SPIEL Essen opens beginning of October for hundreds of thousand board game fans

There are two public holidays in Germany this year on 3 October: the Day of German Unity and the day on which board game fans from all over the world make a pilgrimage to Essen to celebrate their favorite hobby for four days. That's when SPIEL Essen begins. The largest board game fair in the world with around 200,000 international board game fans and exhibitors from all five continents will make Messe Essen in the heart of the Ruhr region the center of the gaming world from 3 to 6 October 2024.
 
SPIEL Essen has grown considerably: With 68,500 square metres of exhibition space, all six exhibition halls used this year are completely filled for the first time, SPIEL 2024 has already broken last year's record and is once again the largest SPIEL of all time. More than 850 exhibitors from over 50 nations will be presenting their new titles and inviting visitors to try out and shop.

Halls structure and interactive plans

Just like last year, SPIEL is relying on a hall concept organized by theme to make it easier for visitors to find their way around the huge exhibition grounds. Following the very positive feedback on the hall structure, there have only been minor fine-tuning and slight shifts this year. For example, the role-playing games area has been expanded to Hall 2 and manufacturers and business exhibitors have moved to Hall 4.

The themes of the halls are once again organized according to game categories:

Hall 1: Miniatures Games, Trading Card Games, Role-Playing Games

Hall 2: Role-Playing Games, Connoisseur Games, Expert Games

Hall 3: Connoisseur Games, Expert Games

Hall 4: Expert Games, Family Games, B2B

Halls 5 and 6: Family Games ranging from Children’s Games to Party Games to light Connoisseur Games

Galeria: free activities for children and Foodcourt (additional stands in various outer areas)

As last year, the boundaries of the areas are fluid, so that visitors can find overlapping focal points, especially at transitions between categories.

The layout of the halls and exhibitors can be found on the interactive hall plans online on the Merz Verlag website.

SPIEL app with new functions

The free and useful app for SPIEL Essen will also be available again. With its lists of exhibitors and new products, favorites, hall plans and navigation, it was a real fair hit in 2023 with over 45,000 downloads.

This year, Merz Verlag has once again expanded the app and added new functions that many visitors had requested. It is now also possible to display individual games in the navigation and newly added games are specially highlighted in the lists.

The update of the SPIEL Essen app will be available in all app stores at the end of August.

Program at the show: Finsterwacht, SPIEL.talks, Educators Day, Golden Demon

In addition to the games, Merz Verlag is once again offering visitors an exciting supporting program to discover this year.

On Thursday, there will be an extensive program centered around the cross-genre project Finsterwacht from the world of the well-known role-playing game The Dark Eye. The band Saltatio Mortis - whose frontman Alea is also the face of this year's SPIEL Essen advertising campaign -, bestselling authors Bernhard Hennen and Torsten Weitze and game publisher Ulisses Spiele have joined forces to merge music, novels and role-playing games in this project. With autograph sessions, music interludes, talks and role-playing rounds on the first day of the fair, they will show how well these different cultural forms fit together and combine.

As part of SPIEL.talks, a panel discussion with representatives from politics, industry, retail, game scientists and industry experts will also take place on Thursday. The motto of this talk is Value of Play - because play has a cultural and economic value that we as society tend to underestimate.

The SPIEL.talks - Sustainability will then take place on Friday. Here, experts from the world of games will present various aspects of sustainability and games. In panel discussions and talks, visitors will find out interesting information about new projects and developments for a greener games’ future.

At the Educators Day on Saturday, people from education, research, corporate training and other educational fields will be able to gain exciting insights and impulses on the broad field of games and education in various contributions and discussions.

The world-famous Golden Demon painting competition from Games Workshop will take place for the first time at SPIEL Essen. Painters from all over the world can submit their painted Warhammer miniatures during the fair and compete with the most talented miniature artists in various categories. A jury of experts will decide on the winners of each category and the winner of the legendary Slayer Sword, which will be announced at an award ceremony on Sunday.

This year, Merz Verlag will once again be offering a live stream directly from the fair on YouTube, allowing those at home to experience SPIEL Essen. The individual program items will also be available on the SPIEL YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/@SPIELMesse) after the fair.

Tickets, prices and opening hours

Visitors can already secure their tickets for the fair in the SPIEL Essen online ticket shop. A reduced early bird price is available until 31 August.

The ticket shop can be accessed via the following link:

1-Day-Tickets:

1-Day-Ticket – Adults: 22 Euro (Early Bird), 23 Euro (starting September), 24 Euro (on site)

1-Day-Ticket – Children (4 bis 12 Jahre): 13 Euro (Early Bird), 14 Euro (starting September), 15 Euro (on site)

1-Day-Ticket – Pupils, Students, and Trainees: 19 Euro (Early Bird), 20 Euro (starting September), 21 Euro (on site)

1-Day-Ticket – Severely Disabled (degree 50 and up, with markups B, G, aG, H or Bl incl. accompanying person): 19 Euro (Early Bird), 20 Euro (starting September), 21 Euro (on site)

1-Day-Ticket – Family (2 Adults plus up to 3 Children): 59 Euro (Early Bird), 60 Euro (starting September), 61 Euro (on site)

1-Day-Ticket –Cosplay (only for persons in complete Cosplay): 13 Euro (Early Bird), 14 Euro (starting September), 15 Euro (on site)

1-Day-Ticket – Adults incl. Educators Day: 27 Euro (Early Bird), 28 Euro (starting September), 29 Euro (on site)

4-Days-Tickets:

4-Days-Ticket – Adults: 61 Euro (Early Bird), 62 Euro (starting September), 63 Euro (on site)

4-Days-Ticket – Children (4 bis 12 Jahre): 32 Euro (Early Bird), 33 Euro (starting September), 34 Euro (on site)

4-Days-Ticket – Pupils, Students, and Trainees: 50 Euro (Early Bird), 51 Euro (starting September), 52 Euro (on site)

4-Days-Ticket – Severely Disabled (degree 50 and up, with markups B, G, aG, H or Bl incl. accompanying person): 50 Euro (Early Bird), 51 Euro (starting September), 52 Euro (on site)

4-Days-Ticket – Cosplay (only for persons in complete Cosplay: 32 Euro (Early Bird), 33 Euro (starting September), 34 Euro (on site)

4-Days-Ticket – Adults incl. Golden Demon (ermöglicht Teilnahme am Bemalwettbewerb): 71 Euro (Early Bird), 72 Euro (starting September). 73 Euro (on site)

4-Days-Ticket – Adults incl. Educators Day: 66 Euro (Early Bird), 67 Euro (starting September), 68 Euro (on site)

Business-Tickets:

1-Day-Ticket + Business Lounge: 32 Euro (Early Bird), 33 Euro (starting September), 34 Euro (on site)

1-Day-Ticket + Business Lounge + Parking: 40 Euro (Early Bird), 41 Euro (starting September), 42 Euro (on site)

2-Days-Ticket + Business Lounge: 55 Euro (Early Bird), 56 Euro (starting September), 57 Euro (on site)

2-Days-Ticket + Business Lounge + Parking: 71 Euro (Early Bird), 72 Euro (starting September), 73 Euro (on site)

Opening hours of SPIEL Essen 2024 are:

Thursday, 3. October 2024, 10:00 to 19:00
Friday, 4. October 2024, 10:00 to 19:00
Saturday, 5. October 2024, 10:00 to 19:00
Sunday, 6. October 2024, 10:00 to 18:00

Mascot, cuddly toy, and the game for the show

The cute mascot Meeps, who has been melting gamers' hearts since last year, will be making even more appearances around and at the fair this year. At SPIEL, fans can meet the kitty in the halls as a walking act or take pictures with large figures in the foyers. If you want to cuddle the little animal at home, this year for the first time you can also buy Meeps as a cuddly agent in the SPIEL Essen merchandise shop.

Also new is ‘Loot’, the official game for SPIEL. This captivating, family-friendly roll-and-write game was specially developed by the successful author Ralf zur Linde together with his son Roys at Skellig Games together with Merz Verlag and is also available in the merchandise shop and at SPIEL.