Gaming & Board Games in Stockholm
Publish date: 16 April 2026
Are you into video games, board games, or immersive VR, Stockholm has plenty to offer! Here is a selection of venues and bars suitable for long nights of play!
Esports, and gaming bars
Inferno Online ranging from the latest computer games to retro NES games, inferno is a place to play, period. They host boot camps, all-night gaming, and e-sport tournaments.
Kappa Bar is a street-food restaurant with playful activities – several of the tables have built-in game consoles! They also host quizzes on a range of topics, and stream eSport games on their screens.
N3rds is another great option for a fun dinner with friends. This bar, founded by video game nostalgics, offer every booked table titles from NES to Switch 2.
VR and Arcade
Hey STHLM!
VREX City
VREX City and VREX Bromma are good picks if you want to try a shared virtual reality experience with friends, family, or coworkers. These venues focus on group play, where you move freely, cooperate, and compete in the same experience.
If you are more old-school, Hey STHLM! is a fun arcade-gaming stop complete with flashing cabinets and Japanese titles.
Chess & Board Games
Svarta hästen
Alphaspel is not just a store, but a destination for board games, tabletop role-playing games, miniature games, trading card games, and accessories. Regular tournaments and game nights make it especially interesting if you want to tap into the local scene. The next-door Alphabar also lends out board games to its patrons,
Dragon's Lair is another favorite among board-game enthusiasts and has, two shops and with its second location only for playing (albeit without the bar element)
Science Fiction Bokhandeln is another natural stop. Alongside books and fandom favorites, you will also find board games, role-playing games, comics, manga, and collectible card games. It is a good place for visitors who like nerd culture in a broader sense, not only gaming.
Svarta Hästen is a wine bar in central Stockholm catering to chess players. Does it get any more high-brow?
Kulturhuset is known by all Stockholmers for its chess nook outside the library on floor 2, with a host of regulars meeting up for spontaneous games. For beginners, there are also recurring open Chess workshops on the last Saturday of every month.
The Swedish Gaming Phenomenon
The Swedish game scene has a wide array of developers, from small independent studios to affiliates and partner studios to some of the industry's biggest players, with many of them based in Stockholm. Here's a small selection of developers and publishers based in Stockholm:
- Avalanche: The Just Cause series, Rage 2, Mad Max
- Axolot Games: Scrap Mechanic
- DICE: The Battlefield series, the Mirror's Edge series, Star Wars Battlefront
- Fatshark: The Warhammer –Vermintide series, Bionic Commando: Rearmed 2, Krater
- Hazelight: A Way Out, It Takes Two, Split Fiction
- King: Candy Crush
- Mojang: Minecraft
- Paradox Interactive: The Crusader Kings series, the Europa Universalis series, the Cities: Skylines series
- Raw Fury: Dandara, Kingdom Two Crowns, Townscaper
- Starbreeze: The Payday series, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, The Darkness
