The Great Escape

A trend rising in popularity, escape rooms require participants to use team up and use their wits to solve larger-than-life puzzles. The ultimate goal, of course, being to escape a locked room, escapees thrive on the challenge an elaborately designed escape room poses, solving puzzle after puzzle until freedom is finally within reach.

The first escape room opened its doors in 2007 in Japan. Its designers were inspired by the escape-themed video games that took the gaming world by storm in the early 2000s. Today, there are over 50,000 escape rooms worldwide, a figure that continues to increase at a surprisingly rapid rate. In America alone, the number of escape rooms quadrupled from 2015 to 2017. While Americans love to engage in adventurous escapades, Europe has three times as many escape rooms as the United States, even boasting more escape rooms than the hobby’s home continent of Asia.

Escape room themes range from cute and funny to genuinely terrifying. Some of the most common escape room themes include the zombie apocalypse, bank robberies, and jailbreaks. However, many escape rooms hope to give their customers a unique experience with themes such as cats, car theft, and horror movies. The duration of the escape room experience also varies from venue to venue. The world’s briefest escape room gives participants only five minutes to escape while the longest takes approximately three hours to complete.

Many businesses utilize escape rooms as a fun way to increase cooperation among employees. Because most escape rooms include too many puzzles for only one person to solve, teamwork is essential to success. Escape rooms encourage coworkers to sharpen communication strategies and form stronger interpersonal bonds, making escape-room outings a favorite for countless HR departments.

If you feel trapped in the humdrum of your daily routine, an escape room may make the perfect exit for you!