International Games Month 2025 was a resounding success! There were 858 total libraries participating that were from fourteen different countries.
It was also a record year for sponsorships with a total of 27 sponsors here in the US and three more sponsoring our Italian library friends. GameRT wants to extend thanks to all of our sponsors. A full list can be found on our site. The 27 US sponsors gave away over 1,100 physical copies of games, 290 digital only games, and 2,100 discount codes to their online stores ranging from 30% – 50% off. We also secured a new publisher willing to offer libraries a spot in their retailer program.
The follow-up survey has been completed by 149 libraries, about 17.4% of participants. If you haven’t filled your survey out yet, check you inbox! Libraries have reported holding 758 events that brought 14,341 people together around games in their library. Two common threads from the comments were how patrons were grateful for the new additions to the library’s games collection from one or more of the sponsors and how the events brought their community together. This comment from Krystal at Merrimack Valley Middle School brings those two themes together quite well:
“We had the BEST time! The new games that we received revitalized our game collection, inspired kids to try new things and brought students together that don’t always play well together.”
Another common theme that arose were puzzle swap events, Mahjong and Euchre tournaments, and escape rooms / murder mystery programs. Many libraries commented that events they tried for the first time this year during IGM will become recurring programs in 2026.
We love hearing these success stories and will be reaching out to a few of these awesome libraries to see if they want to share more detailed accounts of their successes. The IGM subcommittee continues to review the survey results for both of these beautiful illustrations of our impact, but also for ways to improve. We did notice a common thread that we can address now, which is the appropriateness of items you may have received. All of GameRT’s work is done by working professionals, like you and me, on a volunteer basis. Because of this, some libraries may have received items that were not aligned with that library’s intended audience. We continue to work with the sponsors to improve not only the items donated, but the ways in which we match your registration to the sponsor’s offers.
Next year will be the 20th anniversary of the first celebration of what started as National Games Day in 2007. The Program Planning Committee of the Games and Gaming Round Table is always looking for volunteers to help with our work, including International Games Month. If you have ideas or are interested in volunteer opportunities, check out our volunteer form. Game On!