SPIEL Essen breaks visitor record
SPIEL Essen 2025 was a record-breaking trade fair. With 220,000 people from all over the world, the largest gaming event surpassed the previous visitor record set in 2019. The trade fair was sold out on all days. A new exhibition space record of 77,500 m² was announced even before the event began, as Hall 7 was opened for the first time and all spaces were fully booked. 948 exhibitors from 50 countries presented over 1,700 new products. And a world record for the largest Catan game was achieved on Friday.
New hall expands capacity
220,000 people over the four fair days is a new visitor record. Merz Verlag remained below maximum capacity again this year. ‘We want people to be able to move freely through the aisles and, at the same time, we want as many people as possible to be able to visit us,’ explains Carol Rapp, Managing Director of the organising Merz Verlag. She cites the opening of Hall 7 as another positive effect: ‘This allowed us to increase the number of tickets available. The fact that we were still sold out on all days is absolutely impressive,’ says Rapp. The combination of available tickets per day, wide aisles and sensibly structured halls all played a key role in fulfilling the brief: SPIEL in Essen was full, but at the same time not overwhelming.
Success for exhibitors and organisers
‘Direct feedback from visitors is one of the most rewarding aspects of the fair for us as exhibitors,’ says Hermann Hutter, owner of Hutter Trade/Huch! and chairman of Spieleverlage e.V. But business appointments and meetings are also high on his agenda: ‘Nowhere else can you maintain contacts as efficiently as at SPIEL.’ Robert Geistlinger, president of the American publisher Arcane Wonders, agrees: ‘SPIEL is the most important trade fair for us to meet partners from all over the world and make new contacts. Especially in the current global situation, it is more important than ever to come together and talk to each other.
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