Escape Room Trends For 2023

The year 2023 has just begun which means that it’s the right time to talk about the upcoming trends in the Escape Room industry. Being informed about the latest trends of the industry will help you to run your business more efficiently and stay one step ahead of your competitors!
The trends in this list are based on our own expertise and rich experience in the ER industry as well as on tendencies and opinions of our 400+ clients all over the world.
Some of the escape room trends are not “brand new” and have already existed on the market for a while, however they are worth mentioning as they still continue to gain traction.

TECHNOLOGY AND HIGH QUALITY

Low-cost rooms with paper hints and padlocks have been disappearing from the market for the past 5 years. Such types of rooms are either closing or renewing with high-tech and expensive equipment.
ER owners tend to implement WOW-effects to their rooms which makes the games memorable and catchy for the players.
It’s a great escape room trend because once the players try a modern and well-equipped room with an immersive atmosphere they would be excited to visit other rooms in their area and continue to explore new ER venues.

FAMILY-FRIENDLY GAMES

The tendency of bringing children to an escape room is getting higher. Family-friendly scenarios bring the most revenue for ER owners, with some exceptions of course.
In a few countries/cities horrors are still the most popular games among players.
Besides, family-friendly or children-friendly doesn’t mean “easy”, it only refers to the topic which should suit both adults and children.

Important trends in the escape room industry

INCREASE OF THE TICKET PRICE

Expenses on maintaining, renewing and promoting Escape Rooms are gradually increasing. This leads to the rise of the ticket price, which is an obvious measure to keep gaining profits.
However, the demand for escape games has remained the same or has even increased, and due to the economic situation players are ready to pay more.

HIGH PASSABILITY

Currently around 4-6 players pass through one escape room per hour on an area of 40 – 50 sq.m., which makes the revenue limited.
The large venues with higher passability (10-15 players) is the upcoming trend of the near future, which will allow the ER owners to increase revenue and shorten the payback period. Indestroom is already working on such a project and will introduce it very soon!

EDUTAINMENT

Learning through entertainment is the biggest ER trend of the new generation. Escape rooms with educational elements have huge potential and will be in high demand for children, students, museums, themed corporate team-buildings, and other educational projects.

AUTOMATIZATION

Automatic hint systems and shortened period of game reset is another trend in the escape room industry which helps to increase the efficiency of your ER business. Of course, it doesn’t exclude the game master’s work completely, but it allows him to serve more rooms at once. Moreover, there is no need to hire highly-qualified staff with partly automatized rooms.
The clue system must be clear, simple and contain as many hint versions as possible. Moreover, it should fit the topic of the particular scenario, otherwise it will ruin immersion in the game.

ACTORS OR GM INVOLVED IN THE GAME

This escape room trend is not a new concept but is effective. Most of the top-rated rooms have actors or game masters acting partially in the escape game. This won’t be cheap and requires qualified staff, but the result will meet all the expenses and bring you lots of new customers.
Even one unexpected appearance of the GM interacting with players for a couple of minutes will be memorable and will make your room special.

FRANCHISING

It’s getting harder to promote and maintain an escape room, especially in large cities with the high level of competition. Therefore, many new and existing companies tend to join large franchise chains with their strong reputation and experience.
Unlike 5-7 years ago, Franchising in the ER business is now less risky and more sustainable. Franchisors attract significant investments in development and grow very fast.
Choose a franchisor carefully: he should provide you with the full support in launching and construction of your rooms as well as maintaining, marketing, staff training, documentation and so on.

Date: 31.01.2023

Author: INDESTROOM

Rating: 4,95