfire if the order of the cards changes frequently. Combining the limited knowledge of their own hand, that of their partners hand and the information provided by the cards that have already been played and discarded, hopefully allows the player to know which of their cards they can safely play or discard. In our experience there are plenty of times where we had to act based on incomplete information and hope that we made the right choice. In those instances, it is safer to discard than to play a card. Three mistakes while playing cards result in a gameover, mistakes while discarding just have a possibility of limiting the number of points you can achieve.

All of this means that even just selecting which action to take on your turn is an important and consequential choice. In the beginning, it’s a good idea to give some hints to the other player first, but the clue tokens run out quickly. After that, players have to choose whether to play or discard, even if they don’t have all the information they might want. We don’t think meta gaming, such as making a plan before starting, is necessary if playing with the same person. And since we are boring law abiding citizens, we do not think that house rules are necessary as long as you play with the same person and observe how frequently they use the same tactics.

Our Final Thoughts:
While we haven’t had a perfect run yet, we’ve been enjoying every game session. Hanabi really requires a lot of attention to remember all the hints you are given and to correctly make deductions. The rules might be straightforward and simple, but that doesn’t make the game easy to beat. While it doesn’t have the strongest theme much like many other filler games and it doesn’t have that much let’s-try-again-one-more-time aspect right after finishing the game session (at least for us), it is a really good co-op filler game for two players. Both of us can imagine playing this game when we get old (and hopefully not grumpy) to keep our cognitive skills intact. And given that it doesn’t require much space, we will be bringing it on future long travels.

Kaysee’s rating: 4/5
Max’s rating: 4/5

Combined rating: 4/5

Title: Hanabi German Edition
Game Design: Antoine Bauza
Illustration: Antoine Bauza, Gérald Guerlais, Laura Michaud
Publisher: Cocktail Games

Photos by Kaysee

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