What were the top board games at Essen Spiel 2022? We share our highlights from the convention
From making deals with the devil to crafting treats with adorable dragons.
Europe’s biggest board game convention, Essen Spiel, has wrapped for another year. This huge trade fair is the spot for new game announcements, exciting releases and all sorts of news in the tabletop space - and 2022 was no different.
We visited for the whole four days, taking in everything we could on the show floor and through meetings with designers and publishers. Now we’re ready to share our top picks, so whether you didn’t make it out to Essen, or want a wrap-up of anything you might have missed, we’re here to share our favourite games from Spiel 2022!
We started our long weekend at Essen on Thursday and played all the way to Sunday, checking out some really exciting titles. We had a chance to play the new two-player Wingspan Asia that brings all-new birds and all-new gameplay, as well as Splendor Duel which also brings one-on-one action to a classic title.
Of course there were a ton of dexterity games that caught our attention too, from trying to get trains along tracks to delivering pizza and waking up vampires; we flicked, tricked and shot our way to victory in some brilliantly quirky games.
There was even a chance to check out the ice cool Gloomhaven follow-up Frosthaven, with our demo showing off the sequel’s new classes, abilities and a lot of snowy fights. As well as a load more games that we can’t stop talking about.
Check out each day’s video wrap-up to see what board games we were most excited about at Essen Spiel 2022, starting with day one at the top of the page before making your way down to day three to find out all the games you should be adding to your wishlist.
If you’re a Dicebreaker + member you’ll also get a chance to see some behind-the-scenes vlogs of our time at Essen, coming soon!
Did you make it out to Essen Spiel 2022? Let us know your favourite games in the comments and if there was anything we might have missed!