The waiting is finally coming to an end! On Sunday, July 12, the jury will announce the winners of Spiel des Jahres and Kennerspiel des Jahres 2026. As always, there are six games hoping to win one of the two most important awards in gaming – and one hopeless geek trying to predict which will be the lucky ones. 🤓
I’ve been doing this for six years now 🤓 and I’ve called nine out of the twelve winners correctly, the most recent miss being last year’s Kennerspiel, when I lost my nerve on Endeavor: Deep Sea despite my own instincts telling me otherwise. Let’s hope I’ll do better this year – and after the longlist debacle, I could really use a win. 😅
Nominated for Spiel des Jahres 2026
Before we dive into the individual games, let’s look at some numbers to see some objective measures for them – as far as this is possible. What we’ve got at our disposal are the jury’s reviews, recommendations to the S_d_J bot, BoardGameGeek’s average rating and the Bayesian rating. Additionally, I’ve created a poll on BGG where the geeks could have their say:
| Game | Jury | R.G | Average | Bayes | Poll |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cozy Stickerville | 7.3 (7) | 5.5 | 8.3 | 6.8 | 78% |
| JinxO | 8.0 (8) | 5.9 | 7.3 | 5.7 | 8% |
| Morty Sorty Magic Shop | 7.5 (2) | 6.3 | 7.1 | 5.6 | 14% |
A reminder of just how badly the algorithm misjudged this category: not one of the three Spiel nominees cracked the top 100 of our recommendations, with Cozy Stickerville languishing all the way down at #565. And with the five columns crowning three different nominees between them, the table is no help at all in calling a favourite. Let’s dive into the details!
Cozy Stickerville
1–6 players, 30 minutes, 8+ years, light (1.2), prediction #565
Build your village with over 800 stickers!
Following the footsteps of Dorfromantik, this is another cozy game about building up a village together without competing to win – neither against the other players nor against the game. The shared story is the heart of the game and the dilemmas as the spice – both praised and simultaneously criticised for being too simplistic.
The jury has nominated many legacy games over the years, but never actually given a main award to one (the special award for Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 being closest to an exception). I won’t fall into the trap of claiming a pattern from a small sample – a lesson I learned the hard way when I excluded Sky Team from consideration two years ago because the jury had never chosen a two-player game. Cozy Stickerville feels more compact and hence somewhat even more disposable than other legacy games – but of course that didn’t stop the Exit games from winning either.
If you want to know more about the story behind the game, I highly recommend Ben Maddox’s interview with designer Corey Konieczka:
JinxO
4–7 players, 30–45 minutes, 10+ years, light (1.0), prediction #106
Jinx your friend to become victorious.
The inevitable party – or shall we rather say communication – game amongst the nominations. I don’t think I can describe the game in a way that won’t sound like the thousandth iteration on word association games. But simplicity and familiarity aren’t bad qualities for a game targeted at the broadest possible audience, and the jury’s reviews are uniformly strong. The game clearly hasn’t landed with the ‘geeks (yet), but that is obviously immaterial to the jury.
The designer Martin Ang comes from Indonesia and hence could continue the Asian success story started last year by Bomb Buster’s Hisashi Hayashi. Learn more about JinxO and its designer in the 5G4D interview:
Morty Sorty Magic Shop
2–4 players, 30 minutes, 8+ years, medium light (2.0), prediction #143
Apprentices try to demonstrate their talent for stocking the shelves.
The real dark horse in the Spiel des Jahres race. Few ratings, few reviews – few chances? I don’t think that the recency of its release is the game’s problem, but rather the lack of enthusiasm in its reception. So far, everything I’ve read had strong sure, why not? instead of yes, let’s go! vibes.
Watch the 5G4D interview with designer Markus Slawitscheck who has the chance to be the first to complete the triple after winning Kennerspiel in 2023 for Challengers! and Kinderspiel in 2024 for Magic Keys:
Who will win?
The ‘geeks seem to favour Cozy Stickerville, and I do see its appeal as a Spiel des Jahres. But the more I read the actual jury members’ opinions, the clearer it has become to me: JinxO will be Spiel des Jahres. Once we strip away all the myths and stop reading tea leaves, it is clear: JinxO is the perfect Spiel des Jahres.
Nominated for Kennerspiel des Jahres 2026
Let’s take a look at the same metrics as above, but for the Kennerspiel nominees:
| Game | Jury | R.G | Average | Bayes | Poll |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boss Fighters QR | 7.2 (4) | 6.4 | 8.0 | 6.4 | 9% |
| Moon Colony Bloodbath | 7.0 (5) | 5.7 | 7.6 | 7.0 | 37% |
| Rebirth | 7.5 (4) | 7.7 | 7.8 | 7.1 | 54% |
A much tidier picture than on the Spiel side: Rebirth tops the jury reviews, the recommendation score and the Bayesian rating, with only Boss Fighters QR edging it out on the raw BGG average. After being the algorithm’s runaway #1 and the one nomination both my guts and the model called correctly, Dr Knizia can confidently head into the ceremony as the clear frontrunner – but should he? Let’s look at all three nominees in detail.
Boss Fighters QR
2–4 players, 40–60 minutes, 10+ years, medium light (2.1), prediction #32
Team up and use your wits and gear to crack the tactics of intelligent boss monsters.
There’s been quite a lot of buzz around the latest co-op by the two Dorfromantik designers since its release in Essen, and the publisher Pegasus certainly went out of their way to fuel it.
The concept of battling boss monsters together is certainly a tried and tested recipe, and by all accounts this particular implementation is a family-friendly and engaging one. The fact that the bosses live inside an app offers unlimited expandability – new challenges are just one app update away. But this convenience cuts both ways: there have been “limited time promotion bosses” which disappeared from users’ devices after the promotion window closed. From a marketing perspective this might be a standard practice, but many gamers treasure their unplugged, infinitely replayable, perennial entertainment – so this crowd will definitely bounce off Boss Fighters QR hard.
Which brings us to the elephant in the conference hall: will the jury “dare” to give the award to an app game? As before with legacy games, I’ll resist the immediate instinct of claiming a pattern based on previous years. The jury certainly doesn’t hesitate to recognise modern trends, going back to their very first list in 1979 when they recommended no fewer than three electronic games: Simon, Merlin and Chess Challenger Voice. Looking at the more recent past, they nominated Werewords and Detective in 2019 and gave a special award to Unlock! Game Adventures in 2023. Those who do insist on the “nominations not winners” pattern should look at the Kinderspiel: Whoowasit? won the main award in 2008 (we’ll get back to that one shortly) and Schnappt Hubi! in 2012.
To cut a long story short: I’m positive that the jury means it when they say that any one of the nominees does have a chance at winning and wouldn’t mind giving the award to an app-supported game. Heck, they didn’t hesitate to give the award to the once-and-done Exit games – so why would they care about a game’s app becoming unplayable some years down the line? But I do think that such “novelty” games have a higher bar to clear: their unusual and, yes, pattern-breaking feature would need to enhance the game experience and provide an argument for playing the game, not a potential hindrance against it. As far as Boss Fighters QR goes I’m not 100% convinced that this is the case: the reception was positive but not enthusiastic, and for many reviewers the dominant impression was that this was a video game in cardboard disguise. I won’t write its winning chances off by any means, but there definitely are some caveats.
Learn more about the game and its development in the 5G4D interview with Lukas Zach and Michael Palm:
Moon Colony Bloodbath
1–5 players, 45–90 minutes, 14+ years, medium light (2.1), prediction #19
Whatever can go wrong will go wrong. Players compete to keep their colonists alive.
This is the only one of the six (or nine) nominees I’ve actually played, so I can offer more personal opinions than just vibes: I really like the theme including the dark humour, though I will admit that the moral dimension the jury is so keen on didn’t really hit me during play. As far as tableau builders go (a genre I’m not particularly fond of) it’s really good – this is where the theme is the strongest when the game pivots and ends, as promised on the cover, in a bloodbath. What I like less is all the rest. 😅 The promise of a deck builder with a shared deck sounds super appealing, but in truth this game is at best deckbuilding-flavoured, with the deck just a randomiser of events and any cards you add only ever affecting a single player. This made it feel more like a rondel game, sans the usual planning it affords. In general, the interaction in this game is very low – at least in my one play I didn’t care at all what the other players were doing.
Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy my play and wouldn’t mind having another go, but I’m also not rushing out to get my own copy. Of course, my personal taste is hardly relevant for such an award. I’ll play Moon Colony Bloodbath any day over Wingspan, which I don’t get along with very well. Yet, I think the bird game was a fabulous choice for Kennerspiel as an ambassador for Kulturgut Spiel which drew hosts of new gamers into the hobby.
So, I don’t want to discount Moon Colony Bloodbath’s chances of winning. It clearly has its fans, but the reception is undeniably polarised. Not a great quality for a game targeted at the broadest possible audience.
If you want to understand why I’m wrong about claiming the game is not interactive, watch Ben Maddox chat to designer Donald X. Vaccarino:
Rebirth
2–4 players, 45–60 minutes, 10+ years, medium light (2.0), prediction #1
Rebuild old lands in a lush, hopeful future.
Watched from a number of different angles, Rebirth looks like the perfect Kennerspiel: a clear step up from a Spiel, but still elegant and approachable. A meaty puzzle to solve without being exhausting. An inoffensive task and an appealing presentation. The numbers (see above) certainly all point to Scotland (or Ireland) this year.
I don’t have much more to say about Rebirth, so let’s turn our attention towards the designer: Dr Reiner Knizia is one of a handful of designers to have won two different awards: Spiel des Jahres for Keltis and Kinderspiel for Whoowasit? (as mentioned above), both in 2008, before there even was a Kennerspiel. No designer has had more games on the longlist (36 since my last count, and there’s been more recommendations since), so there would hardly be a more deserving candidate to complete the triple.
Obviously, the jury won’t take this into consideration when deciding on the winner, but I believe all journalists hope for this to happen as the stories would just write themselves.
If you want to know how Reiner Knizia feels about this prospect himself, watch his 5G4D interview:
Who will win?
For this award, I’ll have to go with the numbers and the majority of the ‘geeks and say: Rebirth is the favourite to win Kennerspiel des Jahres 2026. For me, this race looks super close, which is exactly the reason why the more polarising Boss Fighters QR and Moon Colony Bloodbath might lose out to the “consensus candidate” Rebirth. Knizia, the third!
And the little ones: Kinderspiel des Jahres 2026
As promised, I’m going to try and predict the winner of Kinderspiel des Jahres for the first time this year. Let’s first have a brief look at the nominees before I wow you with the sophisticated algorithm I have come up with. 🤓
Boo Party
2–6 players, 10–15 minutes, 5+ years, light (1.0)
Monsters hide in Halloween costumes to avoid being caught by the Seer.
Mooki Island
2 players, 10 minutes, 4+ years, light (1.0)
Befriend adorable Mookies, but watch out for the Spider!
Mimose & Sam
2–4 players, 15–20 minutes, 5+ years, light (1.0)
Play as Mimose, Sam or the fruit thief in a One-vs-All deduction game for families!
Who will win?
The data coverage is extremely thin when it comes to children’s games, and my own expertise in the latest hotness is practically non-existent. So I had to come up with something really intricate. Ready?
- Show the clips to my daughters.
- Ask them what they found most interesting.
- That’s it. 🥰
OK, maybe not as sophisticated as I had claimed, but I’ll trust the judgement of those little 5- and 6-year-old rascals any day over some fancy Bayesian average – they are the target audience after all!
Their verdict was pretty clear: they were most excited about Mooki Island, so this will now be the Official Analysis Paralysis Prediction™️.
After watching the three Kinderspiel clips they asked: “What about the red and black games?” I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder of my parenting! 🤩
So here are their bonus picks: according to my daughters, Spiel des Jahres 2026 will be Cozy Stickerville and Kennerspiel des Jahres 2026 will be Boss Fighters QR. Mark their words!
Alright, that’s it for the predictions. As I’ve already mentioned in part 1, this really is the hardest year yet, with both awards closer than ever. Truly, none of the six nominees will surprise me if we see their covers revealed on Sunday. We shall see if my predictions are any good this year – or if my daughters are already besting me… 😎