The best games presented at the Spiel 2018 game fair in Essen, Germany 2022

Are you looking for a good new game? We have compared all the games presented at the game fair "Spiel 2018" in Essen and listed the top100.

Game fair in the German city of Essen

The International Spieltage SPIEL, often called the Essen Game Fair or Essen 2018 after the city where it is held, is an annual four-day board game fair that is also open to the public. In 2018, the Spiel'18 game fair was held from October 25 to 28 (Thursday through the following Sunday) at the Messe Essen exhibition center in Essen, Germany. Many new games are released at the fair every year, especially (but not exclusively) European-style board games.

SPIEL'18 - the biggest game fair in the world

The first time the fair was held was in 1983 at the Volkshochschule Essen. With 1,150 exhibitors from 50 nations, nearly 1,400 new launches and 190,000 visitors, Spiel'18 was once again the world's largest trade fair for board games in 2018.

Buy board games on site, even from small publishers.

At SPIEL, board games are offered that are hard to find in retail stores - many international and small exhibitors present their products at Spiel18. While the prices for buying games at the fair are usually not much lower than in retail stores, the games are usually available earlier than in regular board game stores, come with promotional materials (usually extra cards or game pieces with a few more game mechanics, but also T-shirts and similar goodies), and it's an opportunity for passionate board game players to meet and chat with game designers, illustrators, and famous game critics.

More info about game fair "Spiel" is available at official game website.

Did we forget a game that was featured at Spiel'18?

If we forgot a game that was featured at Spiel 2018? What were your highlights of Spiel18 that are not on our list? Then write us at tibi+brettspiele@cephea.de.

Spiel-Messe Essen from other years

The Essen Game Fair has been held since 1983, we have listed for you both across all game years and listed separately by year at the bottom of the page.

If you are generally looking for the always best game new releases, then we have another always top current list for you: The Best New Game Releases 2022.

List with the top100 new releases of Spiel'18: