After a forced break of three years, the International Toy Fair has maintained its position as the largest leading event in the industry. From February 1 to 5, personal networking, product innovations and making new contacts were the top priorities at the exhibition center in Nuremberg. Visitors and exhibitors were able to enjoy many new features at the 72nd Spielwarenmesse, but also found familiar things again.

The exhibitors in numbers

The event was also a complete success on the part of the participating companies. 96% of the exhibitors considered participation in Spielwarenmesse 2023 to be important to very important, 92% of the exhibitors were satisfied to very satisfied with their participation in Spielwarenmesse 2023 and 87% are already planning to take part again in 2024.

The visitors in numbers

A high relevance in a visit to the world's leading trade fair for toys was seen by 88% of the participants, who also rated it as very satisfactory. 87% of the trade visitors are involved in the purchase decision, which confirms the very high quality of the trade visitors even after the re-start.

Voices on the 72^nd Spielwarenmesse

Who are the people that are passionate about the toy industry and make the Spielwarenmesse the event of the year?

Experience top speakers and gain toy know-how

Finally, you could experience them live again at the Spielwarenmesse - the lectures at the Toy Business Forum in Hall 3A. The most interesting minds from a wide range of fields shared their knowledge with the audience live on site or via stream. From Wednesday to Sunday, a total of 38 speakers in 38 lectures inspired the 3,149 visitors on site and on the screens. Each day of the show focused on the top topics of 2023 licenses, metaverse, trends, sustainability, diversity and digitalization. 

If you missed a presentation - all presentations are available on Spielwarenmesse Digital On-Demand at any time.

Discover exciting innovations

What are the topics that occupy the toy industry? This question was answered in Hall 3A - the crowd puller at the Spielwarenmesse. Because this is where the three ToyTrends 2023 "Discover!", "Brands for Fans" and "MetaToys" were staged, which were defined by a 13-member international TrendCommittee of market researchers, trend scouts and journalists in the run-up to the fair. In addition to products to try out, the experience area also provided valuable extra information. 

Further highlights could be viewed and tested at the various "Specials by Spielwarenmesse": Whether technological innovations at Tech2Play, promising new products in the New Product Gallery, toys all about sustainability at Toys go Green or the latest trends from the stationery sector at the Insights-X Area.

Gold for toys

584 products entered the race to win the prestigious ToyAward! For the first time, the winners in the categories Baby & Infant, PreSchool, SchoolKids, Teenagers & Adults, Startup & Sustainability were selected in a media-rich ceremony at the Spielwarenmesse PressPreview. The winners and all nominated top products could be viewed on site. Learn more about the ToyAward winners.

New event formats - parties, inventors and end users

The new formats kicked off with the RedNight on Thursday. After the end of the trade fair, parties with various highlights such as bands, DJs, red beer and fancy catering took place at around 140 booths throughout the exhibition grounds. Exhibitors as well as visitors were very satisfied with the successful event start and wish for a repetition at the next fair.

Afterwards, on the Friday of the fair, the International Game Inventors Convention celebrated its successful premiere at the Spielwarenmesse with 140 game designers from around 20 countries. The GamingHour with around 300 game designers and editors and with the presentation of the DuAli Game Award by the Ali Baba Game Club rounded off the day's events.

Another highlight on the last two days of the fair was the OPEN DAY Model Railroad & Model Construction. Here, Spielwarenmesse complied with the exhibitors' long-standing request and opened Hall 7A on the weekend - more than 4,000 enthusiastic consumers took up the offer and visited the world's leading fair.