Tokyo Game Market is one of the most unique board game conventions in the world. TGM is more about buying new release games like Essen and Gencon with very little open play or events but they have added a new hall for playing games. Unlike Essen and Gencon about 75% (a wild guess) of the booths are tiny publishers with enough copies of their games for this one event and after selling out they might not be printed again. In fact, after selling out some will pack up in the middle of the day and go home for the weekend.
The first time my friend and I went to TGM last year we just looked at the TGM website for interesting games. Usually I find several lists I even made my own geeklist of every game I found interesting but if I had enough time I could add another 100 games. I will probably buy about 15 games even though I don’t need anymore games. At least the games are usually cheap.
Here are two great youtube lists and my geeklist for Fall TGM 2025
https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/365472/fall-2025-tokyo-game-market-game-list
Facts
Location – Makumari Messe Convention Center, Chiba, Japan
Website – Tokyo Game Market
Dates – November 22-23, 2025 and May 23-24, 2026
Time – Early entry usually begins at 11am on Saturday and everyone can enter at noon. It usually closes at 5pm.
Cost – Tickets are about 2000 yen per day (purchase at door easily or try to figure out online purchasing)
Transportation – It is located about 5-10 minutes from Kaihimmakumari Station (Keiyo Line on Tokyo Metro)
November 2024 TGM attendance – 16k on Saturday and 11k on Sunday
Reservation System – Over half of the games can be reserved by filling out a Google Form on the Tokyo Game Market website. More details below
Payment – Almost 100% of purchases are done with cash. ATM’s are available at the convention center.
Food – There are a few food truck style vendors in the convention hall but there are better restaurants about a 5-10 minute walk back towards the Metro station. Meals can be 1000-2000 yen or more depending on your budget.
Where To Stay – You definitely want to stay in Chiba. It is a 1-1.5 hour ride on the busy weekend metro from Central Tokyo (Shibuya/Shinjuku/etc…).
Sim Cards – Available at the airport. Not very cheap (about $30 USD for a week) but they usually work. I was able to use ORoaming (or something like this) last time (very cheap). I think there was wifi in the convention center.
The November 2024 Tokyo Game Market (TGM) was held at a new location in Chiba due to construction at Tokyo Big Sight. Overall I liked the new venue especially since they rented an extra hall that was just filled with tables to eat at or play games but Chiba was much further from my hotel in Shibuya. TGM continues to be held in Chiba. Seems like this is the permanent location now.
Attendance at TGM fall 2024 was 16,000 on Saturday and 11,000 on Sunday. I think this was the highest TGM attendance ever. Attendance dipped during the COVID years but now it is bigger than ever.
Preparation – If there is a chance of rain then get a cheap umbrella at 7-11. The regular entry on Saturday has queued outside before. And it threatened to rain on us. It has also been really hot in the convention center before.
Pro Tip – check out the food court by Yoshinoya/Marines pro shop where we will try to play games at after the convention on Saturday and Sunday.
Why I love Tokyo Game Market?
TGM is setup for small publishers and designers more than any convention (of this size) that I know of. Many of these designers not only self publish their own games but they also take chances in game design that might not happen in larger production runs. Many of the games don’t get a reprint unless they get signed by a larger publisher.
Designer and team for Peas, Dogs, Sumo and BUBBLE GUM
Using the Reservation System
I would highly recommend making reservations for about 50% (or all) of the games that you really want to get at Tokyo Game Market. Many games will sell out in the first hour or two on Saturday but if you have a reservation there won’t be any need to rush. Reservations are pretty simple. On the Tokyo Game Market page most of the new releases will have a reservation link that takes you to a Google Form. Reservations are non-binding but obviously you should pick up your reservation.
There are two different locations on the Tokyo Game Market website for each game where you can make a reservation and they make the reservation differently. I like using the ‘passable’ link because it takes you to a full google form and sends you (at least in this case) a confirmation for your reservation. Not all games accept reservations.
Game Market Night is an open play area after the main hall closes on Saturday. There were probably 100-150 people that went to it last year. It costs 1500 yen to attend. You can buy tickets online before or at the door.
These are playing cards for one of the games. One of the most beautiful games at TGM. One of the best reasons for going imo.
It isn’t always easy to chat with the Japanese designers but you are usually buying the games directly from the designer. And even with the langauage barrier I have been able to have some nice simple conversations with the designers.
Designer of PalinGnomes, Acornism and OrthoGnomes
I wish TGM was a day longer and had more open play and demo tables setup but overall this is a great convention.
Several publishers use DVD cases as their game boxes. This seems strange at first glance but actually makes a lot of sense for small print runs. Getting game boxes printed with cool art is very expensive. Buying an ordinary DVD case and making a simple A4 print will be much cheaper.
Another publisher printed his games as business cards at a local print shop.
Tokyo! I am surprised by how I enjoy being in Tokyo. There are many restaurants and bars, baseball games, castles, parks, arts and cool toilets. The toilets part is kind of a joke but I have read several blogs where cool public toilets were considered a highlight. I will add more into this section later.
Here are some of my favorites that I bought during my trip.
Saashi and Saashi
The latest design from a 10 year old Japanese girl. So impressive.
Itten makes fun dexterity games such as Tokyo Highway, Crash Octopus and Wonder Bowling. Check out one of their new releases Hits and Outs at May 2025 TGM.
Many from Taiwan traveled to Tokyo
Smoox from Taiwan Board Game Design Group
One of the more interesting games was Kei-Go from York Game Lab. It is a game for Japanese language learners that uses the different levels of formalities in Japanese as the game. For example, there are different levels of politeness to address elders, superiors, children and colleagues and you need to guess who is being spoken to based on which words are used.
I wanted Craft Beer Fest (Yasuke Sato) just because of the dozen little beer bottles. I don’t think it will be at TGM May 2025.
Eternal Decks is a game coming soon from Hiroken. It looks SO COOL!
Lynx Lake Games 