This was the 2018 version of this website. For the current version, visit terpeca.com.

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About the Project

The Top Escape Rooms Project is an attempt to find the very best escape rooms in the world by leveraging the experience of the most experienced escape room enthusiasts in the world. We serve escape room owners and designers by publicly recognizing their achievements, and we serve our fellow enthusiasts by providing a global bucket list of the best rooms to play.

The top rooms and companies identified by this project each year are awarded a Top Escape Rooms Project Enthusiasts' Choice Award, or TERPECA, which represents the best of the best in the global escape room industry.

Enthusiasts
Surveyed
Total Rooms
Played
Top
Rooms
Top
Companies
Top Rooms

2018 Top Rooms

The following 25 escape rooms have earned the 2018 TERPECA for Top Room. These rooms stand out among all the others and exemplify the best of what the escape room industry has to offer.

If you missed the live results show during which these results were announced, you can still watch it here.

Note that the rankings in this list have slightly changed from what was originally announced, due to an issue that was discovered and corrected in the voting data.

Ghost Hunter Ernie Hudson and the Wailing Woman

4-8 Players
60 Minutes
Private Booking
Address:
Spielbudenplatz 21
20359 Hamburg
Germany
Description:
"The first ever combination of an Escape Game and a Radio play. Over five different locations, a drama with breath taking effects, and a story full of excitement beckons. Have you ever dreamed of playing the leading role in a drama full of suspense? This room has restrictions and is not suitable for physically challenged or very large players."

Cutthroat Cavern

4-10 Players
60 Minutes
Public Booking
Address:
800 St. Phillip Street
Baton Rouge, LA 70802
United States
Description:
"While on a Caribbean vacation you decide to explore the island of Isla Mujeres, rumored to be the location where the notorious pirate Jean Lafitte hid his most priceless treasure."

The Man From Beyond

4-8 Players
90 Minutes
Public Booking
Address:
7026 Old Katy Road #310
Houston, TX 77024
United States
Description:
"Madame Daphne cordially invites you to a private séance to contact the spirit of Harry Houdini. But all is not what it seems, and when the ghost appears, things take a dramatic turn. Unravel mysteries a century in the making, and you could find yourselves doing more than escaping a room."

The Amsterdam Catacombs

3-6 Players
90 Minutes
Private Booking
Address:
Haarlemmerstraat 124-126
1013 EX Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Description:
"Forget everything you know about Escape Rooms. The Amsterdam Catacombs is an interactive Horror Adventure deep under an old church. Without telling too much, we can promise you that this will be unlike anything else that you have experienced in an Escape Room so far! This is a 90 minutes Room Escape experience. It involves moments of stress, darkness and flickerling lights. This experience is not suitable for children and you should be mentally stable and averagely fit. "

The Lost Treasure of Alexander Humboldt

2-5 Players
60 Minutes
Private Booking
Address:
Ruschestraße 64-66
10365 Berlin
Germany
Description:
"During draining pipe repairs under the Humboldt University, maintenance workers have made a remarkable discovery, uncovering the entrance to a previously unknown facility. An immediate search by the workers seems to have backfired, however, as they have been neither seen nor heard from since. The entry has been closed by government order and officials are currently looking for a team of experienced archeologists to attempt a mission to unveil the location's secrets. A breathtaking adventure from and for fans of Indiana Jones and the Goonies. At least one member of your team should not be claustrophobic and afraid of darkness!"

The Edison Escape Room

4-8 Players
100 Minutes
Private Booking
Address:
3362 Palace Drive
San Francisco, CA 94123
United States
Description:
"Since the discovery of Edison’s telegram, the Palace Games team has located his study at the Palace of Fine Arts. It is now open to the public. Come play to learn the secret reason Edison built and maintained this special place at the Palace of Fine Arts!"

The Vault

4-6 Players
60 Minutes
Private Booking
Address:
Damrak 247
1012 ZJ Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Description:
"Can you break into the world's toughest vault?"

Lab Rat

2-8 Players
60 Minutes
Private Booking
Address:
1919 3rd Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90018
United States
Description:
"Lab Rat takes place in a laboratory where giant rats are doing experiments on human beings, specifically you!"

The Lance of Longinus

3-6 Players
60 Minutes
No Longer Available
Address:
9-15 Helmsley Place
London E8 3SB
United Kingdom
Description:
"Dive through a time portal, then voyage through forgotten and undiscovered worlds on a quest for an object of unfathomable power. Run through time, against clock, to track down the Lance of Longinus - before your 60 minutes are up."

Ghost Hunter Ernie Hudson and the Zoo of Death

3-6 Players
60 Minutes
Private Booking
Address:
Spielbudenplatz 21
20359 Hamburg
Germany
Description:
"Ghost hunter Ernie Hudson gets a second case! Break into the disused Zoo of Death and decipher his grim secrets. "

Catacumbas [Catacombs]

4-8 Players
90 Minutes
Private Booking
Address:
Carrer de Girona nº7
Barcelona 08010
Spain
Description:
"The alchemists claimed to be able to achieve the transformation of metals into gold, although their objective was focused on a greater challenge, the obtaining of the alchemical stone. Magical properties are attributed to this object, including immortality. Thanks to interpretations of recent writings that are known, it is believed that this stone could be found in the catacombs of Minos, on the island of Crete. Eternal life and infinite wealth, objectives that for decades many adventurers tried to go in search of. Unfortunately, without any success. Getting out of the catacombs alive is not so easy."

The Avalanche

The name of this room was An Avalanche of Oblivion at the time of the award.

2-4 Players
60 Minutes
Private Booking
Address:
Av. Esteve-Albert, 4, b-2
AD700 Escaldes-Engordany
Andorra
Description:
"You were travelling in the mountains of Andorra, when suddenly a snow storm hit you. Your chances for survival seemed slim, but suddenly you saw an abandoned hut in front of you. But as soon as the door closed behind you, avalanche descended, and the door was blocked with snow. You can’t wait the storm out in the hut, and there is not enough fuel in the generator, so it will only last for one hour. You have to repair an old radio and to call for rescue as soon as possible. But in some time you come to an awful understanding: there is something wrong with this house, and awful things are happening in it!"

The Secret Lab

3-10 Players
60 Minutes
Private Booking
Address:
1 Summerhall Place
Edinburgh EH9 1PL
United Kingdom
Description:
"The Kensie Research Lab was a marvel of 70s technology, with the best equipment money could buy. Situated in Edinburgh, smack in the middle of an old veterinary hospital so not to raise suspicion, the lab was designed around the research and creation of vaccines and viruses. The mastermind behind the project was Professor Lyall Kensie, a brilliant bio-chemist. Do you have what it takes to discover what lies within The Secret Lab today."

The Storykeeper

4-6 Players
70 Minutes
Private Booking
Address:
619 North 35th Street
Seattle, WA 98103
United States
Description:
"You’ve heard whispered tales of a mysterious book collection and its curator, an elusive figure known only as Jak. Rumor has it that Jak is seeking adventurous souls to retrieve a valuable item, a treasure which Jak claims to have lost in a most peculiar place… Do you dare to answer Jak’s summons and explore the secrets of the hidden library? This game includes physical activity such as kneeling and crawling. Comfortable shoes are highly recommended. The game also features low lighting in some areas. The game includes a mild “jump scare” style interaction with a character."

Stash House

4-11 Players
90 Minutes
Private Booking
Address:
4267 West 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90020
United States
Description:
"Your group has been invited to a seemingly-normal Koreatown apartment owned by a local entrepreneur to discuss a business opportunity. Shortly after arriving, you discover the apartment belongs to Ray Jones, notorious Los Angeles drug kingpin, and that Ray has a test in store for you: find all the drugs hidden in the space and flush them before the cops arrive or face the consequences."

The Girl's Room

5+ Players
60 Minutes
Private Booking
Address:
Nijverheidsweg 5b
3751 LP Bunschoten
The Netherlands
Description:
"The Girl’s Room is the famous, notorious and widely acclaimed Escape Room 2.0 sensation for grown girls and tough guys!"

Atlantis

2-6 Players
75 Minutes
Private Booking
Address:
No. 11 “Krakra” Street
1504 Sofia
Bulgaria
Description:
"Humanity needs a new energy source and within the lost Atlantis, lies the heart of Poseidon. Marked by the sins of its kings, destroyed by Zeus, it still guards this treasure. Within the depths of the abyss, it calls you – the worthiest of the worthy – to unravel the ball of mysteries. If you are not afraid of the ancient traps, sign up for the expedition! Leave a normal man, return a hero! "

Alien: El Orígen [Alien: Origin]

4-10 Players
60 Minutes
Private Booking
Address:
Carrer d'en Baró 17
08921 Santa Coloma de Gramenet
Barcelona
Spain
Description:
"Be part of the crew of the USCSS Escape and travel to the planet Grathus."

Insane Paranoid

2-5 Players
60 Minutes
Private Booking
Address:
Novokhokhlovskaya Ulitsa, 12, стр. 4
Moscow 111674
Russia
Description:
"Split personality. Dissociative disorder. What kind of terms did they not call this disease ... You had a unique chance to get to know a person more closely, who has at least 8 different personalities living in his head. All of them are eager to meet with you: share your story and shed light on the mysterious series of deaths in the house of the Foresters. But beware: it is impossible to predict who will be next on the other side of the lens.
In the quest there are two versions of the game, differing in the level of fear. 3 actors and 8 acting characters. Contact level of your choice. Free parking. If you are afraid to play, you can watch the game of your friends on the screen in a cozy welcoming area."

The Honeymoon Hotel

2-6 Players
60 Minutes
Private Booking
Company: DarkPark (formerly Escape Challenge)
Address:
Dorpsstraat 33A
2712 AB Zoetermeer
The Netherlands
Description:
"A greenish light shines through the stained glass windows of the massive wooden doors that fall behind you in the lock. Feverishly you try to open the door again, but in vain. You let your eyes scrutinize the space. An old wooden counter, a dull golden baggage trolley with suitcases, a broken piano, a lift ... You're in the lobby of The Honeymoon Hotel. Behind a door that apparently leads to the honeymoon suite, there is a noise, suddenly the light goes out ..."

La Entrevista (The Interview)

2-7 Players
80 Minutes
Private Booking
Address:
Calle de Téllez nº3
Madrid 28007
Spain
Description:
"In the last few days, an anonymous company has suffered several unexpected vacancies and is looking for the most qualified personnel to take over the vacated positions."

Alice in Nightmareland

2-4 Players
75 Minutes
Private Booking
Address:
Malyy Gnezdnikovskiy Pereulok, 12
Moscow 125009
Russia
Description:
"Tick-tock, tick-tock… Who’s there? Time is following us at our heels. Hope to hide in shisha smoke? Yet silkmoths are treacherous, too. Flower roots have entangled your legs, each one is ready to strangle you. Mushroom screams can be heard from everywhere. Only a miracle can save you from their rage. Where is the floor and where is the ceiling? Just one last sip of common sense remains! All hats are long gambled away and the goofy hare will not make it till March. The scaffold awaits the Mad Hatter impatiently, the smile is here, but where is the cat?"

Tomb of Anubis

4-8 Players
60 Minutes
Public Booking
Address:
800 St. Phillip Street
Baton Rouge, LA 70802
United States
Description:
"When you booked your vacation to see the great pyramids, you thought it would be more interesting. But as your tour guide drones on and on about different types of ancient pottery and myths, you decide you could have much more fun if you were exploring on your own. When no one is looking you quietly slip away from the group and make your way down a dark passage marked "Unmapped Area. Do Not Enter!"."

De Ramkraak [The Ram Raid]

3-6 Players
60 Minutes
Private Booking
Address:
Nieuwe Marktstraat 54
6511 AA Nijmegen
The Netherlands
Description:
"Get thrown right in the middle of the action. The police closes in fast as you’re trying to break into the illustrious office of Starlife Enterprise. When the locks are about to open you suddenly realize… What’s even in that vault?… Come and find out yourself in the Ram Raid!"

Frankenstein

2-6 Players
60 Minutes
Private Booking
Address:
167 Mall Circle Drive
Murfreesboro, TN 37129
United States
Description:
"It’s been some time since Victor has been within his study, and his work sits idle. ...Before his capture Victor put certain…”measures” in order to assure his creations arrival. That is why you are here. You are some of Victors most prized colleagues and students. My name is Henry, Victor is my friend, and I will stop at nothing…WE will stop at nothing — to see Victors creation awaken."
Top Companies

2018 Top Companies

The following 10 companies have earned the 2018 TERPECA for Top Company. These companies have demonstrated a sustained ability to produce games and experiences that excel in all ways and exemplify the best of what the escape room industry has to offer.

If you missed the live results show during which these results were announced, you can still watch it here.

Skurrilum

Address:
Spielbudenplatz 21
20359 Hamburg
Germany
Experiences:
  • Ghost Hunter Ernie Hudson and the Wailing Woman (#1 Top Room)
  • Ghost Hunter Ernie Hudson and the Zoo of Death (#10 Top Room)
  • Guschi's Seedy Cellar (Top Room Nominee)
  • Malvini's Legacy
  • The Phantom Island

Palace Games

Address:
3362 Palace Drive
San Francisco, CA 94123
United States
Experiences:
  • The Edison Escape Room (#6 Top Room)
  • The Great Houdini Escape Room (Top Room Finalist)
  • The Roosevelt Escape Room (Top Room Finalist)
  • Escape the Palace
  • Palace Hunt, Powered by ClueKeeper

The Room

Address:
Ruschestraße 64-66
10365 Berlin
Germany
Experiences:
  • The Lost Treasure of Alexander Humboldt (#5 Top Room)
  • Brandon Darkmoor (Top Room Nominee)
  • Go West (Top Room Nominee)
  • The Beast of Berlin (Top Room Nominee)

13th Gate Escape

Address:
800 St. Phillip Street
Baton Rouge, LA 70802
United States
Experiences:
  • Cutthroat Cavern (#2 Top Room)
  • Tomb of Anubis (#23 Top Room)
  • Agent 13 (Top Room Finalist)
  • Death Row
  • The Collector
  • The Asylum (coming soon)

Time Run

Address:
9-15 Helmsley Place
London E8 3SB
United Kingdom
Experiences:
  • The Lance of Longinus (#9 Top Room)
  • The Celestial Chain (Top Room Finalist)
  • Sherlock: The Game is Now (coming soon)

DarkPark

(formerly Escape Challenge)

Address:
Dorpsstraat 33A
2712 AB Zoetermeer
The Netherlands
Experiences:
  • The Honeymoon Hotel (#20 Top Room)
  • The Dentist
  • The Freakshow
  • The Orphanage

Sherlocked

Address:
Damrak 247
1012 ZJ Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Experiences:
  • The Vault (#7 Top Room)
  • The Architect (Top Room Finalist)

Cubick

Address:
Calle de Téllez nº3
Madrid 28007
Spain
Experiences:
  • La Entrevista [The Interview] (#21 Top Room)
  • El Secuestro [The Kidnapping] (Top Room Finalist)
  • Boom Escape

Escape My Room

Address:
633 Constance Street
New Orleans, LA 70130
United States
Experiences:
  • Inventor's Attic (Top Room Finalist)
  • Jazz Parlor (Top Room Nominee)
  • Smugglers Den (Top Room Nominee)
  • Mardi Gras Study

Locurio

Address:
619 North 35th Street
Seattle, WA 98103
United States
Experiences:
  • The Storykeeper (#14 Top Room)
  • The Vanishing Act (Top Room Finalist)
  • The Mysteries of Noximillian
  • The Falswift Objective
Methodology

Methodology

The project consisted of two phases: a nomination phase and a ranking phase.

Phase 1: Nominations

In the nomination phase, invited participants were asked to privately nominate up to 20 rooms and 10 companies that they felt should be considered in the conversation for best in the world. Any room or company that received two or more independent nominations was deemed to have sufficient support to move on to Phase 2, with the idea that for a room or company to be worthy of the distinction of being one of the best in the world, then it would surely be nominated by at least two people.

For a company to be included, the nominator needed to have played at least two rooms by that company (and thus the room obviously needed to have made at least two rooms), as the company rankings are intended to represent a sustained ability to produce games and experiences that excel in all ways, from puzzle design, to set design, to customer service, or anything else. Besides, a company with just one room could still have that room compete on its own merits in the room rankings.

For a room to be included, participants were free to include any room they had played, using any criteria they felt was relevant to a room being considered one of the best in the world.

Owners, designers, and employees were not allowed to nominate their company or any of their rooms.

A total of 49 enthusiasts contributed to Phase 1, resulting in 102 rooms and 54 companies with multiple nominations that moved on to Phase 2. For the complete list of rooms and companies that were nominated in Phase 1, click on the corresponding Phase 1 Results sections in the sidebar.

Phase 2: Rankings

In the ranking phase, participants were asked to provide a complete, ordered stack rank of the companies and rooms that survived Phase 1. They were only allowed to rank rooms that they had played, and were only allowed to rank companies for which they had played two or more rooms, to ensure enough exposure to a given company to make a fair assessment.

Again, owners, designers, and employees were not allowed to rank their company or any of their rooms.

Stack ranks were chosen rather than numerical ratings because it forced participants to think hard about every entry in their stack, and did not suffer from different people having different calibrations for numerical ratings. Stack ranks also have the nice property that you can always add new rooms at the very top as rooms worldwide get better and better without having to recalibrate your numbering system or add "6-star" ratings.

A total of 70 enthusiasts provided rankings in Phase 2, including all of those who contributed to Phase 1, and the output of these individual stack ranks provided the input to the final global rankings. Many approaches were considered and tested for the best way to determine a mathematically sound, unbiased final ranking. Ultimately, the approach that was chosen was based on an academic paper about ranking college football teams that is itself based on the Perron-Frobenius theorem. In a nutshell, each stack rank was used to create all possible pairwise comparisons between rooms (or companies) in a given stack rank, and then those were used to create a matrix of scores between rooms using all the direct comparisons from any of the participants. To make the analogy to the college football analysis, we considered the score of a match between two rooms to be the number of people who preferred each room in their implied comparisons. A small correction was added using the Wilson score binomial confidence interval to ensure that slightly more confidence was given when more comparisons between the same two rooms were available, and pairs of rooms that had no direct comparisons were considered to be evenly matched so as not to overly penalize rooms that didn't have as many direct comparisons. Finally, the eigenvector corresponding to the greatest eigenvalue was calculated, and the entries in this eigenvector were used as the scores for each room (or company).

The results given by this analysis were studied in detail to verify that the final rankings stood up to careful scrutiny when comparing two rooms to each other based on all the stack ranks that included both, but this data is excluded from the final report because it can be used in some cases to infer individual preferences between rooms. Suffice it to say that we are quite confident that the outcome here faithfully represents the data provided by those participating in the project.

Ultimately this analysis provided an aggregated stack rank of all the rooms and all the companies in Phase 2, but we have chosen only to recognize the top 10 companies and top 25* rooms as official award winners. The primary reason for this is that two nominations to reach Phase 2 was a pretty low bar designed to make sure that the very best possible rooms and companies would make the list if any two participants had played them, but it did not guarantee that those that did get nominated actually were significantly better than, say, those that got only one nomination in Phase 1. We also did not feel it would make sense to award significantly more rooms or companies than any one person could have nominated. Regardless, we still present complete final rankings of rooms and companies from the Phase 2 analysis, which you can find by clicking on the corresponding Phase 2 Results sections in the sidebar.

* Note that originally we only planned to recognize 20 rooms, but after an issue was discovered in the data after the awards were initially publicly announced, the list was extended to 25 rooms so as not to retract any publicly announced award winners that dropped from the top 20 and to honor 5 more rooms that the data suggested were also deserving.

General Notes and Caveats

It should be noted that while all rooms from anywhere in the world were eligible for inclusion in this project, the pool of enthusiasts tapped to participate skew heavily towards North America and Europe, and are primarily English speaking, so it is almost certain that some rooms that should have been included in this project were excluded due to lack of exposure to the participants. That said, the experience of the participants is still quite significant, as the average number of rooms played by each participant in this project is over 300. To reach this number of games, many of them have travelled extensively to play the best rooms in the world and can offer direct meaningful comparisons between rooms in different markets. Looking at the Coverage column in the Phase 2 results for both rooms and companies actually suggests that we have excellent coverage of these markets and that the comparisons are quite defensible.

Finally, the methodology chosen does have a bias that the more rooms someone has played, the bigger an impact they'll have in the rankings, as they'll be able to provide significantly more comparisons between rooms. We accept this as a feature, not a bug, as we believe that it is certainly a defensible position that those with more experience be given greater weight in this regard.

Phase 1 Room Results

2018 Phase 1 Room Results

The following 253 rooms were nominated by at least one person in Phase 1. The number of independent nominations is shown in parentheses. Rooms with two or more* nominations moved on to Phase 2 and are shown in bold. This list should explicitly not be taken to be a meaningful ranking, as the geographic distribution of the participants was not uniform.

* Note that due to an error in manual tabulation discovered much later, one room accidentally made it through to Phase 2 with only one nomination and is marked with an asterisk below.

Abducción Alien (Alien Abduction) - El Secreto (Sevilla, Spain) (1)
Abyss - Maze Rooms (Los Angeles, CA, USA) (1)
Agent 13 - 13th Gate Escape (Baton Rouge, LA, USA) (3)
Al Capone's Secret Lair - 3Key Rooms (Sofia, Bulgaria) (1)
Alice and the Mad Hatter's Mad Hat's Hat - Escaparium (Montreal, QC, Canada) (1)
Alice in Nightmareland - Claustrophobia (Moscow, Russia) (2)
Alien - iLocked (Nottingham, UK) (1)
Alien: El Orígen (Alien: Origin) - Escape Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain) (4)
Alive - Quest-Art (Moscow, Russia) (1)
An Avalanche of Oblivion - Claustrophobia (Escaldes Engordany, Andorra) (3)
An Hour to Kill - Exit Game (Monterey Park, CA, USA) (1)
Atlantis - Teorema Escape Rooms (Sofia, Bulgaria) (2)
Bad Clown - Escape Quest (Macclesfield, UK) (2)
Bajo Zero (Below Zero) - Escapem (Sabadell, Spain) (2)
Beast of Berlin - The Room (Berlin, Germany) (1)
Brandon Darkmoor - The Room (Berlin, Germany) (1)
Cabin in the Woods - Find the Key (Montreal, QC, Canada) (1)
Camp Echo - Escape Goat (Winter Garden, FL, USA) (1)
Case 3: Patient Zero - Crime Runners (Vienna, Austria) (1)
Catacumbas (Catacombs) - Golden Pop (Barcelona, Spain) (2)
Catalepsia (Catalepsy) - Horror Box (Barcelona, Spain) (2)
Catch Me If You Can - Next Level Escape Room Eindhoven (Eindhoven, Netherlands) (1)
Cemetery - The Padlock (Prague, Czech Republic) (1)
Chamber of Illusions - Enter the Imaginarium (Pittsburgh, PA, USA) (1)
Chambre 1408 (Room 1408) - The Hostel (Bordeaux, France) (1)
Changing Reality - Zagadkownia (Warsaw, Poland) (1)
Chapter 1 - Paradiso (New York, NY, USA) (1)
Chapter 2 - Paradiso (New York, NY, USA) (1)
Chocolate Factory - Boss Play (San Diego, CA, USA) (1)
Conundrum Museum - Boxaroo (Boston, MA, USA) (1)
Convicts - Escape Boats Dublin (Dublin, Ireland) (1)
Crazyland - Rosqvest (Moscow, Russia) (1)
Crux Codicillus - The Escaporium (Halifax, UK) (1)
Crystal Maze - Crystal Maze (London, UK) (2)
Curio - Escapologic (Nottingham, UK) (3)
Cursed - Komnata Quest (New York, NY, USA) (1)
Cutthroat Cavern - 13th Gate Escape (Baton Rouge, LA, USA) (16)
De Ramkraak (The Ram Raid) - ROX Escape Experience (formerly Project Escape) (Nijmegen, Netherlands) (3)
Dead Air - The Crux Niagara (Niagara Falls, ON, Canada) (5)
Death Dealers - Quest-Art (Moscow, Russia) (1)
Deep Space - 5 Wits (multiple cities, USA) (2)
Defend the Magic Academy - Omescape (Scarborough, ON, Canada) (1)
Deja Vu - Escape Era (San Diego, CA, USA) (1)
Detention - Kuma Escape (Santa Clara, CA, USA) (1)
Dino Rising - Mad Mansion (Bilbao, Spain) (4)
Down the Rabbit Hole - Trapped (Upland, CA, USA) (1)
El Cóctel del Doctor (The Doctor's Cocktail) - Insomnia Corporation (Berga, Spain) (2)
El Orfanato (The Orphanage) - Fear Factory Experience (Barcelona, Spain) (1)
El Secuestro (The Kidnapping) - Cubick (Mataró, Spain) (3)
El templo de Chaak (The Temple of Chaak) - The Legend Escape Room (Mad Mansion) (Santurtzi, Spain) (2)
El Viaje Continúa (The Journey Continues) - Cronologic (Barcelona, Spain) (2)
Elixir of Mystery Youth - Elixir Mystery (Prague, Czech Republic) (1)
Enigma Mission - Enigma Mission (Budapest, Hungary) (1)
Erzsébet - Escaping Belgium (Retie, Belgium) (1)
Escape from Qurus IV - Escape Room Lititz (Lititz, PA, USA) (1)
Escape from the Red Room - SCRAP (Tokyo, Japan) (2)
Escape from the Time Travel Lab - SCRAP (San Francisco, CA, USA) (1)
Escape from the Tower - Escape Casa Loma (Toronto, ON, Canada) (1)
Escape the R.M.S. Titanic - Houdini's Escape Room Experience (Southampton, UK) (1)
Espionage - 5 Wits (Foxboro, MA, USA) (1)
Espionage - Cipher Room (Sydney, Australia) (1)
Face Off - America's Escape Game (Orlando, FL, USA) (1)
Feed the Beast (seasonal) - Panic Factory (Clarington, ON, Canada) (1)
Firefighter Rescue - Escape From The 6 (Mississauga, ON, Canada) (1)
Frankenstein: The Awakening - 60 Minute Escape (Murfreesboro, TN, USA) (2)
Fun House - Cross Roads Escape Games (Anaheim, CA, USA) (3)
Galactic Pioneers - Mind Maze (Prague, Czech Republic) (1)
Gangsters: Money, Guns and Whiskey - Maximum Escape (Barcelona, Spain) (1)
Ghost Hunter Ernie Hudson and the Wailing Woman - Skurrilum (Hamburg, Germany) (9)
Ghost Hunter Ernie Hudson and the Zoo of Death - Skurrilum (Hamburg, Germany) (4)
GhostHunters - Claustrophobia (Moscow, Russia) (2)
Ghosts of the Past - Creators Performance Quests (Moscow, Russia) (1)
Go West - The Room (Berlin, Germany) (1)
Gold Rush - The Escape Game (multiple cities, USA) (4)
Goosebumps - Dark Quest (Moscow, Russia) (1)
Grandma's Master Plan - 60out (Los Angeles, CA, USA) (1)
Gravity - Claustrophobia (Tallinn, Estonia) (1)
Guschi’s Seedy Cellar - Skurrilum (Hamburg, Germany) (1)
Haunted House - The Chamber (Prague, Czech Republic) (2)
Haunted House 2 - Poltergeist - The Chamber (Prague, Czech Republic) (1)
Haunting of Noriko - Escape Games Canada (Toronto, ON, Canada) (1)
Heaven & Hell - E-Exit (Budapest, Hungary) (1)
High Speed - Exit Escape (New York, NY, USA) (1)
Hijacked - RISE Escape Rooms (Tickfaw, LA, USA) (2)
Hotel Hello - Way Out (Pamplona, Spain) (2)
Imaginarium 1863 - TimeTrap Escape Rooms (Reading, UK) (1)
Inmortum - Inmortum Room Escape (Giranella, Spain) (2)
Insane Paranoid - Quest-Art (Moscow, Russia) (2)
Insomnia - DD (Moscow, Russia) (1)
Interview - Affect Laboratories (Tallinn, Estonia) (1)
Inventor's Attic - Escape My Room (New Orleans, LA, USA) (13)
Iron Man - Claustrophobia (Moscow, Russia) (1)
Jason's Curse - Escape Room Rijswijk (Rijswijk, Netherlands) (1)
Jazz Parlor - Escape My Room (New Orleans, LA, USA) (1)
Judgement D.A.V.E. - Bewilder Box (Brighton, UK) (1)
Judgment Day - My Escape Club (Amsterdam, Netherlands) (2)
Kamer 237 - Kamer 237 (Volkel, Netherlands) (3)
Krampus - 60out (Los Angeles, CA, USA) (1)
L.A. Confidential - Lock Academy (Paris, France) (2)
L’Avion (The Plane) - The Game (Paris, France) (3)
La Creación (The Creation) - Cronologic (Barcelona, Spain) (2)
La Entrevista (The Interview) - Cubick (Mataró and Madrid, Spain) (4)
La Estación del Ferrocarril (The Railway Station) - Xkapa (Santander, Spain) (2)
La Fortuna de los Addams (The Fortune of the Addams) - Addams House Escape Room (Barcelona, Spain) (1)
La Joya de Takum (The Jewel of Takum) - Arcadia Escape Room Sevilla (Sevilla, Spain) (1)
La Lettre d’Einstein (Einstein's Letter) - Le Passage (Bordeaux, France) (2)
La Mina (The Mine) - Unreal Room Escape (Barcelona, Spain) (5)
Lab Rat - Hatch Escapes (Los Angeles, CA, USA) (16)
Last Adventure of Indiana Jones - Escape Arena (Bucharest, Romania) (1)
Legend of the Sword - Wyjście Awaryjne (Warsaw, Poland) (1)
Limitless - Komnata Quest (New York, NY, USA) (1)
Little Devil's Revenge - Storm Island (Beijing, China) (1)
Looking for the Dragon in Brocade - Dream Trail Super Chamber (Beijing, China) (1)
Loop - Clockwork Dog/The Panic Room (London/Gravesend, UK) (2)
Lord of the Rings (Mines of Moria) - 60 Minutes (Bucharest, Romania) (1)
Lost in the Forest - AtmoQuest (Moscow, Russia) (1)
Lost Tomb - Extremescape (Disley, UK) (3)
M.A.R.V.O. Induction - Marvo Mysteries (Bournemouth, UK) (3)
Magic Kingdom - Maze Rooms (Los Angeles, CA, USA) (2)
Marlowe Hotel - Cipher Room (Sydney, Australia) (1)
Maze of Hakaina - Komnata Quest (New York, NY, USA) (3)
Medieval Dungeon - The Chamber (Prague, Czech Republic) (2)
Merchant Vaults - History Mystery (Norfolk, UK) (1)
Midnight Killer MK II - Piwnica Quest (Wroclaw, Poland) (1)
Mission #53 - The Padlock (Prague, Czech Republic) (1)
Mission B-618 Voronej - A Maze in Game (Lyon, France) (2)
Moorder (Murder) - Golden Pop (Barcelona, Spain) (1)
Mr. Wong's Restaurant - The Perfect Escape (Arlington, TX, USA) (1)
Murdoch Mysteries Escape Game: The Secret of Station House No. 4 - Secret City Adventures (Toronto, ON, Canada) (1)
Museum Heist - Wicked Escapes (Saugus, CA, USA) (1)
Museum Robbery - GetOut (Riga, Latvia) (1)
Mutiny - Tulleys Escape Rooms (Crawley, UK) (2)
Mystery of the Magician's Study - Boxaroo (Boston, MA, USA) (1)
Nave Ulysses (Ulysses Spaceship) - Maximum Escape (Barcelona, Spain) (1)
Neptune's Curse - Hidden in Hamburg (Hamburg, Germany) (1)*
Occam's Apartment - Evil Genius (Los Angeles, CA, USA) (2)
Official SAW Escape Room - Official SAW Escape Room (Las Vegas, NV, USA) (1)
Old Father Time - The Panic Room (Gravesend, UK) (1)
Operation BlackSheep - clueQuest (London, UK) (1)
Ouija - Horror Box (Barcelona, Spain) (1)
Over the Falls - Escape City Buffalo (Buffalo, NY, USA) (1)
PC Security - Hydre (Lyon, France) (1)
Pirate Cave - Pirate Cave Escape Room (Budapest, Hungary) (1)
Playground - The Escape Game (multiple cities, USA) (2)
Pop Star's Room of Doom - SCRAP (San Francisco, CA, USA) (1)
Poppa Plock's Wonky Workshop - Handmade Mysteries (London, UK) (2)
Professor Dunstan and the Search for the Ancient Statuette - Co-Decode (Swindon, UK) (2)
Project Delta - Archimedes Inspiration (London, UK) (3)
Red Giant - Quest Room (Los Angeles, CA, USA) (4)
Refugio 27 - Maximum Escape (Barcelona, Spain) (2)
Rembrandt's Secret Studio - Escape Room Leiden (Leiden, Netherlands) (1)
Remote Chance - Quadra Escape (San Jose, CA, USA) (1)
Resident Evil: Mansion - Dread Games (Moscow, Russia) (1)
Revenge of the Sheep - clueQuest (London, UK) (2)
Révolte à la Lock (Revolt at the Lock) - Lock Academy (Paris, France) (1)
Rise of the Machines - Claustrophobia (Moscow, Russia) (1)
Roomanji - Illusium (Mataró, Spain) (1)
Sáhara (Sahara) - Escapeleku (Vitoria, Spain) (1)
Sal's Chop Shop - Narrow Escape (Granbury, TX, USA) (1)
Sanatorium: El Orígen (Sanatorium: Origin) - Sanatorium (Alicante, Spain) (2)
Santa Muerte - E-Exit (Budapest, Hungary) (1)
Sasquatch - Escape the Netherworld (Stone Mountain, GA, USA) (2)
Saw - Claustrophobia (Moscow, Russia) (1)
Shelter R - Brooklyn Escape (New York, NY, USA) (1)
Sherlocked - Locked Zgz (Zaragoza, Spain) (2)
Silent Hell - Quest Street (Moscow, Russia) (1)
Smugglers Den - Escape My Room (New Orleans, LA, USA) (1)
Smugglers Tunnels - Escape Chronicles (Los Angeles, CA, USA) (1)
SOS - Escape Boats Dublin (Dublin, Ireland) (1)
Space Bus - EscapeSF (San Francisco, CA, USA) (1)
Special Ops - The Escape Game (multiple cities, USA) (1)
Spellbound - RISE Escape Rooms (Tickfaw, LA, USA) (8)
Startup Escape - Startup Escape (San Francisco, CA, USA) (1)
Stash House - Stash House (Los Angeles, CA, USA) (14)
Submarine Bunker - Escape Rush (Brussels, Belgium) (1)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Viy (Moscow, Russia) (1)
The AI - Exit Game (Monterey Park, CA, USA) (1)
The Alchemist - Escape Room LA (Los Angeles, CA, USA) (1)
The Amsterdam Catacombs - Logic Locks (Amsterdam, Netherlands) (5)
The Architect - Sherlocked (Amsterdam, Netherlands) (2)
The Asylum Revealed - Mystery House (Valkenburg, Netherlands) (1)
The Blind Pig - Murfreesboro Escape Rooms (Murfreesboro, TN, USA) (2)
The Celestial Chain - Time Run (London, UK) (9)
The Clinic - The Crux Niagara (Niagara Falls, ON, Canada) (1)
The Clock Tower - Escape The Room (multiple cities, USA) (8)
The Courtyard - The Basement (Los Angeles, CA, USA) (3)
The Cutting Room - Locked In Edinburgh (Edinburgh, UK) (2)
The Daltons' Escape - Escape Prod (Brussels, Belgium) (1)
The Diner - Quicksand Escape Games (San Diego, CA, USA) (1)
The Dome - Escape Room Nederland (Bunschoten, Netherlands) (1)
The Edison Escape Room - Palace Games (San Francisco, CA, USA) (14)
The Egyptian Tomb - Escape Room Mystery (King of Prussia, PA, USA) (1)
The Elevator Shaft - The Basement (Los Angeles, CA, USA) (3)
The Escape - Unlockables (San Diego, CA, USA) (1)
The Exam - Abduction (Badalona, Spain) (3)
The Experiment - The Great Escape (Zwolle, Netherlands) (3)
The Forbidden Game - Hidden in Hamburg (Hamburg, Germany) (1)
The Girl's Room - Escape Room Nederland (Bunschoten, Netherlands) (5)
The Golden Skull - Hidden in Hamburg (Hamburg, Germany) (2)
The Great Houdini Escape Room - Palace Games (San Francisco, CA, USA) (4)
The Great Room - 13th Hour Escape Rooms (Wharton, NJ, USA) (2)
The Heist - Guess HQ (Vancouver, BC, Canada) (1)
The Hex Room - Cross Roads Escape Games (Anaheim, CA, USA) (4)
The Honeymoon Hotel - Escape Challenge (now DarkPark) (Zoetermeer, Netherlands) (2)
The Illusionist / Houdini's Academy - Claustrophobia (Paris, France and Moscow, Russia) (1)
The Inventor's Paradox - Enter the Imaginarium (Pittsburgh, PA, USA) (1)
The Laboratory - Escape Room Nederland (Bunschoten, Netherlands) (1)
The Lance of Longinus - Time Run (London, UK) (10)
The Last Order - Mission Sydney (Sydney, Australia) (1)
The Legend of Atlantis - Gatlin's Escape Games / Backstage Escape Games (Gatlinburg, TN / Myrtle Beach, SC, USA) (1)
The Lost Treasure of Alexander Humboldt - The Room (Berlin, Germany) (11)
The Man From Beyond - Strange Bird Immersive (Houston, TX, USA) (10)
The Master of Time - Hidden in Hamburg (Hamburg, Germany) (3)
The Mayan Temple - Captured LV (Bethlehem, PA, USA) (1)
The Metro - The Game (Paris, France) (2)
The Pit - The Escapement (Margate, UK) (1)
The Prestige - MoviEscape (Budapest, Hungary) (1)
The Prison Cell - The Great Escape (Zwolle, Netherlands) (1)
The Puppeteer - Final Escape (Berlin, Germany) (1)
The Pyramid - Escape Room LA (Los Angeles, CA, USA) (1)
The Roosevelt Escape Room - Palace Games (San Francisco, CA, USA) (5)
The Secret Lab - Locked In Edinburgh (Edinburgh, UK) (4)
The Shaft (seasonal) - Escape Maze (Peterborough, ON, Canada) (1)
The Skull Witch - Enchambered (Sacramento, CA, USA) (1)
The Space Program - Escape Room Buffalo (Buffalo, NY, USA) (1)
The Sparrow Files - Epic Team Adventures (Seattle, WA, USA) (1)
The Storykeeper - Locurio (Seattle, WA, USA) (6)
The Study - The Basement (Los Angeles, CA, USA) (2)
The Submarine - Escape The Room (multiple cities, USA) (1)
The Theater - Escape The Room (multiple cities, USA) (1)
The Unknown - Escape Games Canada (Toronto, ON, Canada) (1)
The Vanished Carnivale - Orz Escape (Melbourne, Australia) (1)
The Vanishing Act - Locurio (Seattle, WA, USA) (6)
The Vault - Sherlocked (Amsterdam, Netherlands) (8)
The Whispering Halls - Enchambered (Sacramento, CA, USA) (2)
The Wizard Four and the Book of Black Arts - Escaparium (Montreal, QC, Canada) (2)
Time Chasers - trap't (Stamford, CT, USA) (1)
Tomb of Anubis - 13th Gate Escape (Baton Rouge, LA, USA) (9)
Transformer - Geksa (Moscow, Russia) (1)
Treasure of Pacari - Liveminds Adventure Escape (Franklin, TN, USA) (1)
Très Cher Lock (Little Miss Lock) - Lock Academy (Paris, France) (1)
Truth of Osaka High - Mayze (Toronto, ON, Canada) (1)
Tyranno Industries - Escaparium (Montreal, QC, Canada) (2)
Un Caso Perdido (A Lost Case) - Action House (Madrid, Spain) (2)
Until Dawn - La Clau Escape Room (Barcelona, Spain) (2)
Utopia - Riddle Room (Minneapolis, MN, USA) (1)
Virus Outbreak: The Final Hour - Omescape (Scarborough, ON, Canada) (3)
Viy - Viy (Moscow, Russia) (1)
Vortex Past - Sauve Qui Peut (Saint Jean Sur Richilieu, QC, Canada) (1)
White Mission - Gozsdu Mission (Budapest, Hungary) (2)
World of Illusions - Maze Rooms (Los Angeles, CA, USA) (1)
Xperiment - Insomnia Corporation (Berga, Spain) (1)
Zoe - Escapade Games (Fullerton, CA, USA) (2)

Phase 1 Company Results

2018 Phase 1 Company Results

The following 111* companies were nominated by at least one person in Phase 1. The number of independent nominations is shown in parentheses. Companies with two or more nominations moved on to Phase 2 and are shown in bold. This list should explicitly not be taken to be a meaningful ranking, as the geographic distribution of the participants was not uniform.

* Originally we announced 114 nominees, but some were later found not to have been eligible and were subsequently removed.

13th Gate Escape (Baton Rouge, LA, USA) (18)
13th Hour Escape Rooms (Wharton, NJ, USA) (3)
5 Wits (Foxboro, MA, USA and others) (3)
60out (Los Angeles, CA, USA) (3)
Abduction (Badalona, Spain) (2)
Adventures in Time and Space (Champaign-Urbana, IL, USA) (1)
Archimedes Inspiration (London, UK) (2)
Bewilder Box (Brighton, UK) (1)
Boda Borg (multiple cities, Sweden, USA, and others) (1)
Boxaroo (Boston, MA, USA) (1)
Captured LV (Bethlehem, PA, USA) (1)
Cipher Room (Sydney, Australia) (2)
Claustrophobia (Moscow, Russia and others) (8)
Clue Carre (New Orleans, LA, USA) (1)
clueQuest (London, UK) (3)
Cronologic (Barcelona, Spain) (2)
Cross Roads Escape Games (Anaheim, CA, USA) (6)
Crypto Escape Rooms (Newmarket, ON, Canada) (1)
Cubick (Mataró and Madrid, Spain) (4)
E-Exit (Budapest, Hungary) (1)
Enchambered (Sacramento, CA, USA) (1)
Encrypted WR (Reading, PA, USA) (1)
Enter the Imaginarium (Pittsburgh, PA, USA) (1)
Escaparium (Montreal, QC, Canada and others) (5)
Escape Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain) (4)
Escape Boats Dublin (Dublin, Ireland) (1)
Escape Challenge (now DarkPark) (Delft and Zoetermeer, Netherlands) (2)
Escape Chronicles (Los Angeles, CA, USA) (1)
Escape City Buffalo (Buffalo, NY, USA) (1)
Escape Era (San Diego, CA, USA) (1)
Escape From The 6 (Mississauga, ON, Canada) (1)
Escape Games Canada (Toronto, ON, Canada) (1)
Escape Goat (Winter Garden, FL, USA) (1)
Escape My Room (New Orleans, LA, USA) (15)
Escape Room LA (Los Angeles, CA, USA) (1)
Escape Room Lititz (Lititz, PA, USA) (1)
Escape Room Mystery (King of Prussia, PA, USA) (1)
Escape Room Nederland (Bunschoten, Netherlands) (5)
Escape Room Rijswijk (Rijswijk, Netherlands) (1)
Escape the Netherworld (Atlanta, GA, USA) (2)
Escape The Room (New York, NY, USA and others) (3)
Escapem (Sabadell, Spain) (2)
Escaping Belgium (Retie, Belgium) (1)
Escapologic (Nottingham/Leicester, UK) (2)
Evil Genius (Los Angeles, CA, USA) (1)
Exit Escape (New York, NY, USA) (1)
Extremescape (Disley, UK) (1)
Find the Key (Montreal, QC, Canada) (1)
Gatlin's Escape Games (Gatlinburg, TN, USA) (1)
GetOut (Riga, Latvia) (1)
Golden Pop (Barcelona, Spain) (2)
Gozsdu Mission (Budapest, Hungary) (1)
Guess HQ (Vancouver, BC, Canada) (2)
Hidden in Hamburg (Hamburg, Germany) (5)
Horror Box (Barcelona, Spain) (2)
Hydre (Lyon, France) (1)
Insomnia Corporation (Berga, Spain) (2)
Komnata Quest (New York, NY, USA and others) (2)
L'Atelier des Énigmes (Annecy, France) (1)
La Clau Room Escape (Barcelona, Spain) (2)
Liveminds Adventure Escape (Franklin, TN, USA) (1)
Lock Academy (Paris and Toulouse, France) (2)
Locked in Edinburgh (Edinburgh, UK) (2)
Locked Zgz (Zaragoza, Spain) (2)
Locurio (Seattle, WA, USA) (10)
Logic Locks (Amsterdam, Netherlands) (1)
Mad Mansion (Bilbao, Spain) (4)
Maximum Escape (Barcelona, Spain) (3)
Maze Rooms (Los Angeles, CA, USA) (2)
Mission Escape (New York, NY, USA and others) (2)
Mission Sydney (Sydney, Australia) (1)
Mystery House (Valkenburg, Netherlands) (1)
Mystery Motel (Ottawa, ON, Canada) (1)
Next Level Escape Room Eindhoven (Eindhoven, Netherlands) (1)
Omescape (multiple cities, Canada, USA, UK, and others) (2)
Palace Games (San Francisco, CA, USA) (14)
Paradiso (New York, NY, USA) (1)
ROX Escape Experience (formerly Project Escape) (Nijmegen, Netherlands) (1)
Quest Club (Moscow, Russia) (1)
Quest Room (Los Angeles, CA, USA) (3)
Quest Street (Moscow, Russia) (1)
Quest-Art (Moscow, Russia) (1)
Quicksand Escape Games (San Diego, CA, USA) (1)
RISE Escape Rooms (Tickfaw, LA, USA) (9)
Sauve Qui Peut (Montreal, QC, Canada and others) (1)
SCRAP (multiple cities, Japan, Canada, USA, and others) (2)
Secret City Adventures (Toronto, ON, Canada) (1)
Sherlocked (Amsterdam, Netherlands) (7)
Skurrilum (Hamburg, Germany) (10)
Teorema Escape Rooms (Sofia, Bulgaria) (1)
The Basement (Los Angeles, CA, USA) (8)
The Chamber (Prague, Czech Republic) (3)
The Crux (Niagara Falls, ON, Canada and others) (5)
The Escape Game (Nashville, TN, USA and others) (6)
The Escapement (Margate, UK) (1)
The Game (Paris, France) (4)
The Great Escape (Zwolle, Netherlands) (1)
The Hostel (Bordeaux, France) (1)
The Padlock (Prague, Czech Republic) (1)
The Panic Room (Gravesend, UK) (1)
The Perfect Escape (Arlington, TX, USA) (1)
The Room (Berlin, Germany) (10)
Time Run (London, UK) (12)
TimeTrap Escape Rooms (Reading, UK) (1)
Tulleys Escape Rooms (Crawley, UK) (3)
Unreal Room Escape (Barcelona, Spain) (2)
Viy (Moscow, Russia) (1)
Wicked Escapes (Saugus, MA, USA) (2)
Wyjście Awaryjne (Warsaw, Poland) (1)
Xkapa (Santander, Spain) (2)
Zagadkownia (Warsaw, Poland) (1)

Phase 2 Room Results

2018 Phase 2 Room Results

The final room rankings from Phase 2 are shown below. Score is the final output of the analysis. Players is the number of players that ranked that room. Coverage is the number of other rooms in the list that were directly compared to that room by at least one player. Comps is the total number of comparisons made between that room and all other rooms by all players. The top 25 rooms have been awarded a TERPECA for Best Room and are shown in bold.

Note that, as described in the Methodology section, while this data is interesting, we do not claim for this to be the authoritative list of the top 102 rooms in the world, as rooms lower on the list would not necessarily have been ranked this high if other rooms that had zero or one nomination had made it to Phase 2.

Note that the rankings in this list have slightly changed from what was originally announced, due to an issue that was discovered and corrected in the voting data shortly after the awards ceremony.

Much later it was discovered that due to an error in manual tabulation, one room accidentally made it through to Phase 2 with only one nomination and is marked with an asterisk below.

Rank
Room
Score
Players
Coverage
Comps
1
Ghost Hunter Ernie Hudson and the Wailing Woman - Skurrilum (Hamburg, Germany)
0.165801
12
88
350
2
Cutthroat Cavern - 13th Gate Escape (Baton Rouge, LA, USA)
0.145812
19
60
482
3
The Man From Beyond - Strange Bird Immersive (Houston, TX, USA)
0.143760
12
59
402
4
The Amsterdam Catacombs - Logic Locks (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
0.139643
7
67
170
5
The Lost Treasure of Alexander Humboldt - The Room (Berlin, Germany)
0.135570
17
87
356
6
The Edison Escape Room - Palace Games (San Francisco, CA, USA)
0.134678
24
63
524
7
The Vault - Sherlocked (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
0.131272
17
83
325
8
Lab Rat - Hatch Escapes (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
0.129165
27
85
642
9
The Lance of Longinus - Time Run (London, UK)
0.127244
28
86
626
10
Ghost Hunter Ernie Hudson and the Zoo of Death - Skurrilum (Hamburg, Germany)
0.122259
9
67
276
11
Catacumbas (Catacombs) - Golden Pop (Barcelona, Spain)
0.118719
2
21
42
12
An Avalanche of Oblivion - Claustrophobia (Escaldes Engordany, Andorra)
0.118427
5
48
116
13
The Secret Lab - Locked In Edinburgh (Edinburgh, UK)
0.116640
4
39
110
14
The Storykeeper - Locurio (Seattle, WA, USA)
0.116550
12
53
319
15
Stash House - Stash House (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
0.116049
27
69
613
16
The Girl's Room - Escape Room Nederland (Bunschoten, Netherlands)
0.114454
9
70
167
17
Atlantis - Teorema Escape Rooms (Sofia, Bulgaria)
0.114273
2
29
30
18
Alien: El Orígen (Alien: Origin) - Escape Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain)
0.114190
4
29
88
19
Insane Paranoid - Quest-Art (Moscow, Russia)
0.113838
4
46
130
20
The Honeymoon Hotel - Escape Challenge (now DarkPark) (Zoetermeer, Netherlands)
0.113254
5
64
140
21
La Entrevista (The Interview) - Cubick (Mataró and Madrid, Spain)
0.113083
8
55
153
22
Alice in Nightmareland - Claustrophobia (Moscow, Russia)
0.112854
5
48
165
23
Tomb of Anubis - 13th Gate Escape (Baton Rouge, LA, USA)
0.112668
24
61
549
24
De Ramkraak (The Ram Raid) - ROX Escape Experience (formerly Project Escape) (Nijmegen, Netherlands)
0.111958
5
33
119
25
Frankenstein - 60 Minute Escape (Murfreesboro, TN, USA)
0.111128
3
43
100
26
Inventor's Attic - Escape My Room (New Orleans, LA, USA)
0.110396
22
61
505
27
El Secuestro (The Kidnapping) - Cubick (Mataró, Spain)
0.106728
5
48
116
28
Dino Rising - Mad Mansion (Bilbao, Spain)
0.106215
5
48
116
29
Mission B-618 Voronej - A Maze in Game (Lyon, France)
0.106134
2
16
24
30*
Neptune's Curse - Hidden in Hamburg (Hamburg, Germany)
0.105283
5
62
176
31
The Cutting Room - Locked In Edinburgh (Edinburgh, UK)
0.104814
2
30
60
32
The Exam - Abduction (Badalona, Spain)
0.103100
4
29
88
33
The Roosevelt Escape Room - Palace Games (San Francisco, CA, USA)
0.102797
22
62
475
34
The Wizard Four and the Book of Black Arts - Escaparium (Montreal, QC, Canada)
0.102684
2
5
6
35
Until Dawn - La Clau Escape Room (Barcelona, Spain)
0.102376
4
29
88
36
Sanatorium: El Orígen (Sanatorium: Origin) - Sanatorium (Alicante, Spain)
0.102181
2
21
42
37
Catalepsia (Catalepsy) - Horror Box (Barcelona, Spain)
0.101710
4
29
88
38
The Celestial Chain - Time Run (London, UK)
0.101684
24
87
552
39
La Mina (The Mine) - Unreal Room Escape (Barcelona, Spain)
0.101128
9
63
180
40
The Experiment - The Great Escape (Zwolle, Netherlands)
0.100967
3
43
85
41
L’Avion (The Plane) - The Game (Paris, France)
0.100719
5
37
129
42
Hotel Hello - Way Out (Pamplona, Spain)
0.100280
3
41
70
43
Kamer 237 - Kamer 237 (Volkel, Netherlands)
0.100152
5
33
119
44
Un Caso Perdido (A Lost Case) - Action House (Madrid, Spain)
0.100006
7
50
137
45
L.A. Confidential - Lock Academy (Paris, France)
0.099798
3
33
46
46
Bad Clown - Escape Quest (Macclesfield, UK)
0.099769
4
31
113
47
La Estación del Ferrocarril (The Railway Station) - Xkapa (Santander, Spain)
0.099683
2
21
42
48
The Whispering Halls - Enchambered (Sacramento, CA, USA)
0.099417
16
55
385
49
Haunted House - The Chamber (Prague, Czech Republic)
0.099405
7
47
151
50
The Vanishing Act - Locurio (Seattle, WA, USA)
0.098991
24
65
560
51
Dead Air - The Crux Niagara (Niagara Falls, ON, Canada)
0.098089
18
67
309
52
The Great Houdini Escape Room - Palace Games (San Francisco, CA, USA)
0.098032
24
73
538
53
Project Delta - Archimedes Inspiration (London, UK)
0.097984
9
79
220
54
El Cóctel del Doctor (The Doctor's Cocktail) - Insomnia Corporation (Berga, Spain)
0.095534
4
29
88
55
Lost Tomb - Extremescape (Manchester, UK)
0.095491
5
39
135
56
La Lettre d’Einstein (Einstein's Letter) - Le Passage (Bordeaux, France)
0.095056
3
35
52
57
Medieval Dungeon - The Chamber (Prague, Czech Republic)
0.094930
5
33
128
58
Inmortum - Inmortum Room Escape (Giranella, Spain)
0.094216
4
29
88
59
M.A.R.V.O. Induction - Marvo Mysteries (Bournemouth, UK)
0.092693
9
66
270
60
Mutiny - Tulleys Escape Rooms (Crawley, UK)
0.092222
5
39
135
61
Professor Dunstan and the Search for the Ancient Statuette - Co-Decode (Swindon, UK)
0.091877
5
39
135
62
El Viaje Continúa (The Journey Continues) - Cronologic (Barcelona, Spain)
0.091176
5
48
116
63
Refugio 27 (Vault 27) - Maximum Escape (Barcelona, Spain)
0.090995
5
48
116
64
The Elevator Shaft - The Basement (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
0.090646
14
71
356
65
Sherlocked - Locked Zgz (Zaragoza, Spain)
0.089761
2
21
42
66
Curio - Escapologic (Nottingham/Leicester, UK)
0.088763
7
52
184
67
Crystal Maze - Crystal Maze (London, UK)
0.088713
18
71
428
68
GhostHunters - Claustrophobia (Moscow, Russia)
0.088389
7
64
228
69
The Great Room - 13th Hour Escape Rooms (Wharton, NJ, USA)
0.088307
4
43
101
70
The Courtyard - The Basement (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
0.088191
11
71
298
71
Bajo Zero (Below Zero) - Escapem (Sabadell, Spain)
0.088045
4
29
88
72
The Hex Room - Cross Roads Escape Games (Anaheim, CA, USA)
0.087667
24
69
581
73
Spellbound - RISE Escape Rooms (Tickfaw, LA, USA)
0.086621
23
60
527
74
El templo de Chaak (The Temple of Chaak) - The Legend Escape Room (Mad Mansion) (Santurtzi, Spain)
0.086565
2
21
42
75
La Creación (The Creation) - Cronologic (Barcelona, Spain)
0.085134
5
48
116
76
The Metro - The Game (Paris, France)
0.084749
5
56
124
77
Fun House - Cross Roads Escape Games (Anaheim, CA, USA)
0.084624
24
63
540
78
The Master of Time - Hidden in Hamburg (Hamburg, Germany)
0.084537
10
79
304
79
Virus Outbreak: The Final Hour - Omescape (Scarborough, ON, Canada)
0.083400
5
39
70
80
Playground - The Escape Game (Nashville, TN, USA and others)
0.082565
16
60
429
81
Tyranno Industries - Escaparium (Montreal, QC, Canada)
0.079252
7
40
74
82
The Clock Tower - Escape The Room (Boston, MA, USA and others)
0.078579
23
65
487
83
Zoe - Escapade Games (Fullerton, CA, USA)
0.078275
21
69
560
84
Magic Kingdom - Maze Rooms (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
0.075912
26
69
595
85
Blind Pig - Murfreesboro Escape Rooms (Murfreesboro, TN, USA)
0.074765
10
59
283
86
Hijacked - RISE Escape Rooms (Tickfaw, LA, USA)
0.074313
22
60
522
87
Escape from the Red Room - SCRAP (Tokyo, Japan)
0.074173
11
61
124
88
Sasquatch - Escape the Netherworld (Stone Mountain, GA, USA)
0.073706
7
54
207
89
Agent 13 - 13th Gate Escape (Baton Rouge, LA, USA)
0.073662
20
60
499
90
The Architect - Sherlocked (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
0.071745
15
82
313
91
Poppa Plock's Wonky Workshop - Handmade Mysteries (London, UK)
0.071517
10
79
298
92
Gold Rush - The Escape Game (Nashville, TN, USA and others)
0.069434
21
60
471
93
Maze of Hakaina - Komnata Quest (New York, NY, USA)
0.069391
20
69
447
94
The Golden Skull - Hidden in Hamburg (Hamburg, Germany)
0.068658
9
67
276
95
Red Giant - Quest Room (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
0.068217
28
85
641
96
Judgment Day - My Escape Club (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
0.067871
13
74
264
97
Loop - Clockwork Dog/The Panic Room (London/Gravesend, UK)
0.066331
10
68
231
98
Deep Space - 5 Wits (multiple cities, USA)
0.062290
22
74
517
99
Revenge of the Sheep - clueQuest (London, UK)
0.061504
19
86
492
100
The Study - The Basement (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
0.060261
25
80
554
101
White Mission - Gozsdu Mission (Budapest, Hungary)
0.051229
21
86
463
102
Occam's Apartment - Evil Genius (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
0.050436
29
79
639
Phase 2 Company Results

2018 Phase 2 Company Results

The final company rankings from Phase 2 are shown below. Score is the final output of the analysis. Players is the number of players that ranked that company. Coverage is the number of other companies in the list that were directly compared to that company by at least one player. Comps is the total number of comparisons made between that company and all other companies by all players. The top 10 companies have been awarded a TERPECA for Top Company and are shown in bold.

Note that, as described in the Methodology section, while this data is interesting, we do not claim for this to be the authoritative list of the top 54 companies in the world, as companies lower on the list would not necessarily have been ranked this high if other companies that had zero or one nomination had made it to Phase 2.

Rank
Company
Score
Players
Coverage
Comps
1
Skurrilum (Hamburg, Germany)
0.233079
13
48
210
2
Palace Games (San Francisco, CA, USA)
0.194130
23
34
290
3
The Room (Berlin, Germany)
0.190923
17
44
208
4
13th Gate Escape (Baton Rouge, LA, USA)
0.189503
25
33
331
5
Time Run (London, UK)
0.187710
26
45
340
6
Escape Challenge (now DarkPark) (Delft and Zoetermeer, Netherlands)
0.180530
5
40
91
7
Sherlocked (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
0.180222
16
43
186
8
Cubick (Mataró and Madrid, Spain)
0.175248
5
36
83
9
Escape My Room (New Orleans, LA, USA)
0.173986
24
33
322
10
Locurio (Seattle, WA, USA)
0.170441
13
29
193
11
Golden Pop (Barcelona, Spain)
0.168852
2
13
26
12
Archimedes Inspiration (London, UK)
0.165339
9
40
135
13
Escape Room Nederland (Bunschoten, Netherlands)
0.156085
9
39
107
14
Hidden in Hamburg (Hamburg, Germany)
0.153630
10
43
165
15
Cipher Room (Sydney, Australia)
0.145844
3
6
8
16
13th Hour Escape Rooms (Wharton, NJ, USA)
0.143847
4
27
71
17
Abduction (Badalona, Spain)
0.138683
4
20
60
18
Mad Mansion (Bilbao, Spain)
0.138153
5
36
83
19
Mission Escape (New York, NY, USA and others)
0.137498
15
39
194
20
Locked in Edinburgh (Edinburgh, UK)
0.135113
5
15
66
21
Horror Box (Barcelona, Spain)
0.135083
4
20
60
22
Tulleys Escape Rooms (Crawley, UK)
0.134311
5
15
66
23
Xkapa (Santander, Spain)
0.131295
2
13
26
24
The Crux (Niagara Falls, ON, Canada and others)
0.130815
17
39
195
25
The Escape Game (Nashville, TN, USA and others)
0.130671
22
33
273
26
Cronologic (Barcelona, Spain)
0.128726
5
36
83
27
Claustrophobia (Moscow, Russia and others)
0.127591
24
49
329
28
Escape Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain)
0.127565
5
36
83
29
RISE Escape Rooms (Tickfaw, LA, USA)
0.126572
23
33
318
30
Locked Zgz (Zaragoza, Spain)
0.125298
2
13
26
31
Cross Roads Escape Games (Anaheim, CA, USA)
0.124978
22
34
315
32
Insomnia Corporation (Berga, Spain)
0.123049
4
20
60
33
The Chamber (Prague, Czech Republic)
0.122902
9
35
100
34
The Basement (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
0.122405
26
45
358
35
The Game (Paris, France)
0.121687
8
26
96
36
Escapologic (Nottingham/Leicester, UK)
0.116632
5
15
66
37
Quest Room (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
0.116463
26
45
350
38
Unreal Room Escape (Barcelona, Spain)
0.115848
5
27
70
39
Guess HQ (Vancouver, BC, Canada)
0.114942
3
34
56
40
Maximum Escape (Barcelona, Spain)
0.114715
9
38
112
41
clueQuest (London, UK)
0.113181
21
44
289
42
Escapem (Sabadell, Spain)
0.112678
4
20
60
43
Lock Academy (Paris and Toulouse, France)
0.111265
6
28
79
44
La Clau Room Escape (Barcelona, Spain)
0.111016
4
20
60
45
Escape the Netherworld (Atlanta, GA, USA)
0.107068
7
29
123
46
60out (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
0.101936
31
35
372
47
Escaparium (Montreal, QC, Canada and others)
0.093489
9
34
74
48
5 Wits (Foxboro, MA, USA and others)
0.083826
32
40
398
49
Wicked Escapes (Saugus, MA, USA)
0.082771
10
33
168
50
SCRAP (Tokyo, Japan and others)
0.069967
35
40
413
51
Escape The Room (Boston, MA, USA and others)
0.061416
27
40
359
52
Omescape (multiple cities, Canada, USA, UK, and others)
0.059363
28
43
373
53
Maze Rooms (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
0.056311
28
46
376
54
Komnata Quest (New York, NY, USA and others)
0.053053
24
49
347
Enthusiasts

Administrators

Rich Bragg (Los Altos, CA, USA) is the primary creator of the Top Escape Rooms Project. Rich has played 567 escape rooms and 269 puzzle hunts in North America and Europe, and aspires to play a puzzle hunt and an escape room in every U.S. state, so far having played puzzle hunts in 27 and escape rooms in 14. He was a member of the Global Wildcard team in the 2017 Red Bull Escape Room World Championship, is a Guinness World Record holder for most escape rooms played in one day, and in his primary occupation, is the co-founder and CEO of ClueKeeper, a platform for creating and playing location-based clue hunts.
Errol Elumir (Toronto, ON, Canada) was the chief evangelist for the project, contributed to the web design, helped recruit enthusiasts to participate, and provided a useful sounding board throughout the project. Errol has played 240 rooms and is a co-host of the podcast Room Escape Divas, helps compile the annual Escape Room Enthusiast Survey, creates large scale theatrical escape events, creates puzzle hunts like the Cryptex Hunt, and also has 13 Rules for Escape Room Puzzle Design.

Contributors

Of course, the results of this project are of course only as good as those providing the data for both nominations and rankings, and we are so very grateful for the participation of all of the many impressively credentialed participants listed below.

Sera Dodd and Sharan Gill (London, UK) have both played 1055 rooms, making them almost certainly the two most experienced escape room players in the world. They have a staggering 99.85% escape rate, have played in 14 different countries in Europe, and once played 615 games in a single year. Both were members of Team UK in the 2017 Red Bull Escape Room World Championship and have already qualified to represent the UK again in 2018/19. Sera also runs the UK Escape Room Industry Conference, works part time as a UX and design consultant for a couple of the most popular escape room companies in the UK, was a speaker at Up the Game in 2017 and 2018, is an admin of the UK Escape Room Owners Facebook group, is a moderator on the UK Escape Room Enthusiasts Group, and was a huge help in recruiting some of the most experienced European participants for this project. In her spare time, she's a doctor.
Amanda Harris and Drew Nelson (SF Bay Area, CA, USA) have played 925 and 737 rooms, respectively, making them likely the two most experienced escape room players in North America. Amanda is also a Guinness World Record holder for most escape rooms played in one day.
Josep and Eulàlia (Barcelona, Spain) have both played 870 rooms, making them likely the most experienced escape room players in continental Europe. With an amazing 99% escape rate, they started playing escape rooms in January 2014 in Barcelona, and the vast majority of the games they've played have been in Spain (856). They run the blog Die Helden where they rank all the escape rooms they have played, and they also own a Facebook page and an Instagram profile where they disseminate all kinds of information related to the Spanish escape room community.
Ken Ferguson (London, UK) has played 702 rooms and runs The Logic Escapes Me, an escape room review blog covering the UK and Europe, as well as Exit Games UK, a directory, map, and news site for UK games. He was a member of Team UK in the 2017 Red Bull Escape Room World Championship and is on the design team for the 2019 competition, and was a speaker at both the UK and European escape room conferences in 2017 and 2018. Ken was also very helpful in recruiting more participants for this project from the European enthusiast community and provided lots of useful input throughout the project.
Nick Schilbe (San Jose, CA, USA) has played 672 rooms, mostly in Russia. Also known as BeefyPanda, Nick is the owner of Off The Couch Games in Santa Clara, CA.
David and Lisa Spira (New York, NY, USA) have both played over 650 rooms, publish about escape rooms daily at RoomEscapeArtist.com, launched in 2014, and were on the nomination panel for the USA Today 10 Best Escape Rooms in 2017 and 2018. They keep an updated directory of escape room companies in the United States and run Escape Immerse Explore, group tours to some of the country's best escape rooms, including many Phase 2 finalists... and contrary to popular assumption, they also have day jobs.
Clarisa Doval (Hamburg, Germany) has played over 500 rooms, making her possibly the most experienced escape room player in Germany, and one of the top few in continental Europe.
Hazel Ferguson (London, UK) has played 495 rooms, and yet still considers herself a novice. She's the long-suffering wife of Ken Ferguson and spends much of her spare time editing his terrible writing on The Logic Escapes Me.
Dan Egnor (Palo Alto, CA, USA) has played 489 rooms and is a Guinness World Record holder for most escape rooms played in one day. He was also the creator and maintainer of the now defunct, but much beloved, Escape Room Directory, and contributed to the design and production of The Edison Room at Palace Games in San Francisco, a Phase 2 finalist in this project.
Toby Powell (London, UK) has played over 450 rooms, runs the escape game review site Escape the Review, and has personally reviewed escape games in 20 different countries.
Summer Herrick (Seattle, WA, USA) has played 434 rooms, is co-owner of Locurio, a Seattle escape room company that was a Phase 2 finalist in both categories in this project, and was a speaker at the 2018 Transworld Room Escape Conference.
Jonathan McCue (Seattle, WA, USA) has played 419 rooms and is a co-owner of ClueKeeper, a platform for creating and playing location-based clue hunts. He believes that among the crazy, hopelessly addicted escape room enthusiasts he surrounds himself with, he is the sane one. Jonathan also provided valuable input in the data analysis phase of this project in determining the best approach to provide a fair, unbiased, and mathematically sound methodology for using individual stack ranks to generate a meaningful global ranking.
Jennifer Geske (Portland, OR, USA) has played 420 rooms and is co-owner of Epic Team Adventures, a highly regarded escape room company in Seattle, Washington.
Melanie Vives and Melissa Faucher (Paris, France) have both played 420 rooms and are contributors to Escape Game Paris, an escape room directory and review site for France and beyond. Melanie also creates escape game books for adults and children that are published throughout Europe.
Ana Ulin (Palo Alto, CA, USA) has played over 400 rooms and is a Guinness World Record holder for most escape rooms played in one day. She posts about a variety of topics at anaulin.org.
Kiki (Los Altos, CA, USA) has played 397 rooms, but still doesn't consider herself a "real" enthusiast. As Rich's wife, she regularly enables his escape room addiction. She also provided a tremendous amount of support and feedback throughout this project.
Victor Es and Maria Jose (Barcelona, Spain) have both played over 390 rooms, own and run the escape room blog room-escapers.com with their team, El Quinto Elemento, and manage the Room Escapers Facebook group for over 3,000 enthusiasts in Spain.
Mike Yuan (Toronto, ON, Canada) has played over 350 rooms, runs Escape Games Review, a Toronto-focused escape room review site, and is a co-host of Room Escape Divas, a popular escape room podcast.
Wei-Hwa Huang (San Jose, CA, USA) has played 349 rooms, was a member of the Global Wildcard team in the 2017 Red Bull Escape Room World Championship, and is a puzzle consultant for the 2019 competition. As an award-winning game designer and four-time World Puzzle Champion, Wei-Hwa's accomplishments are enough to warrant his own Wikipedia page. He also contributed directly to this project by suggesting various approaches to consider for the data analysis including the one that led to the ultimately chosen approach.
Jonathan Driscoll (Montreal, QC, Canada) has played 325 rooms and owns and runs Escaparium, an escape room company in Quebec, Canada that was a Phase 2 finalist in both categories in this project.
Trisha Huang (San Jose, CA, USA) has played over 250 rooms, around 100 of which were played while pregnant with twins.
Jeff Carter (Dallas, TX, USA) has played 235 rooms and serves as a reviewer for Escape Authority.
Heiner Stepen (Munich, Germany) has played 212 rooms and runs the escape room community The Munich Escape Plan on Facebook as well as meetup groups for escape room enthusiasts in Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich.
scrabble (Toronto, ON, Canada) has played hundreds of rooms and runs awesome online puzzle hunts for his friends on Slack in his spare time.
Lindsay Froelich (Jersey City, NJ, US) has played 200 rooms across seven countries and four continents. She caught the room escape bug in 2014 in the very same game as David Spira of Room Escape Artist (her former graduate school classmate). She keeps a low profile in the community because when she isn't playing with REA, she regularly plays with the most obnoxious two dudes in the room escape scene, and their escapades are embarrassing for all involved (but fun, so fun).
Alex and Stefan (Linz, Austria) have both played over 180 rooms and run the escape room blog Two Bears' Life.
Manda Whitney (Toronto, ON, Canada) has played over 180 rooms and is a co-host of Room Escape Divas, a popular escape room podcast. She has also done narrative design for three large scale escape events, including the first one in North America to be done on a moving train.
johnpdx (Portland, OR, USA) has played 180 rooms and runs EscapeRoomer, a Portland-focused escape room blog.
Edwin T (Calgary, AB, Canada) has played 170 rooms and owns a highly regarded escape room company in Calgary.
Theresa Wagner (Rockaway, NJ, USA) has played 164 rooms across 6 countries since her first room 14 months ago. She likes numbers, clearly.
Bill Chang (Irvine, CA, USA) has played 155 rooms and is the admin at Room Escape Problems on Facebook.
Brett Kuehner (Old Tappan, NJ, USA) has played 130 rooms and has designed several highly regarded escape rooms, including one Phase 2 finalist in this project.
Pim Arts (The Netherlands) has played 120 rooms and runs escapetalk.nl, an escape room enthusiast community serving The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg.
James Cobalt (Boston, MA, USA) has played 120-ish rooms (subject to your own personal game-counting rules and restrictions) across Europe and North America. Before recklessly spending his time and money on such frivolous distractions, he used to develop interactive experiences and story-driven puzzle hunts in the Boston area. Today he is nearly destitute.
Chris White (Flowood, MS, USA) has played 110 rooms and has spent more money then he'd like to admit supporting his addiction.
David Eiges (Los Angeles, CA, USA) has played 100 rooms and is spoiled by the quality of the average escape room in his home city.
Paige Kasper (Campbell, CA, USA) has played 100 rooms and while she doesn't own an escape room company herself, she took a group of friends to their first escape room, got them hooked, and they ended up starting their own room escape business.
Salem Ghoweri (Boston, MA, USA) has played 92 rooms and unsurprisingly, his favorite shade of blue is cobalt.
Sarah Willson (Los Angeles, CA, USA) has played 88 rooms and serves as the Los Angeles event correspondent for RoomEscapeArtist.com.
David Lewis (Cleburne, TX, USA) has played 68 rooms and was/is the technical support guru for both the Cryptex Hunt and the Escape Rooms Slack.
Brendan Dubbels and Brittany Napier (Santa Barbara, CA, USA) have both played over 60 rooms and are the co-founders of The Escape Base, an escape room review platform currently serving Southern California that intends to become the Yelp for escape rooms.
Charlene Clark (Andover, MA, USA) has played 60 rooms and helps to operate egressors.com and its local ER passport serving the New England area. She has also participated in 17 MIT Mystery Hunts and helped to run/write two of them.
Ben Rosner (Brooklyn, NY, USA) has played 56 rooms, netting those companies an estimated profit of well over $1000.
Greg deBeer (Oakland, CA, USA) has played 50 rooms and co-owns Trivium Games, a soon-to-open and eagerly awaited escape room company in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Anthony Hoover (Bethlehem, PA, USA) has played 50 rooms and owns Cypher House Escape, a company that makes escape room board games.
N (Bay Area, CA, USA) has played 40 rooms, and considers himself an aspiring enthusiast.
Owen Halpert (Santa Monica, CA, USA) has played 35 rooms, and at age 17, was the youngest participant in the project.
Sim (London, UK and Sydney, Australia) has played 26 rooms and occasionally works at Locked In a Room in the UK as IT Minion (and Avatar of Chaos).
Chris M. Dickson (London, UK) has had a major impact on the escape room industry by starting the first English-language escape room blog in the Northern Hemisphere, Exit Games UK (now run by Ken Ferguson), and then following that up with another escape room blog, Ex Exit Games UK. Chris was also a member of the UK team at the World Puzzle Championship twice and its captain once.
Finally, we would like to thank the various members of the Escape Rooms Slack that made suggestions, gave feedback, and otherwise generally supported this project from its inception and helped in any way possible.

Note that the rooms played total for each person mentioned in this section were all self-reported in early November 2018, and there is no clear consensus as to what people do and don't count as a room towards their total.

Press

Press

Looking for more analysis and discussion on the TERPECAs? Check out the following sites:

Room Escape Artist offered some great analysis and detailed discussion about the project and its merits.
The Logic Escapes Me analyzed the winners in Europe and included a great interactive map of all of the winners worldwide.
Room Escape Divas talked to Rich on their podcast and got the inside scoop on how the project started and evolved.
Escape Room Tips provided some commentary on the project and links to the games they've reviewed among the winners.
Escape Rumors also provided some insight on the project and links to the games they've reviewed among the winners.
escapetalk.nl highlighted the project in their weekly roundup covering escape room news in the Netherlands and Europe.
No Proscenium interviewed Rich about how the project was conceived and what he looks for in an escape room.
The project was named to the inaugural Niche 100, which celebrates the most creative and compelling niche brands online today.
For Your Website

Download Logos

If your room or company is a TERPECA honoree or if you are a journalist or blogger writing about the project, please feel free to download these logos, subject to the usage guidelines listed below the logos.

Usage Guidelines

  • Journalists and bloggers are free to use any of the logos in support of their TERPECA-related content.
  • Rooms and companies may only use logos associated with the status they've achieved. The Top Room, Top Online Room, and Top Company logos (and any modified logo with the "ribbon" design) are for only the official TERPECA winners, i.e. those who specifically won a Top Room, Top Online Room, or Top Company award. Finalist logos are only for rooms and companies that advanced to Phase 2 of the project. Nominee logos are only for rooms and companies that received a nomination.
  • Minor modifications to a logo that has been earned by a room or company is acceptable, provided that any modifications do not misrepresent the placement of a room or company, do not remove the year of the award, and do not misrepresent the goals or spirit of the project in general.
  • Use of the TERPECA logo that suggests an affiliation with TERPECA that does not exist, or that suggests a room or company has won an award it did not win is strictly prohibited.
  • If you're unsure of your usage, please contact us first at admin@terpeca.com.
Contact

Contact

If you have any questions about this project, or if you are a well-traveled escape room enthusiast that has played 200 or more rooms and would like to participate in this project in the future, contact Rich Bragg at rich@terpeca.com.

You can also like and follow us on Facebook for future announcements about the project.