Spiels Des Jahres’ board game nominations for 2026 have been released, showcasing the games that have been selected for the final stage of their award judging. The Spiels Des Jahres are prestigious board game awards, highlighting the best of the best when it comes to board games. There are several different categories of games that were entered, and some of the nominations looked extremely familiar, so we wanted to take a moment to highlight them:
Game of the Year at Spiels Des Jahres
There are three nominations for Game of the Year at Spiels Des Jahres: Cozy Sticker Ville, Same Here! and Morty Sorty Magic Shop.
The Recommendation list for this category is: Hot Streak, Master Makatsu, TakeTime, Toriki, Toy Battle and Wilmot’s Warehouse.
Children’s Game of the Year
There are three nominations for Children’s Game of the Year: Boo Party, The Island of the Mookies and Curiously Enchanted.
The Recommendation list for this category is: Little Stinker, Magic Mirrors and Paleolino.
Expert Game of the Year
There are three nominations for Expert Game of the Year (all of which we have previously covered):
Boss Fighters QR
“Boss Fighters QR is a confident, modern hybrid design that blends physical and digital play in a way that feels natural, exciting, and genuinely innovative. It’s a cooperative experience full of discovery, teamwork, and escalating tension — a game that understands what makes boss battles fun and brings that energy to the tabletop with style. It’s also that rare game which can be played by both younger or inexperienced players and those who’ve played a lot of cooperative games thanks to its scalable difficulty, and the challenge should be enough to keep everyone interested. ”
Boss Fighters QR is a satisfying boss battler with fantastic app integration
Moon Colony Bloodbath
“Moon Colony Bloodbath is a clever, confident design that delivers laughs, tension, and big decisions in under an hour. Its retro-futuristic art style and tongue-in-cheek tone keep the mood light, even as the mechanics depict starvation, accidents, and robot attacks. The arc of play — from comfort to chaos — is brilliantly executed, making players feel clever and safe before pulling the rug out from under them. While the game tends to play out the same way each time and cries out for expansions to add asymmetry and variety, it remains a blast. For me, the moments of quiet dread, desperate decisions, and sudden collapses made it a standout — a game that proves Donald X. Vaccharino still has plenty of tricks up his sleeve beyond Dominion.”
Rebirth
“Despite this final knock to the reputation of Rebirth, I want to celebrate the excellent gameplay and incredibly clever juxtaposition between lightweight rules and strong, clever decisions. I have spent most of my time playing with our two eldest children, but I’ve also played multiple games with adults and so far, not a single person has considered Rebirth to be a miss. I like medium to heavy games personally, and Rebirth gives me all I need in terms of decisions despite rules that are light enough for kids as young as seven or eight to understand. Rebirth is not quite a masterpiece, but it is certainly up there among my favourite games of 2025 so far. ”
Dr Reiner Knizia’s Rebirth is simple, beautiful and packed with impactful choices
The Recommendation list for this category is: Species Garden, Frosted Blooms, Foundation Stone of Metropolis and Tag Team.
It will be interesting to see what games win the Spiels Des Jahres this year, and I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about them on these very pages.
