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Howdy, escape room folks! 👋 Welcome to the June edition of the Escape Industry Newsletter! And just like that, the year is almost halfway over. Here at the Escape Industry Newsletter, we're cooking up something exciting for this newsletter itself: a brand new look and website. Keep an eye out for that next month. Until then, in this month's issue there are quite a few exciting things to share - from the Escape Room Championship Qualifiers taking place later this month, to the UK Escape Room Awards being announced, and the Spanish award results being announced last. If you're interested in video games, June is a big month for those too. Besides the big game events, there are two puzzle ones which take place: the Cerebral Puzzle Showcase and Thinky Direct. It's well worth checking them both out to see what's what. Until next month! Mairi Nolan
Editor of Escape Industry News P.S. If a friend has forwarded you this email, please consider subscribing! |
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Today at 3pm GMT! In a quick, related note from our sponsors - this talk is going live TODAY in just a few hours. It's focused to UK escape room owners and is a practical webinar series helping escape room owners make better business decisions through useful insight, expert guests and industry updates. Topics include: Great British Summer Savings: REDUCED VAT for families DMCCA Policy 209: PRICING TRANSPARENCY in marketing DMCCA Policy 207 & 208: MISLEADING PRACTICES in marketing Plus a quick demo of Buzzshot Bookings and live Q&A
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Escape Room World Championship qualifiers take place this month Last month saw the ER Champ (Escape Room World Championship) take place, and this month on June 20th the qualifier round will take place online at 16:00 UTC. Based on previous years, the ER Champ qualifiers will be expected to take most teams between 2 - 3 hours to complete. The ten fastest teams will be invited to take part in the finale in Wrocław, Poland in November |
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UK Escape Room Awards Announced In other UK news (it's a very UK-edition of the newsletter this month), the UK Escape Room Awards were announced this month. From their website: "The UK Escape Room Awards exist to celebrate the creativity, craftsmanship, innovation, and excellence of the people who design, build, and operate escape rooms across the United Kingdom." Information on how to sign up will soon follow. |
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Winners of the Escape Room Awards Announced Hosted in Barcelona, Spain this year, the results of the Escape Room Awards have been announced. This competition and awards showcase highlights the best rooms available in Spain, and you can learn more about it here. |
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The ER Champ Stress Test took place last month, and the qualifier round takes place later this month on June 20th! I was going to share the news that the Escape Immersive Explore Tour tickets were on sale - but they've sold out quickly! And Room Escape Artist has published a post talking a little more about it here. Alexey Knyazev of Conundroom Escape Rooms designed an "escape room management simulator" which you can play here. China EGA has done a write-up about the Korean escape room industry - it's not in English, but if you can read it, it's very interesting! As sent in by one of our readers, Hood County News did a write-up of local company, Narrow Escape. I've been writing quite a few articles for the Buzzshot Blog recently, which you can read about here.
Not quite an escape room but we think you'll be interested in...
This year's Thinky Direct took place this month, and there were a whole host of first looks at escape room game trailers in there. In a similar note, the Cerebral Puzzle Showcase also took place last week. It's over now, but there were some excellent new escape room games that launched into it and had demos. Thinky Dailies Season 3 started last week, and you can play it here. Andrew Reynolds of Room Escape Artist wrote up a piece about PAX East 2026.
I normally list the following in "Other News" but I think they deserve their own spaces: Challenge Arcades Monthly Update
Thinky Third Thursday |
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📆 Upcoming Dates for your Diary |
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🇺🇸 404 Escape Room has opened a site with two rooms in Fremont, CA.
Activate has opened a challenge room (so not quite an escape room but there are some puzzley ones) in Dublin, CA.
Conundroom has opened a new room, Tesla Laboratory, in Redmond, WA.
Escape from Reality has opened a new escape room in Plainville, CT.
Evasive Escape Rooms has opened Factory Heist: Operation Green Bean in Saraota, FL.
Locked Escape Rooms has opened a new site wiht two rooms in Santa Rosa, CA.
Surf City Escapes is opening a new game, Spectre Inspectors in Huntington Beach, CA.
The Escape Ventures will take over PuzzleCorp in Orlando, FL. 🇨🇦 Lockwood Immersive has opened a new game, Shades of Grey, in Toronto, ON. 🇬🇧/🇮🇪 London & South Enigma Escapes has opened a new room, Once Upon A Nightmare, in Wells.
Escape From The Room has opened a new room, The Mixed Up Mind of Mr Crabheal, in High Wycombe.
Escape Hunt has opened a new site with five rooms in London.
Hysteria has opened a new site with one room in Sittingbourne.
Room Lockdown has opened two new rooms in Hornchurch.
The Lift has opened a new room, Dr Riddlesworth’s Puzzle Panic, in Brighton. Midlands Alderford Escape Islands has opened a new room, The Dragon Quest, in Whitchurch.
Escape Leicester has opened a new room, Mayan Temple, in Leicester.
Escape Live has opened a new room, The Case Files: Blood on Broadway, in Birmingham.
One Way Out has opened a new room, Curious End Cottage, in Oakham. East England Angle Escape has opened a new room, Vault: McAngleson, in Peterborough.
Cluetopia has opened a new room, Dino-Dash, in Braintree.
Exit Rooms has opened a new room, Specimen 27, in Cambridge. North England Code to Exit has opened a new room, The Escape Pod, in Altrincham.
Escape Room Scarborough has opened a new room, Curse of the Pirate King, in Scarborough.
Golden Lion Escapes has opened a new room, The Curse of the Golden Lion, in Wirral.
Houdini’s has opened a new site with three rooms in Blackpool.
Lucardo has opened a new room, Mutiny, in Rawtenstall.
Pirate Escape has opened a new room, Time Hotel, in Whitley Bay.
Sherlocks Escape Room has opened a new room, The Curse of the Whitby Siren, in Whitby.
The Detective Rooms has opened a new site with four rooms in Durham. Wales PanIQ Rooms Wales has opened a new room, Bug Out, in Porthmadog. Channel Islands MTG Escapes has opened a new room, The Pact of the Pouques, in Guernsey. A shout out to the resources & individuals who were a huge help this month: Escape the Review (UK), Rich Bragg (USA). |
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Last month in Podcasts, Radio & Live Shows Escape This Podcast
"A show that’s a mix of escape room puzzles and tabletop role-playing." Inventures Podcast
Welcome to Inventures, the podcast where we invite creative minds to invent the ultimate immersive adventure! Reality Escape Podcast
Reality Escape Pod is an interview podcast diving deep with people who make the world’s best immersive games and experiences The Infinite Escape Room
The escape room podcast where a bunch of friends make and solve homemade audio escape rooms for each other. One part escape room, one part role-playing game, a sprinkle of point-and-click adventure, and a whole lot of laughs. |
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This one is a bit different but I got the idea for it after spotting something similar in an online forum and want to make more puzzles like this. So, what comes next in the order: 1. Without fear 2. Stop light 3. Express yourself immediately 4. ???? |
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