In a livestream on May 19, 2026, the Spiel des Jahres jury revealed the three nominees for each of the three awards that it oversees: the Spiel des Jahres, which is German for "game of the year"; the Kennerspiel des Jahres, or "enthusiast's game of the year"; and the Kinderspiel des Jahres, or "children's game of the year".
Let's start with the nominees for the big prize — the Spiel des Jahres itself:
- Cozy Stickerville, by Corey Konieczka and Unexpected Games
- JinxO, by Martin Ang and Tabletoys Games (released in Germany as Dito! by Game Factory)
- Morty Sorty Magic Shop, by Markus Slawitscheck and Schmidt Spiele
In a May 18, 2026 post, I explained why the Spiel des Jahres matters and guessed as to what the three nominees might be, whiffing completely, with only one of my guesses even landing on the "longlist" of recommended titles, which is Hot Streak, Meister Makatsu, Take Time (one of my picks), Toriki, Toy Battle, and Wilmot's Warehouse. Commenters on that post named all the titles on the longlist other than Toriki, but no one named any of the nominees.
By chance, I reviewed JinxO in July 2025 after getting a sample copy from the publisher at SPIEL Essen 24. It's a fabulous party game that's gone over wonderfully with both gamers and the most casual of game players. As I said in my review: "JinxO isn't recreating the party game genre; it's 'just' a well-designed, familiar party game that delivers what you probably want in a party game: friendly time spent with others, with high-fives, fun discussions, and gentle disagreements sprinkled into the mix."
I'm on a mailing list with gamers in which one designer recently mentioned that a publisher they pitched was looking for designs that were 75% familiar and 25% innovative. JinxO fails this test, yet given my personal experience I agree with the SdJ jury that JinxO would be a great choice for the award. It's not novel, but novelty isn't necessary for the creation of a great game.
Cozy Stickerville didn't sound appealing, so I never thought about trying it. As for Morty Sorty Magic Shop, when I wrote about the game in December 2025, it sounded like a generic Eurogame — which sounds like a negative assessment, but it's not given how JinxO is both a generic party game and a great play experience. Schmidt Spiele gave me a review copy of Morty Sorty at Spielwarenmesse 2026, but it hasn't yet hit the table. Time to change that!
We'll move on to the nominees for the 2026 Kennerspiel des Jahres:
- Boss Fighters QR, by Michael Palm, Lukas Zach, and Pegasus Spiele
- Moon Colony Bloodbath, by Donald X. Vaccarino and Rio Grande Games (released in Germany by alea)
- Rebirth, by Reiner Knizia and Mighty Boards (released in Germany by Frosted Games)
The recommended titles in this category are Foundations of Metropolis, Frosted Blooms, Sanctuary, and Tag Team — more confirmation that I should check out Frosted Blooms following comments from readers of my SdJ post!
Of the nominees, I've played only Rebirth, which I reviewed in September 2024 on a mock-up copy and have played a bit more on a sample copy from the publisher. Rebirth is a "standard" Knizia design in which you take a tiny action each turn, but ideally do 2-4 things with each tiny action, thereby compounding strength in several areas of gameplay at once. The design is akin to a great movie with scenes that both resonate emotionally and move the plot forward in meaningful ways, escalating the tension to a peak before the final resolution — which in Rebirth involves players revealing mission cards for points at game's end.
I should really try Moon Colony Bloodbath at some point as I appreciate the idea of trying to survive a system that will keep trying to tear you down, something Stefan Feld did well in In the Year of the Dragon.
During the livestream, Harald Schrapers (chairperson of the SdJ jury) and Christoph Schlewinski (deputy chairperson and head of the Kinderspiel des Jahres jury) commented on many topics, such as the number of titles reviewed by the juries: 571 in total, with 440 looked at by the SdJ jury for the two awards covered above, 92 considered by the Kinderspiel jury, and 39 reviewed by both as the age range fall across the gap between Kinderspiel and Spiel.
As he has in past years, Schrapers pointed out the vast gender disparity among designers of these games, with only 2.3% of them — ten games in total — being solo designs by women; 94% of the games were designed by male authors, with the remainder being mixed teams.
They pointed out that both Boss Fighters QR and Toriki required you to use an app during play, something that would turn off many players, but the jury admired the skill with which these two designs worked and they're confident that in the years ahead 90+% of games will still be electronics-free. (I've avoided Boss Fighters QR as I have no interest in either boss battles or apps in games.)
Schlewinski said that normally the children's games are enveloped in stories, with players creating their own during games, and this year's crop of games for older players also exhibited this behavior, with Hot Streak and Wilmot's Warehouse being two such examples. You're not simply "playing a game", but creating a shared environment that becomes a story of its own. Cozy Stickerville and Moon Colony Bloodbath did this as well, with each also incorporating social commentary regarding technology into gameplay, akin to Daybreak, which won the 2024 Kennerspiel des Jahres.
They also highlighted designers Markus Slawitscheck and Reiner Knizia, who have the potential of winning the third of the available awards, with Slawitscheck previously winning the 2023 Kennerspiel for Challengers! and the 2024 Kinderspiel for Magic Keys and with Knizia having already won the Spiel des Jahres for Keltis and the Kinderspiel for Whoowasit?, both in 2008.
Finally, we come to the nominees for the 2026 Kinderspiel des Jahres:
- Boo Party, by Florian Sirieix, Benoit Turpin, and LOKI
- Mooki Island, by Florian Sirieix and Scorpion Masqué (released in Germany as Die Insel der Mookies by KOSMOS)
- Verflixt Verzaubert, by Thomas Dagenais-Lespérance and Game Factory (originally released in 2024 as Mimose & Sam et le voleur de fruits by Studio Locomuse)
The recommended titles are Half-and-Seek, Kleiner Stinker, and Paleolino.
Schrapers pointed out that the children's games all originate from French-speaking designers and publishers (with Thomas Dagenais-Lespérance and Scorpion Masqué being Canadian, not French) and speculated that this is perhaps due to a low birth rate in Germany — following a similarly low birth date in the 1990s — leading to a paucity of parents and therefore a lack of interest in designing games for children, whereas the French speakers aren't having that "problem".
Schrapers says the presence of children at the FIJ game fair in Cannes, France is noticeably stronger than at events in Berlin, Dortmund, and Essen, with Germany benefiting from the international spread of these French games for kids.
To close, I'll highlight another point that Schrapers made during the presentation, something people seem to forget when speculating which games can be considered for these awards.
To be considered, a game must be playable on its own (i.e., not an expansion) and available at retail outlets throughout Germany (not only online or at specialty shops), with the rules and primary components all being in German and with the game not being a nearly identical remake to an older title, but something new released between April of one year and March of the subsequent year.
Schrapers said the jury looked at 90-100 titles out of all the games considered to determine how novel they were compared to earlier releases. He also complained about games having mediocre, incomplete, or contradictory rules; lacking player aids; including materials that wouldn't work in bad light or that failed after ten plays; using poor judgment for recommended ages; and including only English on some necessary game elements. He said that sometimes these defects would be enough to remove a title from consideration, whereas in other cases they only lowered the appeal of the game relative to others.
