Spiel des Jahres

The Spiel des Jahres (German for Game of the Year) is an award for board and card games, created in 1978 with the stated purpose of rewarding excellence in game design, and promoting top-quality games in the German market. It is thought that the existence and popularity of the award is one of the major drivers of the quality of games coming out of Germany. A Spiel des Jahres nomination can increase the typical sales of a game from 500–3000 copies to around 10,000; and the winner can usually expect to sell 300,000 to 500,000 copies.

The award is given by a jury of German-speaking board game critics (from Germany, Austria, Switzerland), who review games released in Germany in the preceding twelve months. The games considered for the award are family-style games. War games, role-playing games, collectible card games, and other complicated, highly competitive, or hobbyist games are outside the scope of the award. Since 1989, there has been a separate award for children's games.

On occasion, the jury has awarded a special prize for more complex games, such as Agricola in 2008 or World Without End in 2010. Prior to 2011, this award was an exceptional award, not necessarily awarded annually. In 2011, however, this practice was formalized when the jury created a new category for more complex games entitled "Kennerspiel des Jahres" (roughly "Connoisseur-Enthusiast Game of the Year"). Along with the nominations, the jury also gives a list of recommended games, and occasionally gives out special prizes for games which will not be considered for the main award.

The criteria on which a game is evaluated are,:

The nominations for the 2016 awards were announced on May 23, 2016. The winners were announced on Monday July 18, 2016.

The nominations for the 2015 awards were announced on May 18, 2015. The Kinderspiel des Jahres winner were announced on Monday, June 8, 2015 while the Sdj and KdJ winners were announced on Monday, July 6, 2015.

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