European Game Stores, Part 2

Read part 1 first for the set up:

1.      Boardgames are king.  This makes sense, given that Europe is the home of the Essen Game Fair.  However, I was unprepared for the dominance of boardgames as they occupied three quarters of available shelf space in both stores. From what I gathered, boardgames are far and away the best-selling item in both stores, with trading card games a distant second, followed by miniatures and, waaaay back there in terms of sales, RPGs.  I couldn’t even find any collectable miniatures, such as HeroClix, though I did see advertising in the stores for them.  Maybe due to the channels of distribution but it rather surprised me that neither store stocked any of WOTC’s recent run of boardgames.  No Castle Ravenloft, Legend of Drizzt or Lords of Waterdeep.  Of course, their size certainly weighs against them, given the size constraints of the stores.