All "Spiel des Jahres🇩🇪 2007" game award winners & nominees in comparison 2026

Wild animal sounds echo from the jungle, but treasure hunters must navigate through it to find mythical Maya treasures. Suddenly, an ancient and forgotten Maya temple appears before them, guarded by two stone sentinels that glare down at the adventurers. Only those who are brave, quick, and skillful will be able to uncover the jungle's treasures.

Roll the colorful dice and move the little mouse across the board. Colorful cars challenge players to imitate animals, dance in a circle, and make funny faces. For these activities, players earn pieces to build a tent for the mouse, promoting social skills, rhythm, language, motor skills, and rule-based play.

Players take on the role of knights working together to build three towers before King Duncan returns to his castle. Their only tool is a bizarre device made of satin cord, wooden balls, and something resembling an elastic ponytail holder. The towers to be built are dictated by goal cards, and players must complete the structures before time runs out to collect these cards and win.

Compete in a jumping contest at the frog pond! Can you jump far enough to reach the lake? You only score points by aligning three frogs in a row.

Thebes is a board game focused on competitive archaeology, where players assume the roles of archaeologists exploring historical sites across Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East. The game combines strategy, time management, and a bit of luck, making it an engaging experience for players interested in history and exploration.

Sarah and Dinah are amazed at the sea lions in the zoo. They wonder if a sea lion has feathers like a bird or fur like a dog. In Manimals, players compete to find as many animals with a specific trait as possible. After revealing a trait card, players race to collect animals matching that trait. The game includes rule variations for children aged four and up and has several themed expansions.

Players use a dry-erase marker and a shiny game board featuring a 5x5 grid in this dice-based game. During a round, they roll two standard six-sided dice 25 times, recording each sum on their board. After three rounds, the player with the highest cumulative score wins, with specialized scoring for different combinations. A double-sided board allows for an alternative 6x6 grid, shortening the game to two rounds for more players.

Vikings is a fast-paced economic board game that, despite its title, focuses more on resource management and strategy than on traditional Viking themes like exploration or combat. The game's standout feature is its unique pricing wheel, which introduces an innovative approach to acquiring resources.

Yspahan is a strategic board game set in 1598, during the period when Yspahan became the capital of the Persian empire. Players take on the roles of merchants in this flourishing city, aiming to maximize their gains through shrewd trading and development. The game stands out for its unique combination of dice-driven actions and multiple paths to victory.

Notre Dame is a strategic board game set in 14th century Paris, where players assume the roles of heads of influential families vying for prosperity and reputation around the iconic Notre Dame cathedral.

Players control wooden figures and aim to reach the last space on the board. Beppo the goat, represented by another wooden figure, rests on the spaces and should not be disturbed. When it's a player's turn, they place Beppo on a strong magnet and send a small metal ball toward him. If the ball hits Beppo, he knocks the players' figures back to the start, and his landing spot determines how far the active player can move their piece.

The active player draws cards from the deck equal to the number of players without looking at them. They flip one card at a time and give it to a player, including themselves, until everyone has one card.

The Pillars of the Earth, inspired by Ken Follett's bestselling novel, is a strategy board game set in the early 13th century, centered around the construction of a grand cathedral in England. This game, part of the Kosmos line of literature-based games, challenges players to contribute to the cathedral's construction while vying for victory points.

Players navigate a unique "racing" game where their movement is determined by their skill in launching a small gyroscope. They move their farmers along a spiral on the edge of the board, using the landing spot of their flying funnel to calculate their movement distance. Landing on one of the eight action spaces requires players to perform special flight maneuvers. The first player to reach the final space in the spiral wins.

Players lead a group of thieves in a quest to secure the best loot in well-guarded palaces of Baghdad. They must navigate the watchmen and use their cards strategically to outsmart their opponents. The first player to collect four treasures wins the game.

Arkadia is a strategic board game centered around the construction of the city and castle of Arkadia. Players take on the roles of builders, utilizing cards, workers, and neutral workers to erect houses and develop the city, intertwined with the growing castle at its heart.

Imperial is a strategy board game that plunges players into the heart of European imperialism. Unlike traditional war or area control games, players in Imperial take on the roles of international investors vying for influence over six major imperial nations. The game stands out for its unique approach to strategy, eschewing the randomness of dice and cards, and instead focusing on the players' abilities to manipulate and control the political landscape of Europe.

A wicked king has burned all the fairy tale books, leaving only one behind, its pages torn and scattered in an enchanted garden. Players must quickly find the matching pieces and exit the garden before the king returns.

GOLDSIEBER's big box game invites 2 to 6 players aged 10 and up to explore the emergence and development of Venice in about 45 to 60 minutes. Players place wooden pillars on a board depicting the lagoon and mark them with colored tokens to build districts and earn victory points. Utilizing action cards, players embody one of 11 Venetian characters, each influencing the game in unique ways. The player with the most victory points at the end, after all 60 pillars are placed, wins the game.

Players aim to construct the best buildings and take control of the city. The game includes a wooden board and 44 wooden game pieces.

It's a competition of dice and numbers! Create a recipe using 1-5 dice and receive 2 dice and 1-10 victory points based on your choices. Players cannot duplicate their own recipe, and when they do replicate someone else's, they pay one die from the original recipe. The game ends when only two colors of dice are left in the supply, and there’s a bonus for the player who managed to get rid of their secret die color.

Originally part of Kaleidoscope Classic, Encounter features uniquely shaped double-sided pieces containing one to eight squares. Players use these pieces to cover a patterned board, matching the design on the pieces with the underlying pattern. Points are earned for each covered square, but any unplayed pieces will subtract from the final score.

A children's game for ages 5 and up designed by Reiner Knizia. Players must memorize tiles that tell a story about a little badger, which they will assemble to create a cohesive narrative. The player who constructs the best story wins, promoting language skills and imagination.

A large game of hide and seek takes place on the farm. By skillfully aiming and hitting your ball, you can help the animals hide in the hay. Finding the animals is like searching for a needle in a haystack, requiring careful observation for success.

Colored magnets are placed on the drawing board. Clues are provided for where to draw lines, and the children need to guess the picture.

Players look at several vacation pictures and try to determine who has the most cars, animals, trees, and so on in their images.

The game features a 3D version of a cornucopia that holds various objects. Players will find six different items: a wooden marble, a wooden cylinder, a block of wood, a bell, a metal marble, and a piece of fabric. One player fills the horn with the items shown on a secretly chosen card, while the next player shakes it and tries to guess which card was used based on the sounds produced. The game enhances the ability to identify different sounds.

A house with 12 apartments contains a stack of pictures in each unit. The top picture reveals the resident, and then the doors are closed. The die determines where you can ring the bell, but you can only open the door after guessing who lives there. If you're correct, you earn the picture card.