What were the biggest games at the world’s biggest tabletop con? Chris Marling visited Essen Spiel 2026 to find the answer
Spiel Essen is the largest tabletop convention in the world, and it has grown every year (discounting those awful Covid years) for more than a decade. This year it spanned all eight of Messe Essen’s halls, totalling 81,200 square metres (up from 77,500), and had 230,000 attendees (up from 220,000) over four sold-out days.
The reason for attending? You’re looking at 997 exhibitors from 53 countries who are introducing more than 2,000 new releases to the world. You’ll find everything from Pokémon cards and mead stands to board games, furniture and art. Plus talks, cosplay, RPGs and everything associated with any of the above. It’s an amazing melting pot where the world’s top designers and publishers wander the halls alongside the masses, and I wouldn’t miss its mayhem for anything.
The halls are now at capacity, though, triggering much speculation about the event’s future. Spiel Essen’s organisers have already started to host events outside the halls, while also assuring us that the event’s future remains in one of Germany’s less-well-known cities. But let’s leave that speculation for the future and concentrate on the board games that stood out at Spiel Essen 2026.
The biggest queues I saw on day one of Spiel Essen 2026 were for the game Lady Alice and at the Czech Games Edition (CGE) stand generally, thanks to a strong roster of Drillers, Codenames: Critical Role Adventures, Kingdom Come: Deliverance – The Board Game, and the final (allegedly) Lost Ruins of Arnak expansion, Surprise Shipment. CGE always has plenty of stock at the show, but Lady Alice quickly sold out.
With record numbers attending the event, it was no surprise to see “Sold Out” signs crop up across the halls. While this can sometimes be a sign of publisher or manufacturer incompetence at not bringing enough stock, rather than it being a good game, I heard great things about these sellouts: Dice Arcana (Ludonova), Gaudi and Shugendo from Devir; Wine and Cheese (Pegasus); Nijar (Perro Loko); Microlonies (Fentasy Games); Night at the Zoo (Albi); Drops of Evil (Horrible Guild); and Atrah (CMON).
According to the Board Game Geek Spiel Essen 2026 tool, 1,410 of its listed games were released at the show. Users can give a thumbs up to games they’re looking forward to checking out, creating a great hotness guide for fellow gamers. This year, only four games made it past 1,000 thumbs:
This Board Game Geek game release information is compiled on a fantastic app/website called the Tabletop Together Tool. The app lets you make notes on each game, and then print maps and lists you can take with you as you wander the halls. It also lets you put each game into categories (Need, Want, Like, Maybe, etc.), which it then uses to compile a top games list.
Just six games finished up with a rating higher than three, with the top two being -60° and Queen Alice, both discussed above. The rest were:
Timespan (Alion)
Designer Kristian Amundsen Østby has been on a hot streak since Santa Maria’s 2017 release, with Revive and Recall both making a splash in the past couple of years. Timespan, designed with Kenneth Minde, is a two-hour civ game that looks highly likely to continue the trend.
Greenwood (Feuerland Spiele)
Feuerland Spiele has an eye for a hit (unsurprising when you think it is co-headed by Uwe Rosenberg), with the likes of Ark Nova, Terra Mystica and A Feast for Odin in its catalogue. Greenwood is another fantasy-themed Euro with plenty of table presence.
Drillers (CGE)
Drillers looks likely to be another big hit for CGE, taking the light deck-building of Arnak and adding a mild push-your-luck element to a streamlined resource management and contract completion Euro.
Carl von Linne (Pink Troubadour)
This was probably my most-anticipated game of the con and I wasn’t alone, as the small Pink Troubadour stand had queues throughout the first few days of Spiel. It’s a historical exploration Euro in the vein of Darwin’s Journey, but with a clever and original take on worker placement.
Fairplay is a popular German board game magazine that encourages its readers to vote on the games they play at Spiel via its Scoutaktion website. It’s a great snapshot of what’s been hitting home with German gamers at the show, with the only downside being that it includes games that are being printed in German for the first time and might not be new to other gamers.
The magazine’s final results are eagerly awaited by those on site, usually being announced around 4pm on the last day of the con. This year was no exception, and making notes of the winners was my last experience of the halls before dragging myself back to my hotel.
The top two Connoisseur and Expert games were Nokosu Dice (a first German release for this popular trick-taker) and Greenwood (see above), with the top five being completed by:
Gibberers (Strohmann Games)
This is a fascinating deduction co-op, first released in English in 2024 by Hobby Japan, where players construct a language over several rounds and then see if it holds up in the final round as everyone must guess what a final word translates as. It’s a unique experience.
Tea & Rum (Captain Games SRL)
A relatively light Euro with a pirate theme, but which can have two winners. Players each choose to follow either a crown or pirate path, with both routes allowed to have a game winner.
Vantage (Stonemaier Games)
The latest co-operative card and dice game from Jamey Stegmaier got plenty of buzz, being an open-world exploration experience with lots of campaign-style mechanisms (getting unique cards/items from the box, etc.), but without a campaign tacked on.
The top 10 also included Drillers and Night at the Zoo (Albi’s clever tile-laying and programmed movement game).
The top five Scoutaktion children and family games were:
The other standouts in the top 10 were Minikin City (trick-taking meets card-scoring combos from Cranio Creations, which had a lot of well-deserved buzz) and Frosted Blooms (a fast-playing polyomino-drafting game from Synapses Games).
The biggest trend of Spiel Essen 2026 was that trick-taking took over the halls. Trick-takers have always been popular with a core group of gamers, but have become way more mainstream with the popularity of innovative titles such as The Crew, Arcs and Cat in the Box.
Almost 100 trick-takers were released at Spiel Essen 2026, with the aforementioned Minikin City and Nokosu Dice getting a lot of love. But other contenders for trick-taker of the show included Potemkin Village (an asymmetric co-operative historically themed title from Albi) and Matchmakers (AllPines Society’s team trick-taker).
Another big winner from the weekend was South Korean publisher Playte. It has only been around for five years but has found a niche by miniaturising classic board games into cool little packages (including Can’t Stop, Thurn and Taxis, Skull King and The King is Dead).
This year it had a storage solution, where you could buy a bunch of games and a container to put them in. Its stand was packed all weekend and was running on fumes by Sunday. I was particularly impressed by its new editions of classics Linko and New York, New York.
Vroom (see above) was probably the light game I saw getting the most play from gamers and families, although it was hard to ignore the multiple new versions of Flip 7 that littered the stores and tables, including two (?!) Christmas editions (12 Days of Flipmas and Flip 7: The Nightmare Before Christmas).
The behemoth of the hobby, Asmodee, had half of one of the larger halls to itself, including many great family games such as Azul Kids. The standout for me was The Happiest Cat in the World; a gorgeous game with multi-use tiles that’s simple yet satisfyingly puzzley. I also enjoyed shedding game Dnup, which has a similar feel to Scout but with enough tweaks to make it feel original (see our interview with Scout and Dnup designer Kei Kajino in Issue 120).
The hottest expansions this year were clearly: Arnak’s Surprise Shipment (mainly new cards, some with special rules); Harmonies: Crescenda (new game boards and creatures); Faraway: Beyond the Veil (added common objectives with new ways to score); and The White Castle: Bōeki (privilege cards gained from the time track, plus unique objectives). Also notable were Endeavor Deep Sea: Uncharted Waters (new challenging missions); Slay the Spire: Downfall (four new characters); and Bomb Busters: The Pro Kit (new gear and challenges). I was also excited to get a look at Explorers of Navoria: World’s Edge (asymmetric player boards and personal tracks, a solo campaign and more), but it won’t be available until next year.
