SPIEL 2024 in Essen: Record trade fair without record number of visitors – for good reason

SPIEL 2024 is over - it was the colorful festival of board games that fans from all over the world had been expecting. The organizers are now taking stock. Quite surprisingly: They are apparently deliberately not aiming for a record number of visitors.

The organizers expected over 200.000 fans for this year's games fair in Essen. And that's exactly what happened. 204.000 - that's the official number of visitors according to Merz Verlag. The record of 209.000 from 2019 remains unmatched. But for good reason.

SPIEL 2024 in Essen: Sold out every day

SPIEL 2024 ends without a new visitor record, but at the same time has achieved several other records. Particularly impressive: all days of the world's largest public trade fair for board games were completely sold out - even Sunday. A few hours before the end of the last day of the trade fair, SPIEL announced on social media that all tickets for the finale were also sold out.

For four days 204.000 people from all over the world visit Messe Essen with its Enthusiasm for board games and joy of playing fulfillsEssen once again became the “games capital”. In the heart of the Ruhr region, people played, laughed, bought and talked.

What you decades ago hardly considered possibleh is now a reality: the Essen trade fair is a major international event and a meeting place for the scene at the same time. Visitors from over 80 nations came to Essen and the 923 exhibitors with their over 1.500 new products this year came from 52 countries on all continents. For the first time in its history, the trade fair announced that all tickets for Thursday and Friday were sold out - even before the start of the event.

Even without a record – the number of visitors is above that of the previous year – the organizers’ summary is positive: “This year, for the first time, we worked with a contingent of tickets in order to create a pleasant experience at the SPIEL for as many people as possible and to comply with the safety regulations,” says Carol Rapp, the managing director of the organizing company Merz Verlag. She adds: There should never have been more than 50.000 people on the grounds at the same time. Safety thus became a central theme at this year’s GAME in EssenVisitors could already feel this when entering the halls: "We once again made sure that the aisles were wide and that there were good walkways so that it was easy to get through the halls and to the stands."

This year, the trade fair was able to report a record in terms of the space used in the halls. The space for exhibitors was already sold out in June and this year the board game fair filled 68.500 square metres in the six halls used at Messe Essen. This made it once again the largest SPIEL of all time. "When we had to open a waiting list in June because we could not immediately meet all of the exhibitors' requests, we knew that this year the space would be even larger. We had to do a lot of puzzling to coordinate the requests for more play space and new exhibitor requests," says Carol Rapp. "I am very proud of us as a team that we managed to tackle this huge task together and that, through a lot of communication, we were able to offer almost everyone an offer at SPIEL."

Feeling good despite full halls

The exhibitors are also enthusiastic about this year’s SPIEL. “It was an impressive and successful trade fair,” says Yasin Ates, Managing Director DACH Region of Ravensburger"The halls were full, but you still felt comfortable. It was great to see so many people playing with enthusiasm." For Ravensburger, SPIEL is also an important indicator of how a new title for the fall and winter is being received, says Ates. "Here we meet the entire scene: the players, who give us direct feedback through conversations and by lending them out, our retail partners, with whom we talk directly about the new releases, and of course the authors and colleagues."

The success of the fair can be attributed to the publishing and distribution Asmodee can only confirm this. "This year, SPIEL was once again a fantastic trade fair. What a joy to see so many people here who were able to discover so many great games from so many different publishers," says Thomas Koegler, CEO of the Asmodee Group. "The trade fair is always very special for us because the fans come together with us and our team can show them special and new games in person, like Monkey Palace, which we are releasing in collaboration with Lego."

After changes to the hall planning, a significantly improved app, a new logo and a mascot heralded the modernization of SPIEL Essen last year, Merz Verlag has continued the path into the future of the world's leading trade fair this year, primarily with fine-tuning and expansion. The thematic hall structure was retained following the outstanding feedback and further improved through closer coordination with the exhibitors. The app received functions requested by users, such as a filter that displays newly added games after updates, or the option of integrating individual games into route planning.

The cute mascot Meeps was also more integrated into SPIEL. Visitors could meet the playful kitten as a walking act in the halls or take photos with large Meeps stands in the foyers. A cuddly toy was also available for the first time at the trade fair and online. At the same time, Loot, the first official game at the trade fair, celebrated its premiere - of course with Meeps as the main character in the roll & write game.

star guest and many highlights

For the first time this year, in addition to the mascot, there was also an official face of SPIEL: Alea, frontman of the rock band Saltatio Mortis, advertised the fair and gaming itself on posters and on site. The enthusiastic gamer is part of the cross-genre project Finsterwacht, in which music, fantasy novels and role-playing games work together and reinforce each other. The fair therefore dedicated an entire day to this previously unique interaction of three cultural forms as part of the SPIEL.talks – Finsterwacht.

Another premiere at SPIEL was the world-famous Golden Demon miniature painting competition, which Games Workshop hosted at the fair in Essen. Over 1.000 submissions of impressively painted miniatures were exhibited on site every day. On Sunday, the winners in various categories were chosen at a ceremony and the main prize, the coveted Slayer Sword, was awarded.
Also part of the fair's program were the SPIEL.talks – Sustainability, where experts from the board game world presented various aspects of sustainability in and around the game.
The Educators Day also took place again at SPIEL and attracted around 500 people from education, research, teaching and other educational areas to the international lectures.

On the Wednesday before the trade fair, the German Games Prize, Germany's largest community award for board games, was awarded at SPIEL. First place went to Mischwald by Kosch, published by Lookout Spiele, second place went to Sky Team by Luc Rémond, published by Kosmos and Scorpion Masque, and third place went to Die weiße Burg by Sheila Santos and Israel Cendrero, published by Kosmos and Devir. The best children's game was Die magischen Schlüssel by Arno Steinwender and Markus Slawitscheck, published by Game Factory and Happy Baobab.

The date for SPIEL 2025 has long been set

"This year's SPIEL was a complete success and shows once again how close the team is to the scene and how well it copes with the many challenges of a world-leading trade fair," says Florian Hess, Managing Director of Merz Verlag and Board Member of Spielwarenmesse eG, summing up and adding: "The trade fair is heading in a fantastic direction and we have big plans to keep SPIEL up-to-date and appealing to exhibitors and visitors from all over the world."

For Merz Verlag, as every year, it is now: after SPIEL is before SPIEL. The team will take a short breather and then collect feedback, evaluate feedback and plan for 2025 so that the next trade fair is even more successful.

The SPIEL Essen 2025 finds from October 23rd to 26th of the coming year.

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