Spiel des Jahres Winners: What the Award Means for Gift Buyers

Spiel des Jahres (“Game of the Year”) is a German critics’ award for board games, first given in 1979. A red badge marks family and adult games, an anthracite gray badge marks Kennerspiel games for experienced players, and a blue badge marks Kinderspiel games for children. For gift buyers, the badge color is a fast guide to difficulty.

What is the Spiel des Jahres award?

Spiel des Jahres is run by an association of game critics from German-speaking countries. A group of leading reviewers founded it in 1978, and the first award went out in 1979. It is judged by the jury alone. Its FAQ says members request review copies from publishers like any other critic, so publishers do not decide which games get considered.

The award also carries commercial weight. Wikipedia’s entry says a nomination can lift a game from typical sales of 500 to 3,000 copies to around 10,000, and that a winner can usually expect to sell as many as 500,000.

What do the red, gray and blue badges mean?

Each of the three main awards has its own colored pawn (the German word is Pöppel) on the box.

The jury also gives occasional special prizes. The three pawns above are the ones you will see most often.

Spiel des Jahres winners, 2019 to 2026

Notice how many recent winners are cooperative or team-based: Just One, MicroMacro, Dorfromantik, Sky Team and Bomb Busters. For a household that prefers playing together, that makes the red-badge list a strong shortlist. The previous winner, from 2018, was Azul.

Spiel des Jahres winners available now

Shop the range

Browse current Spiel des Jahres winners on eBay, new condition only.

Shop Spiel des Jahres winners→

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• Sky TeamShop on eBay →
• CascadiaShop on eBay →
• DorfromantikShop on eBay →
• MicroMacroShop on eBay →
• Just OneShop on eBay →

Kennerspiel des Jahres winners, 2019 to 2026

The gray-badge award is the one to watch for someone who already plays regularly.

• 2026: Rebirth by Reiner Knizia. Tile placement on maps of Ireland or Scotland. 2 to 4 players, 10+, 30 to 60 minutes.
• 2025: Endeavor: Deep Sea by Carl de Visser and Jarratt Gray. Ocean exploration over ten linked scenarios. 1 to 4 players, 12+, 60 to 120 minutes.
• 2024: Daybreak (German title e-Mission) by Matt Leacock and Matteo Menapace. Cooperative climate game. 1 to 4 players, 12+, 60 to 120 minutes.
• 2023: Challengers! by Johannes Krenner and Markus Slawitscheck. Card duels in a tournament for up to 8 players. About 45 minutes.
• 2022: Living Forest by Aske Christiansen. 2 to 4 players, 10+, 30 to 60 minutes.
• 2021: Paleo by Peter Rustemeyer. Cooperative Stone Age survival. 2 to 4 players, 10+, 45 to 60 minutes.
• 2020: The Crew by Thomas Sing. Cooperative trick-taking. 3 to 5 players, 10+, about 20 minutes.
• 2019: Wingspan by Elizabeth Hargrave. Bird-themed card engine. 1 to 5 players, 40 to 70 minutes (Stonemaier).

For how these compare with Catan, Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne, see our strategy board games guide.

Kinderspiel des Jahres winners, 2019 to 2026

Some of these are easier to find in English than others. Check that a listing is an English edition before buying for a young reader. Picks by age are in our guide to board games for kids by age.

What the award tells a gift buyer, and what it doesn’t

It tells you a panel of experienced critics thought the game was the best of its year for that audience. It also tells you roughly how demanding the game is, through the badge color.

It doesn’t tell you whether the game suits your player count. Sky Team is strictly two players and Pictures tops out at five, while Just One and Dito! reach seven. Always check the box.

It judges German editions. The jury is German-speaking, and its listings describe the German boxes. English editions can differ: Stonemaier lists Wingspan at 1 to 5 players and 40 to 70 minutes, against 2 to 5 and about 75 on the jury’s listing for the German edition. A German copy will also have German rules and card text, so watch for that on imported listings.

It updates every July. The jury announces nominations and a recommended list in May and names the winners in July. The 2026 winners were announced on July 13. We update this page after each announcement.

Other award seals you may see on a box

Two American programs also appear on game boxes.

American Tabletop Awards. Given by a committee of U.S.-based tabletop media professionals to games released the previous year, in four categories: Early Gamers, Casual Games, Strategy Games and Complex Games. The 2026 winners were Magical Athlete (Early Gamers), Hot Streak (Casual Games), The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship (Strategy Games) and Molly House (Complex Games).

Mensa Select. At American Mensa’s Mind Games event, more than 200 Mensa judges rate new games on aesthetics, instructions, originality, play appeal and play value. The top five earn the Mensa Select seal. Games over 90 minutes are not eligible.

Where to go next

For a quick way to match a winner to the people playing, try our board game gift finder. For a wider view by audience, the board game gifts hub covers families, couples, groups and kids. Party-friendly winners such as Just One and Dito! also appear in our party games for groups guide, and the co-op winners are in cooperative board games.