Tabletop Games Blog · June 16, 2026 · 9 min
Spiel des Jahres - how the jury chooses games (Topic Discussion)
Every year, the announcement of the Spiel des Jahres nominations leads to a lot of discussion across our hobby. Some people agree with the choices, others question why certain games were not included, and many try to predict the eventual winners. What most people don't realise when they discuss the nominations is that the jury does not gather for a single weekend to decide the best game of the year. No, jurors spend many months playing hundreds of new releases several times with different groups of people. It is a lot of work that often goes unnoticed, but that explains why the award continues to carry such influence nearly fifty years after it began. In the second article of the series, I look at this in more detail. Read the full article here: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2026/06/16/spiel-des-jahres-how-the-jury-chooses-games-topic-discussion/ Useful Links Spiel des Jahres (German): https://www.spiel-des-jahres.de/ Spiel des Jahres – the award that was never really about awards: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2026/06/09/spiel-des-jahres-the-award-that-was-never-really-about-awards-topic-discussion/ Spiel des Jahres FAQ (German): https://www.spiel-des-jahres.de/faq/ Spiel des Jahres FAQ for publishers (German): https://www.spiel-des-jahres.de/faq-verlage/ Spiel des Jahres jury members (German): https://www.spiel-des-jahres.de/alle-jurymitglieder/ Koschwitz zum Wochenende interview with Harald Schrapers . 31 July 2023: https://koschwitz-zum-wochenende.podigee.io/562-neue-episode Five Games for Doomsday interview with Martina Fuchs . 9 June 2025: https://5g4d.com/podcasts/spiel-des-jahres-special-jury-member-martina-fuchs Der Boardcast episode 408 interview with Harald Schrapers and Sebastian Wenzel . 18 May 2026.: https://boardcast.podigee.io/408-neue-episode Music Intro Music: Bomber (Sting) by Riot ( https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/ ) Music: Madeira Dolphin Tour Produced by Sascha Ende Link: https://ende.app/en/song/13711-madeira-dolphin-tour Music: Deep House Underscore 005 Produced by Sascha Ende Link: https://ende.app/en/song/13702-deep-house-underscore-005 Music: Sunday Morning Coffee Produced by Sascha Ende Link: https://ende.app/en/song/13693-sunday-morning-coffee Support If you want to support this podcast financially, please check out the links below: Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/TabletopGamesBlog Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/tabletopgamesblog Website: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/support/ (Photo courtesy of Spiel des Jahres)