“Since Covid, it has skyrocketed”: the Gersois released board games during the holidays

In 2024, during the end-of-year celebrations, the Gersois often found board games under the Christmas trees, or around reunions of the New Year.

Nearly 6 out of 10 French people offered a board game, this year, even more than in 2023, the record date for this market, which represented a turnover of €680 million. “Board games are really an activity that is developing and which is increasingly sought after; it's right where it ended year as a family, assures Solène Dubois, linchpin of the multicultural association which carries the Plaisance game festival. These games meet many different needs: the need to reflection, challenge, to surpass oneself, because there are games that really require a lot of tactics, strategy. We are going have all the games also focused on pleasure, exchange, laughter, things perhaps lighter.”

3,500 new games per year

If Monopoly enthusiasts turn to supermarkets or Internet, the board game market also counts on more players specialists, who note a growing enthusiasm for “new” games. In Auch, in rue Du Pouy, Alex Denis and Lloyd Coadier, the two managers of the Guyajeux Gers games café, which opens at the beginning of January, must refuse access to curious people glued to the window!

Between post-Covid and the creativity of authors and publishers in recent years, the board game market attracts new fans every year. Alongside the “Great Old Ones” like Monopoly, which now has its version in Gers colors, Cluedo or other Scrabble, thousands of games are appearing, which excite many Gers consumers. “Since Covid, it has skyrocketed, confirms Alex Denis. We are still at 3,500 games released per year.” The demand is real, and many players are no longer limited to the “classics”, whatever their age. They carefully weighed the local market before choosing to open their brand, which combines the sale of games, advice and rooms for games.

A story of families

“It goes from 3 to 99 years old, board games, that's what it's for great, admits Alex. We all have grandparents who play Scrabble or the Trivial Pursuit. The two of us have always played as a family like most people, I suppose, although, when we are at home, around Samatan, we tend to get together at every meal we have often together! And each time we take out the games and then we're done.” “Games are always popular when it comes to sales at Christmas and for New Year's Day, etc., confides Laurent Revel, the treasurer of Jeux Pi Auch, one of the biggest players' clubs in Auch. And for the holidays it's part of the things that regularly come out of the cupboards for family reunions. It brings people together around a common activity and it brings conviviality, ways of doing something ensemble.”

The board game has the virtue of bringing together “lots of people around a table and there, we don't talk about the problems we have, even as a family! It's the way of sitting around a table and doing something thing together in play, in pleasure.”