SPIEL Essen 2026 – Wrap Up

I’m back home, after a whirlwind tour to SPIEL that felt like five minutes but was in actually six days for me. I’ve done SPIEL so many times by now and yet it still feels surreal: a day before my travel to Essen, things seemed to so far away that SPIEL might begin the next day or the next year. And now I’m back from it, it seems like a dream and the only evidence it really happened is a noticeable lack of sleep, a suitcase full of cloths that need washing … and of course lots of new games that I somehow need to fit in my “in”-shelf. So let’s start with what I picked up because that’s likely what you’re here for. For context: as always, I preferred to buy my games even if publisher or designers were so kind to offer me review copies. It’s a mental thing, it just makes it easier for me to keep this as a hobby without obligations. It’s a position of privilege because I have a job that allows me to pick up games just because I want to write about them. Many content creators simply can’t…