Spiel

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^[1] (Thursday to the following Sunday) at the Messe Essen exhibition centre in Essen, Germany. It began in 1983.^[2] With 1,021 exhibitors from 50 nations in 2016, SPIEL is the biggest fair for board games in the world.^[3] Many new games are released at the fair each year, especially (but not exclusively) European-style board games.

Quick Facts Genre, Frequency ...

Spiel
Spiel 2008
Genre	Board game trade fair
Frequency	Annual
Venue	Messe Essen
Country	Germany
Inaugurated	1983 (1983)
Attendance	204,000 (2024)
Website	www.spiel-essen.de/en/

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At 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.^{[citation needed]}