Record Breaking Final Report from Essen Spiel

Every year in October, gamers from all over the world descend upon Essen, Germany for one of the world's largest board game conventions. Last week they came again, and in greater numbers than ever before. According to the final report issued by organizer Friedhelm Merz Verlag, Essen Spiel 15 boasted crowds so big that the convention was forced to open the doors early every single day, overall an incredible 162,000 visitors, 910 exhibitors from 41 different countries, an exhibition space of 63,000 square meters and more than 1,000 new games being released. In other words, bigger and better in every category. Game designer Klaus Teuber was also on hand - with over a thousand fans from all over the world of his global hit game Catan - to break the world record for the largest game of Catan ever played, playing on a game board of almost 500 meters in length! Take a gander at the full Essen Report below and be sure to mark your calendar for next year's SPIEL, scheduled for Oct. 13 - 16, 2016. Sunday 11 October, 2015 Essen - Final Report from the international games event SPIEL 15 with COMIC ACTION SPIEL 15 in Essen - the world’s biggest fair for board games came to an end today, this year setting five incredible records: More visitors, more exhibitors, more exhibition halls, more new games and a CATAN world record to boot! Inspired by the motto: "The whole world’s playing - and its playing in Essen”, 162.000 games fans, licensees and buyers came to the world’s biggest fair for board games thus breaking last year’s record of 160.000 visitors. Contrary to every on-line trend, board and card games are more popular than ever before. This year’s SPIEL provided an impressive picture of that fact. Spread over an exhibition space of 63,000 sq. meters, an increase of 9% in area, 910 exhibitors from 41 different countries - that’s more than ever before, even more than last year’s 832, all presented their companies and products at this year’s international games event SPIEL ‘15. Over four days it was possible to put thousands of board and card games to the test, amongst them more than 1,000 new releases (850 last year) which were being presented to the public for the very first time just ahead of the Christmas sales period that is so vital for the sector. Early in the mornings the crowds at the box office and in the exhibition foyer were so large that the hall doors had to be opened 20 minutes before the official fair opening time every single day. On Saturday 10 October 2015, 1,040 players set a new CATAN world record at SPIEL ’15 in Essen. To achieve this, CATAN Fans from 25 different countries played together at a game board of almost 500 meters in length, smashing the previous record of 922 players. Alongside CATAN inventor Klaus Teuber, former German national football star and board game fan Jens Nowotny, amongst others, took part in this very special game. This event was designed to mark the 20th anniversary of CATAN’s release. Even ahead of SPIEL 15 the German board games industry had reported a buoyant increase in sales of 8.4% across all product sectors in the first two-thirds of the year 2015. This roused hopes of strong Christmas business sales. Hermann Hutter, chairman of the interest group "Die Spieleverlage e.V." (Association of Games Publishers) in which all of the leading German board games publishers without exception are members, was highly delighted with the way the games event had gone. “SPIEL 15 has been a great success. The wide-ranging activities staged by all of the games publishers have been enthusiastically received by the visitors and the queues at the booths were indicative of the massive interest in the exciting new releases being presented by the publishers. Lively buying and ordering gave the exhibitors reason to be cheerful. Games are becoming ever more popular and sought-after. In the weeks to come, the new games on show here are certain to become a major talking point amongst gamers and in the shops and they are sure to bring exciting evenings to many, many people. The prototypes being exhibited during the event by the hundreds of games writers in attendance are a sign of how creative the sector continues to be and even today, 2016’s range of games promises to be a very successful one indeed!” The COMIC ACTION event, which is incorporated as part of SPIEL, was also extremely successful. Steffen Volkmer of Panini Comics reported, "The event went wonderfully and again was better than the previous year. We were delighted to be able to welcome thousands of enthusiastic fans at our booth. There were long queues for the signing sessions by our comic artists and the artists themselves were more than happy.” The next SPIEL with COMIC ACTION will take place from 13–16 October, 2016 at the Messe Essen. Please find press photographs attached! Event Organizer: Friedhelm Merz Verlag, D-53173 Bonn, Bismarckallee 8. T: +49(0)228/342273, Email: info@merz-verlag.com, www.merz-verlag.com