Essen Game Fair

Internationale Spieltage SPIEL, often called the Essen Game Fair after the city where it is held, is an annual four-day public boardgame trade fair held in October (Thursday to the following Sunday) at the Messe Essen exhibition centre in Essen, Germany. It began in 1983. With 220,000 people attending, 948 exhibitors from 50 nations presenting more than 1700 new board games in 2025, SPIEL is the biggest fair for board games in the world - a title it had for over a decade. Many new games are released at the fair each year, especially (but not exclusively) European-style board games.

thumb|Messe Essen, the event venueAt SPIEL, board games that are often hard to find in retail are offered by international and small exhibitors. While the prices for buying these games at the fair do not tend to be significantly lower than in retail, games are typically available sooner than in regular board game shops and may come with promotional materials (mostly extra cards or tokens with a few more game mechanics, but also T-shirts and similar merchandise). SPIEL also provides an environment for board gamers to meet and chat with game designers, illustrators, and game reviewers.