State of The Escape Room Industry Report 2022 - Owner's Survey

Survey summary

And this report details what we found.

Some interesting findings: 

• The traditional physical escape room game remains the most common escape room offering.
• Physical escape rooms, the most common offering, would be completely shut down during the lockdown. Despite that 4 in 5 escape rooms didn’t shut down a single location during the lockdown.
• Over 90% of escape rooms didn’t file a claim with their insurer despite being shut down during the lockdown.
• Since reopening, bookings have recovered but revenue is behind 2019 levels.
• Mystery, Happy fantasy and historical fantasy are the most common escape game themes.
• Being an adventurer, Escaping an unpleasant place, and Finding or creating something are the most common escape concepts.
• Apart from booking software, the escape room service provider market is highly fragmented. In booking software, Bookeo and Resova have meaningful market shares.
  

Get the data:

To access the raw survey data, click here

How we created and ran the survey; our methodology

Our idea at the time was to build on the State of the Escape Room Industry survey that we had run in 2019. You may be familiar with that one; here’s a link to that report, if you’re curious.

But then the pandemic struck, and we put it on hold indefinitely.

We also kept an eye on developments in the industry, going through the news, talking with escape room owners, suppliers, and others online.

Finally, after waiting for two whole years, we started working on this survey again in February 2022. 

The questions here can be divided into two categories:

• One, queries on intrinsic escape room and industry issues, like which game themes are popular, how saturated that market is and so on…
• Two, queries on how COVID-19 affected the escape room industry, how it recovered, and what future it sees for itself.

• For these questions, we built on the survey we ran in 2019..

• We developed these questions based on our perusal of news reports, and conversations with various industry stakeholders on social media.

Speed run checks: We took the survey ourselves, various times. Our demo runs revealed that it took 14 minutes to complete the survey meaningfully.

This was done with a view to weeding out any responses that took too little time to have taken the survey seriously.

On 5th March, 2022, we finalized the questionnaire and uploaded it to SurveyMonkey.

We had data from 2020 with a list of escape rooms around the world, but that had obviously become out of date. 

We needed a list of Escape Rooms from all around the world, and this is how we gathered the data:

• Web-scraping mostly Google’s directory and Trip Advisor
• Manual check of ERs from Morty App
• Other ER Directories like World Of Escapes

Once the data was collected we got our team to run quality checks and then finally began the reaching out to the shortlisted owners through:

• Email outreach
• Facebook Groups (Notable mention Escape Room Startups and Owners)
• Direct messaging (Facebook, Linkedin and Discord)
• Leveraged outreach via partners (we reveal who our partners are at the end)

Once the survey results came in, we took a few steps to filter out low-quality responses and polish the data.

• Speed run checks: Like I mentioned, we had an idea of how long a meaningful survey response would take. So, as a first step we dropped responses that took too little time.
• Deleting spam: This is a lesson we learnt from the 2018 survey – look for spam entries, such as ones from people who claim to be located “somewhere in my mind”.

With these two steps done, 353 final responses were collated, that we have presented here.

• Cleaning the data: We went through the final responses with a fine tooth comb, bucketing open-ended qualitative responses into categories, converting different currencies (for currency-based responses) into a single regional currency (like converting Pound Sterling into Euros and Canadian Dollars into USD) to get regional estimates.

The survey results

About our respondents

Compared with our 2018 survey (which got 206 responses), the current survey has clearly got a larger response. And that’s good.

What’s better: As compared to the previous one, where more than 80% of the respondents were from North America, this year, we have had a good response from Europe (175 from North America and 143 from Europe), and also a number of responses from Australia and New Zealand, which makes this survey more diverse than its precursor.

The basics about escape room businesses

Does your escape room game business have/offer:

• Count of various experiences offered by escape rooms

Citywide games seem to be more popular in Europe than in North America and other regions.

Among the more rarely occurring escape room offerings are:

What kind of business are you?

Does this mean most escape room owners want to include games of their own choice, instead of being limited by a franchise? At this point, we can only speculate

How many locations do you have?

Europe seems to have more of Escape room businesses with 3 to 5 locations than North America and Australia & NZ.

How many years have you been in operation?

• Count of number of years in operation

Which ties in with the conventional wisdom that although escape rooms have been in existence since 2007 (the year SCRAP opened the first escape room in Japan), the industry really took off during 2014-15.

What is heartening is that 14% of escape rooms report being around for a year or less.

Which may indicate that quite a few escape rooms were planned and opened during and after the lockdown. More on this in a bit.

How many unique escape games (Including online games if they apply) does your escape room feature?

Region-wise, single-game escape rooms (i.e. with only one game) are more common in Europe.

Dealing with the lockdown

How many locations were added and shut down by escape room businesses during/since the lockdown?

It’s certainly heartening to see that, despite the lockdown making physical escape games completely impossible, 76%, almost 4 in 5 escape rooms didn’t shut down even a single location during the lockdown period.

In balance, we can claim that the industry has muscled it through the lockdown, with new locations being opened at almost the same rate as old ones were closed.

Did you add new escape games to existing locations during/since the lockdown? If so, how many?

Were you able to access government assistance during the lockdown?

• No, I didn't get any government assistance.
• Yes, normal assistance.
• Yes, special lockdown assistance

On the other hand, there are anecdotes and news reports of governments issuing health regulations that simply failed to account for the nature of an escape room business (like classifying them as “amusement parks”).

Clearly, there’s work to be done on explaining the business model to governments, and ensuring that appropriate regulations are issues in future crises.
This issue was also discussed during RECON ‘21.

Regionwise, North American escape rooms were the most likely to have not received any government assistance, while Australia & NZ and European escape rooms were most likely to have received special lockdown assistance.

Did you file a claim with your insurer?

Our response reveals that escape room businesses in Australia & NZ were the least likely to have filed claims with their insurer, followed by North American escape room businesses and then European ones.

We will revisit this issue later on, when we take up the question of what kinds of insurance escape room businesses have.

If yes, on what kind of policy did you file the claim?

But, as a word of advice it might be prudent to look into business interruption and pandemic insurance for your business.

Did you start offering Virtual/Online or Live Streaming games during the lockdown?

Reopening after the lockdown

How are the game bookings and revenue compared to pre-lockdown (2019)?

What has been your biggest cost to run / re-open after the lockdown?

• Count of biggest cost to run / reopen since the lockdown

One pleasant surprise is that very few escape rooms cited capacity restrictions (as in restrictions on how many people are allowed to gather in a closed space) as their biggest cost.

Daily operations

Which of these following insurance policies do you use?

• Count of Which of these following insurance policies do you use?

Very few have umbrella insurance.

Remember how we saw the vast majority of respondents reported not even filing for insurance for the lockdown? That could be because nothing in their policies remotely suggested anything like the pandemic.

So, you can consider talking with an insurance expert on whether having a business interruption and/or pandemic insurance policy may make sense.

Which insurance provider do you use?

• Count of insurance providers

Which insurance provider do you use?

• Count of respondents saying they have at least one location of that type

What theme(s) is/are your escape room game(s) based on?

What concept(s) is/are your escape room game(s) based on?

• Count of What concept(s) is/are your escape room game(s) based on?

Do any of your escape room games involve live actors?

• Yes; the gamemaster doubles up as the actor
• Yes; we have one or more dedicated actors
• No

This lines up with the 2019 enthusiasts’ survey conducted by The Codex which revealed that live actors weren’t all that important for players.

How does your hint system work?

• Hint cap: Players can only ask for a fixed number of hints
• Penalty-based: Players lose time/points (depending on whether the escape room game is time-based or score-based) every time they ask for a hint
• Hybrid: Players get a number of 'free' hints; if they ask for more, they lose time
• Unlimited: Players can request as many hints as they like, with no consequences

Giving unlimited hints seems to be a good shift towards prioritizing player experience. Many escape rooms are known to allow players to choose their level of difficulty before entering the game by choosing the number of hints they want to receive.

It would be interesting to compare this with escape game player reviews and see how many players say too few hints made the game too complicated for them (and spoiled the experience), vs how many players feel there should be some restriction on hints to stop the game from becoming too easy.

How many hours does your escape room remain open in a week?

Of course, it is possible that this only reflects available time slots, and escape rooms are actually only open for a fraction of that time – when they actually have bookings, while for the rest of the time their premises remain empty/closed.

Pricing & expenditure

How do you structure your tickets?

• Count of How do you structure your tickets?

Region-wise, North American and Australian & NZ escape rooms seem overwhelmingly in favor of charging per player,
While European escape rooms are more of a mixed bag between charging per player and charging per team.

In practice we see that a majority of Escape Rooms require a minimum 2 to 3 player team size, and they even impose a minimum booking limit on their games.
The pricing is on a sliding scale and the per player cost starts reducing from team sizes of 4 players and more.

What is your per player ticket price?

• What is your per player ticket price? - North American Region (US & Canada)

• What is your per player ticket price? - European Region (Including UK)

• What is your per player ticket price? - Australia & New Zealand

What is your average booking price?

• What is your average booking price? - North American region (USA and Canada)

• What is your average booking price? - Australia & New Zealand

• What is your average booking price? - European region (including the UK)

What is your estimate of the percentage of your revenue that is spent on marketing across all your locations?

• Count of What is your estimate of the percentage of your revenue that is spent on room upgrades and maintenance?

This is largely due to the fact that most escape rooms are mom and pop operations mostly run by gaming/escape room enthusiasts and they lack the domain knowledge for sales and marketing.

Refer to The Codex’s 2019 Enthusiasts’ Survey and see that social media and internet searches are as important as word of mouth marketing.

What is your estimate of the percentage of your revenue that is spent on Human Resource (HR)?

• Count of What is your estimate of the percentage of your revenue that is spent on Human Resource (HR)?

What is your estimate of the percentage of your revenue that is spent on room upgrades and maintenance?

• Count of What is your estimate of the percentage of your revenue that is spent on room upgrades and maintenance?

Marketing

Which channels of marketing do you use to promote your escape room?(Please select all that apply)

• Count of Which channels of marketing do you use to promote your escape room?(Please select all that apply)

One change that we can see from the 2018 survey is that more escape room businesses are taking up paid ads, which makes sense as paid/PPC ads are highly targeted and offer options for immediate booking. 39/197 respondents in 2018 said they used Search Engine Ads vs 186/290 respondents in 2022 said they used Search Engine Ads.

Offline marketing (such as through ads placed in newspapers, magazines, and on radio and TV) are still used by a small percentage of Escape Rooms. These formats however offer very little targeting options, and you’d need a significant adbudget to make a real impact.

And escape room businesses continue to maintain their distance from coupon sites like Groupon, even as they offer discounts of their own (as we discussed earlier).

Starting an escape room business

How did you get the funding to open your escape room business? (Please select all that apply)

• Count of How did you get the funding to open your escape room business?

How did you obtain the space to build your escape room?

• Count of how owners acquired the space

What is your estimate of the cost of building one escape room game?

• Cost of building one escape room game - North American region (USA and Canada)

• Cost of building one escape room game - Australia & New Zealand

• Cost of building one escape room game - European region (including the UK)

Which aspect did you feel was the biggest challenge in setting up your escape room business?

• Count of In your opinion, what is the key challenge in designing escape room games?

In your opinion, what is the key challenge in designing escape room games?

• Count of In your opinion, what is the key challenge in designing escape room games?

Do you order readymade props, or do you create your own props?

• I make scenic props
• I make puzzle props
• I make both scenic and puzzle props
• I source my props externally
• I source scenic props externally
• I source puzzle props externally

How do you design and build your escape games?

• I generally design and build all my escape games
• I consult with a consultant to plan and design the games, but handle the building myself
• I buy turnkey escape games, generally.

Service providers

Who (people and/or businesses) have you purchased props/designs/games from and would recommend to others?

What kind of staff scheduling software do you use?

Do you have any issues with your existing staff scheduling software? If so, please describe the issue..

What inventory management tools are you using to run your games? (Eg: Telescape)

• Custom Made
• Telescape
• Resova
• Houdini MC
• Escape Room Master

Which booking solution do you use?

Which software/service do you use for your liability waivers?

Looking ahead

In light of current events (some experts are talking about new waves and/or variants of COVID, the situation in Ukraine etc), are you concerned about business prospects in 2022?

How saturated is your area in terms of the number of escape rooms?

• We are the only Escape Room here!
• There are a few Escape Rooms here; but there's room for a few more
• Appropriate number of ERs for the area
• Oversaturated

Which, if any, of the following actions are you planning to take within the next year?

• Count of Which, if any, of the following actions are you planning to take within the next year?

Our plans for the future

The European response was massively skewed towards the UK.
And we got little to no response from South and South East Asia, where escape rooms are quite popular.

Going forward, we plan on continuing with our outreach efforts, and also on offering the survey in multiple languages, to make it a truly global survey that can offer insight on the state of the escape room industry across the globe.

Acknowledgements

A shoutout to our partners

They helped us a lot with outreach, pushing the survey to more and more escape room owners whether through email blasts, or by giving the survey a shoutout through their company social media accounts…or even by enabling us to post about the survey on private groups they’re a part of.

Their efforts made it possible for us to get over 400 responses from all over the world (we had to prune it down to 353 to maintain a minimum quality of response).

Alexander Girshfeld, owner of Indestroom and The ER Workshop

Alexander is an enthusiast of escape games, and the owner of The ER Workshop, one of the largest escape room suppliers in the world.
Visit their website

Rita Orlov from PostCurious

The founder and creative force behind PostCurious, which creates unique and mesmerizing puzzles and tabletop games.
Visit the PostCurious website

Mike Augustine (a.k.a. Auggie) from OKAPIKID

Auggie shared the survey with his vast following on Twitter. I could tell you a bit about him, but I think it’s better you experience him for yourself…
Visit his website

Thomas Parslow from Buzzshot

Buzzshot engages your players before and after the game, saving you time and garnering you more reviews.
Visit his Buzzshot profile

Ray Lane from Impossible Escape Loganville

You may know him as Ray The Video Guy. Or as The President of Impossible Escape Loganville. He shared the survey on a private group that proved critical in getting quite a few responses from the US and Canada.
Visit his LinkedIn profile

Michael Andersen from ARGNet

The owner and senior editor of the Alternate Reality Gaming Network, and allegedly associated with a Pennsylvania Bar where you can’t get drunk. He gave the survey a shoutout from the official ARGNet Twitter.
Visit his profile on ARGNet

Heiner Stepen from Escape Roomers DE

Heiner is a leading contributor to Escape Roomers, one of the largest escape room blogs in Europe. He allowed us to share the survey invite in a private Facebook group, which went a long way in getting us the large response from Europe.
Visit his profile on Escape Roomers

Andy Bauch from The Morty App

Among other things, he’s the co-founder and CEO of Morty, an app for “discovering, booking, and tracking escape rooms”. He helped us out by pushing the survey to an enthusiasts’ group.
Visit his LinkedIn profile

David Spira from Room Escape Artist

He’s a lot of things, from a guitarist to a puzzle junkie and technologist. He’s also the co-founder of Room Escape Artist, one of the most authoritative websites on escape rooms in the world.
Visit his Room Escape Artist profile

Jonathan & Cici Cao from Escape The Roomers

Escape The Roomers is a review site for escape rooms, video games, immersive experience and so on.
Visit their website

Christine Barger, owner of Exit Game Orange County

She’s an actor, she’s a ventriloquist, she’s an influencer on TikTok…and she’s also an escape room business owner.
Visit her Instagram profile

VALUED SURVEY PARTICIPANTS

A special mention to some of our respondents: We should mention that we got responses from South Africa, India, Taiwan and Singapore. Unfortunately, there were too few of them to reach any definitive conclusions about industry trends in those regions. However, those responses did help shape the global picture.