International game days

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Game 2006
View of the hall in 2008

The annual International match days (short game ) at the Messe Essen are the world's largest public event for non-electronic games.

history

The first game days took place in 1983 at the Volkshochschule Essen . Instead of the expected 500, 5000 visitors came. Only a few years later they had to move to the exhibition halls for reasons of space. Since then, the fair has taken place in October at the Essen exhibition center and continues to grow every year (see table). In 1984 the first German team championship in board games was held during the game days . The winners of the European Board Game Championships have been determined here since 2003 . There will be no event in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic .

year Visitors Number of exhibitors Exhibition space new hits Nations Entry price 1 source
1998 <140,000 463 300 18th
2012 149,000 827 37 € 11.50
2013 156,000 826 39,000 m² about 800 39 € 11.50
2014 158,000 832 58,000 m² 41 € 11.50
2015 162,000 910 63,000 m² approx. 1,000 41 € 11.50
2016 174,000 1,021 about 1200 50 13 €
2017 182,000 1,100 72,000 m² 51 13 €
2018 190,000 1,150 80,000 m² approx. 1,400 50 13 €
2019 209,000 1,200 86,000 m² approx. 1,500 53 15 €
2020 not applicable
1Day ticket f. Adults, possibly plus 2 € advance booking fee. Since 2019 there is no longer a VRR combined ticket available

Organizer and program

The world's largest trade fair for board and card games, with around 200,000 visitors per year - including many author's games - is organized by Friedhelm Merz Verlag . It takes place every year in October on the exhibition grounds in Essen and, in contrast to the Nuremberg Toy Fair, is not only open to trade visitors but also to the public. Board games of all kinds, children's , parlor and family games as well as strategy , postal , role and computer games are shown on an area of ​​around 86,000 m² . In the GAME the Submesse is comic action integrated. In Essen, visitors can test the entire series of games at all stands and, if they like, buy them. Explainers introduce the games to almost all stands or even the authors themselves are available for test games.

Web links

Commons : International Game Days  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hendrik Breuer: Board game fair in Essen: "Friendships for life have already emerged there" . In: Spiegel Online . October 24, 2019 ( spiegel.de [accessed October 28, 2019]).
  2. ↑ COVID-19 - SPIEL fair . May 18, 2020. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
  3. ↑ 149,000 visitors came to the Spiel 12 game fair in Essen . In: WAZ . October 21, 2012. Retrieved September 18, 2013.
  4. ↑ Game '13: Con Report . In: Big Shiny Robot . November 1, 2013. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
  5. ^ Merz Verlag Friedhelm: Exhibitor information . Archived from the original on July 8, 2015. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  6. ↑ Spiel'15 will be Essen's largest game fair to date. FUNKE MEDIEN NRW GmbH , July 17, 2015, accessed on July 28, 2015 .
  7. ↑ SPIEL'16 final report: Playing with emotions. October 17, 2016, accessed October 25, 2016 .
  8. ^ Daniel Krause: Essen: Spielmesse Spiel '17 ends with a new visitor record. Retrieved October 29, 2017 (German).
  9. ↑ “Spiel 2018” breaks the visitor record: 190,000 guests come to Essen . In: WAZ . Retrieved October 29, 2018. 
  10. ↑ Report: Press conference for SPIEL '19 in Essen. Retrieved October 28, 2019 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 25 ′ 40.8 ″  N , 6 ° 59 ′ 39.1 ″  E