We also have board game news for you during the week of SPIEL’22.
10/05/2022 // Games + puzzles: slight decline in crisis
After the sales boom in the last 2 years, the game industry cannot get rid of the current crisis. In the first 8 months of the year, game and puzzle sales in Germany fell by about 7% in 2022. However, compared to 2019, the market is still clearly in double-digit growth. The industry expects again a high level of interest in games for the Christmas business.
The game has been a trend for years and gained even more importance during the Corona crisis. Many families used intense games and puzzles to keep them busy during the quarantine period. The Ukrainian crisis, rapidly rising energy costs and rapidly rising inflation affect the mood and consumer behavior of consumers. As such, the cumulative sales in 2022 are slightly weaker than the boom year in 2021.
General interest in games remains high. The game is becoming more and more popular as a turn off as well as a way to exchange ideas with friends or family. Play is also very important as a meaningful, creative and sometimes challenging leisure activity. This has been important in quarantine and will certainly continue in the challenging months ahead.
The theme of the game and the landscape in which the players move require concentration on the one hand, but at the same time allow them to temporarily plunge into other worlds. Besides historical themes, party games that guarantee a nice evening together are also very popular.
In uncertain times, games provide relaxation and balance; they also bring together generations of friends and family. In the digital age, more and more people seek and appreciate personal communication and shared experience. A growing number of cooperative games foster shared experience that brings both familiarity and joy.
– At 7%, market development across the entire toy market is similar to that for games and puzzles. Plush could increase significantly in 2022, with fewer outdoor toys and dolls being purchased. The sales times of the games were poor, especially from the beginning of the Ukrainian war and from the spring, but in the summer things went better again. Children’s games and card games are doing slightly better, while adult games are suffering more from the current crisis. Solo games are also very popular, as are logic games. As expected, fewer puzzles were sold after seeing the biggest growth during Corona.
After the troubled Corona phase, broadcasters further expanded their programs and developed many innovative new products. Some postponed innovations will now appear in the next few weeks.
Hermann Hutter (Huch! Verlag), head of the branch association organized at the German Toy Manufacturers Association,…