SPIEL Essen Sold Out All Four Days, and the Hall Floor Is the Limit

Two thousand copies of one game were gone by Friday lunchtime. That is what a sold-out SPIEL Essen looks like from the publisher’s side of the table.

The fair ran October 22 to 25, and the organizers say 230,000 people came, with every day sold out. That’s 10,000 more than the 220,000 in 2025, which itself topped 204,000 in 2024 and 193,000 in 2023, according to BoardGameWire. The official numbers list 997 exhibitors from 53 countries and 2,012 new releases across eight halls and 81,200 square meters. For the first time, the fair took over all of Messe Essen.

The hot games tell you what that crowd does to a stand. Combo Games brought about 2,000 copies of Queen Alice, the most-thumbed title on BoardGameGeek’s SPIEL preview, and sold out around lunchtime on Friday. Allplay brought 450 copies of Enchanted Ivy and was out by 3 p.m. on opening day. Allplay’s COO, Joe Wiggins, told BoardGameWire sales were up 40% on last year. Pegasus, by contrast, brought more than 40 new releases and had no single blockbuster. If you wanted either of those first two games at the fair, the window was a day or less. We don’t know yet when either will be easy to find at retail.

The fair itself says it has hit a ceiling. Merz Verlag managing director Carol Rapp told BoardGameWire, “We are well aware that we are pushing Messe Essen to its absolute limits. But to immediately dispel any rumors: A relocation is not on the table.” Attendance, she said, will stay at 230,000. The crowding was visible on the floor. Combo’s queue snaked along one end of its hall and out the doors, and Rapp said Combo had to pay for the extra security that Messe Essen added. “As long as the people are moving, everything is fine,” she said. “As soon as you have a block, a cluster or whatever, in the aisles, and it’s taking too long, people will go crazy.” On where growth goes next, she pointed toward events rather than more bodies, then added, “I don’t know yet.”

The other half of the story happened after the doors closed. Merz told BoardGameWire that six thefts were reported to it this year, ranging from tablecloths to cases of games, cash and equipment, all during setup or teardown. The best documented is the French company Tossit, which says it left its stand at about 10:45 p.m. on Sunday, October 25, and came back at 8 a.m. to find roughly 14,000 euros of merchandise and equipment gone. Another exhibitor, The Rolling Inn, says 4,000 euros in cash, its entire takings for the show, was stolen during dismantling. Tossit also says staff laughed at its team when it asked for help. Merz denies that and says police have been notified.

The organizers’ position is that exhibitors are responsible for their own property and can pay for dedicated guards. Merz confirmed that no CCTV covered the booths that were hit. Messe Essen’s press chief said camera footage can’t tell a legitimate removal from a theft when large numbers of people are moving goods at once, and Wargamer reports the venue has about 24 hours to dismantle 85,000 square meters. That’s a real constraint, and no camera would have solved all of it.

Still, the two halves of this story belong together. A fair that fills every hall and every ticket is also a fair where the smallest publishers carry the most risk. Pegasus co-CEO Karsten Esser was blunt that the number of games they sell at SPIEL helps them break even. A 14,000-euro loss is a bad week for a big publisher and could be the year for a small one. Asking exhibitors to buy their own guards is defensible on paper. It lands hardest on the stands that can least afford it, and it’s the decision we’d want Merz to revisit. Asked about 2027, a spokesperson said only that it’s too early to say anything about future arrangements.

The fair has room for 230,000 people. Whether it has a plan for the people packing up after them is the question to carry into October 21 to 24, 2027.

Header image: Photo by Korhan Erdol, via Pexels.

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