Essen, German, September 1, 2025 – The community has spoken! Board game enthusiasts have cast their votes for their favorite games of the year for the German Board Game Awards (Deutscher Spiele Preis, DSP) 2025. The entire German-speaking gaming community was invited to participate. Now, the top 10 in the Family and Adult Game category and the top 3 in the Children's Game category have been announced.

The Top 10 Deutscher Spiele Preis – Family and Adult Game 

Places 1 – 3 (in alphabetical order):

Bomb Busters (Pegasus Spiele by Hisashi Hayashi)

Endeavor: Die Tiefsee (Frosted Games / Board Game Circus by Carl de Visser and Jarratt Gray)

SETI: Auf der Suche nach außerirdischen Leben (CGE / HeidelBär Games by Tomáš Holek)

These top three places are being announced today in alphabetical order only. The winners of first, second, and third place will be announced, and the winner of the Deutscher Spiele Preis 2025 will be revealed at the SPIEL Essen press conference.

Places 4 – 10:

4th Place: Castle Combo (Kosmos by Grégory Grard and Mathieu Roussel)

5th Place: Faraway (Kosmos by Johannes Goupy and Corentin Lebrat)

6th Place: Civolution (Deep Print / Pegasus Spiele by Stefan Feld)

7th Place: Blood on the Clocktower (Funtails by Steven Medway)

8th Place: Slay the Spire: Das Brettspiel (Nice Game by Gary Dworetsky, Anthony Giovannetti, and Casey Yano)

9th Place: Astrobienen (Feuerland by Connie Vogelmann)

10th Place: Dune: Imperium Uprising (Dire Wolf Digital / Asmodee by Paul Dennen)

The Top 3 German Board Game Awards – Children's Game

Places 1 – 3 (in alphabetical order):

Cascadia Junior (AEG / Kosmos by Fertessa Allyse and Randy Flynn)

Die kleinen Alchemisten (CGE / HeidelBär Games by Matúš Kotry)

Die Sandburgen von Burgund (Ravensburger by Susanne Feld and Stefan Feld)

The top three places for the Deutscher Spiele Preis in the Children's Game category are also listed in alphabetical order. The winner of this category will be announced at SPIEL Essen.

Images and descriptions for the Top 10 Family and Adult Games and Top 3 Children's Games can be downloaded via this link: DSP Images

About the Deutscher Spiele Preis

The Deutscher Spiele Preis (DSP) is an award "from players for players." Germany's largest public-voted award for board games has been presented by Merz Verlag since 1990. Anyone living in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland can cast their vote to collectively decide which board or card game and which children's game will win the prestigious award. For the 2025 awards, all standalone games released in German between May 1, 2024, and April 30, 2025, were eligible for voting.

More information and an archive of the nominated and winning games can be found at https://spiel-essen.de/de/programm/dsp.