SPIEL Essen 2024: sold out for the first time and with record numbers
SPIEL Essen comes to an end with a special kind of success story: all days of the world's largest public fair for board games were completely sold out. For four days, 204,000 people from all over the world filled Messe Essen with their enthusiasm for board games and the joy of playing. From October 3 to 6, people played, laughed, bought and talked in the heart of the Ruhr region. The games fair also showed once again how international board games and the event are. Visitors from over 80 nations came to Essen and the 923 exhibitors with over 1,500 new products this year came from 52 countries on all continents - SPIEL Essen is also a meeting of nations.
Sold-out days and a new floor space record
An absolute first for SPIEL Essen was achieved even before the start of the fair. For the first time, the trade fair announced that all tickets for Thursday and Friday were sold out. During the fair, Saturday and Sunday were also sold out. In the end, the number of visitors amounted to 204,000 people and was once again significantly higher than the previous year.
This year, the trade fair set a record for the amount of space occupied in the halls. The space for exhibitors was already sold out in June and this year the board game fair filled 68,500 m² in the six halls used by Messe Essen. This made it once again the largest SPIEL of all time.
Success for exhibitors and organizers
The exhibitors are also enthusiastic about this year's SPIEL. “It was an impressive and successful trade fair,” says Yasin Ates, Managing Director for the DACH region at 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 received, said Ates. “Here we meet the entire scene: the players who give us direct feedback through conversations and loans, our trading partners with whom we talk directly about the new releases, and of course the authors and colleagues.”
Successful continuation of modernization
After changes in 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 expansions. Following the excellent feedback, the thematic hall structure was retained and further improved through closer coordination with the exhibitors. The app received functions requested by users, such as a filter that shows newly added games after updates or the ability to integrate individual games into route planning.
After a successful trade fair, planning for 2025 has already begun
“This year's SPIEL was a complete success and shows once again how close the team is to the scene and how well it can cope with the many challenges of a leading world trade fair,” says Florian Hess, managing director of Merz Verlag and board member of Spielwarenmesse eG, summing up explains: “The path of the trade fair is heading in a fantastic direction and we have big plans to keep SPIEL current and appealing for exhibitors and visitors from all over the world.”
For Merz Verlag it's like every year: After the SPIEL is before the SPIEL. The team will take a short break and then collect feedback, evaluate feedback and plan for 2025 so that the next trade fair is even more successful. SPIEL Essen 2025 will take place from October 23rd to 26th, 2025.
Source: Press Release SPIEL Essen