Catan in 2026: Klaus Teuber’s legacy, three years on

Klaus Teuber, the German dental technician who designed Settlers of Catan as a side project in the early '90s, passed away in April 2023. He left behind not just one of the best-selling board games of all time but a family company — CATAN GmbH, run by his sons Benjamin and Guido — and a remarkable design legacy.

Three years on, Catan looks healthier than most legacy franchises in our hobby. Here's where things stand.

The studio is in good hands

Benjamin Teuber, Klaus's son and longtime co-designer (he's credited on Cities & Knights and several of the seafarers scenarios), has been creative lead on every release since 2023, including New Energies and the upcoming starlight scenario. Guido handles licensing. The brand has not gone the way of so many 'IP, milk it' acquisitions.

New releases have stayed thoughtful

Since 2023 CATAN has put out:

• Catan: New Energies (2024) — climate scenario, reviewed elsewhere on this blog
• Catan: 3D Edition reprint (2024) — premium sculpted version of the base game
• Catan: Dawn of Humankind expansions (2025) — two small map packs
• A revised core box with refreshed art (2025) — the production quality is noticeably better

Notably absent: no app-store cash grabs, no NFT phase, no licensing the brand to slot machines. The franchise has resisted the kind of decisions that have hollowed out other big-IP board games.

The community is bigger than ever

Online Catan play has roughly tripled since 2020 between Catan Universe, Colonist.io, and the wave of free fan-made sites (hi). The annual CATAN World Championship hit a record 40+ country entries in 2025. There's a healthy YouTube and Twitch scene around Cities & Knights play, and the Catan subreddit is still one of the most active board game communities online.

What’s next

Teasers from Essen Spiel 2025 pointed to a starlight/exploration scenario in late 2026, and Benjamin has hinted in interviews that a long-promised 'CATAN Legacy' campaign game is finally in real development for a 2027 release. Whether that lands is anyone's guess — legacy games are hard — but the bar is high and the studio has earned the benefit of the doubt.

Three decades in, Catan is still the gateway game most of us hand our friends. Klaus's legacy is that his weird little trading game taught millions of people that board games could be modern, social, and strategic all at once. The franchise his family is stewarding now looks like it will be doing the same thing for at least another decade.