And with that, the 2025 season comes to an end! A look back on the top escape room news this month ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ‌  ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ‌:  ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

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It's December! The end of the year! ...And what a year it's been. We reported on countless stories, room openings, podcast episodes, and an enormous quantity of escape rooms opening. Too many to count. Literally.

But it's also the 5th year we've published a December issue of the Escape Industry Newsletter. Here's 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024's issues. How fun to look back on the old issues and see the sorts of things that were big stories.

This December is no different, and I hope you enjoy everything in this month's issue. Until next year Puzzle People 👋

Mairi 
Editor of Escape Industry News

 

🧩 Trending Now

RECON 2026 Announced and Tickets for Sale

This may not be news to folks who attended RECON 2025, but the news that RECON 2026 has been announced and tickets are now for sale. Next year's RECON will be held in Laval, QC, Canada which is home to the world's no.1 escape room as per TERPECA.

From the RECON website: RECON offers a curated collection of talks and experiences exploring the business and art of escape room and immersive game creation.

Learn More

The TERPECA 2025 Live Show takes place December 20th at 1pm PST

If you're excited about hearing this year's best (English language) escape rooms, tune in to the TERPECA Awards Show on:

📅 December 20th
⏰ 1pm PST / 4pm EST / 9pm GMT / 10pm CET / 11pm EET / 8 am Sunday AEDT

This year there were over 6600 individual nominations, 1185 rooms nominated from 39 countries, and 378 finalist rooms from 22 countries.

Watch

A recap of the EGA2025 Immersive Entertainment Industry Summit

Again, I always struggle to adequately report on this as the website is not available in English, but this seems well worth checking out if you're able. This year's EGA Summit took place a little while ago, awarding the best escape games in China. A full list and a recap of the event as a whole can be found here.

Learn More

🧾 In Other News

• The Room Escape Artist holiday gift guide has been unveiled, check it out for those puzzley gifts.
• The December issue of
ERA (Escape Rooms Australia) Magazine is out.
• Many of the talks from RECON 25 are now available online on Youtube.
Check them out here.
• Room Escape Artist have put out a
call for more data for their annual industry report.
• EGA have published a
National Report on Immersive Performing Arts (aka escape rooms and other cool things) in China. It's not available in English, but you can check it out here.
• Morty has published a list of
Black Friday escape room deals. Though since we're a little out from Black Friday double check if these are still available.
• Tickets are now on sale for
Escape, Immerse, Explore in Orlando in April 2026.

Not quite an escape room but we think you'll be interested in...

• Thinky Games has announced
Thinky Dailies, a daily puzzle which has a mix of more lateral thinking puzzles alongside grid puzzles.
• Also from Thinky Games, nominations for the 3rd Annual Thinky Awards recently opened but by the time this newsletter goes out will be closed. However, keep an eye out for the awards ceremony when they announce.
• Alsoooo from Thinky Games, all
35 talks from ThinkyCon 2025 are now on Youtube.
• No Proscenium have published their
annual gift guide.
• If you're looking for an interesting, puzzley online advent calendar the
Confounding Calendar has returned for another year.

I normally list the following in "Other News" but I think they deserve their own spaces:

Challenge Arcades Monthly Update
Thinky Third Thursday

 

📆 Upcoming Dates for your Diary

December 20th (1pm Pacific)
TERPECA Awards Show
Online

March 1st - 31st
Enigmarch
Online

March 26th - 29th 2026
TransWorld Interactive Entertainment Show
St. Louis, MO, USA

April 19th - 21st 2026
LEAG
Bottrop, Germany

April 2026
Escape Room Awards
Madrid, Spain

August 16th - 17th
RECON 26
Laval, QC, Canada

 

🔑 Recent Doors Unlocked

🇺🇸

AmazingXscapes has opened a new immersive attraction in Springfield, IL.
MasterMind Escape The Room is opening a new safari room this month in Little Rock, AR.
Paranoia Quest has opened a new room, Project Genesis, in Buford, GA.
Red Door Escape has opened a new room, The Game Show Studio, in Concord, CA.

🇨🇦

Daydream Adventures has opened a new room, Brimley Manor, in Toronto, ON.
Game Over has opened a new site in Burlington, ON.
Improbable has opened a new room, Down the Rabbit Hole in Kingston, ON.
Ready Set Go has opened a new site in Etobicoke, ON.
Time Escape has opened a new location with two rooms in Edmonton, AB.

🇬🇧/🇮🇪

Lots of Christmas rooms popping up! Non-Christmas rooms? Not so much. Escape the Review does an excellent job keeping track of festive rooms, and you should check out their round-up list here. Here are the non-festive rooms that opened this month:

South England

Absolutely Karting has opened a new room, Professor Blackthorne’s Final Invention, in Maidenhead.
Escape London has opened a new room, Area 51, in Shepherds Bush.
Operation Escape has opened a new room, The Peril of Sherwin Hones, in West Wickham.

East England

Absolutely Escapes has opened a new room, Sherlock vs Moriarty, in Hemel Hempstead.

North England

Houdini’s has opened a new site with three rooms in Warrington.
The Escapologist has opened a new room, Sin, in Gateshead.

Midlands

Cannon Raceway has opened a new room, Treasure of Tortuga Island, in Coseley.
Trapp'd has opened a new room, Road to Glory, in Wellingborough.

Wales

Bala Lake Hotel has opened a new room, Funfair, in Gwynedd.

🇦🇺/🇳🇿

NSW

Breakout has opened a new room, Temple of Ancients, in Wollongong.
Escape This has opened two new rooms in Sydney.
Narrow Escape Rooms has opened a new room, The Hidden Temple, in Penrith.
Scram has opened a new room, The Butcher, in
Strange World has opened a new room, Cabin Cult, in Sydney.
The Cipher Room has opened a new room, Metamorphosis, in Sydney.

QLD

Padlock'd has opened a new room, Buried - Coffin Escape, in Surfers Paradise.

VIC

Escape Reality has opened three new rooms in Rowville.
TRAPT has opened a new room, The Sweet Escape, in Melbourne.

WA

Gone in Sixty has opened a new room, Stolen Wheels, in Port Kennedy.

A shout out to the resources & individuals who were a huge help this month: Escape the Review (UK), Rich Bragg (USA), ERA Mag (Australia), Matt Lui (CA), and Pivotal on Discord (CA).

 

🔊 Listen

Last month in Podcasts, Radio & Live Shows

Escape This Podcast
"A show that’s a mix of escape room puzzles and tabletop role-playing."

• Podcast This Escape - Normal Science Nov 5
•
Night at the Clue-seum - pt 7: Little Hall of Horrors Nov 12
•
Podcast This Escape - Little Hall of Horrors Nov 19
•
Night at the Clue-seum - pt 8: Planes, Trains and Elevators Nov 26

Reality Escape Podcast
"Your hosts David Spira & Peih-Gee Law explore immersive gaming from all angles."

• Ambitious and Unhinged: Stephen & Stevie Kristof of 60 to Escape Nov 3
•
Play as Learning: Breakout EDU with Adam Bellow Nov 10
•
The Best Escape Room in the World: Jonathan Driscoll and Sacha St. Denis of Escaparium Nov 17
•
The PuzzleTales of PostCurious with Rita Orlov & Lauren Bello Nov 24

The Infinite Escape Room
"The puzzling podcast where a gaggle of geographically diverse chums come together, have a drink - and work together to solve a home made escape room of the ears.​"

• Horror in Escape Rooms? - At the Brush, Nose and Bone Nov 2
•
Puzzle Creators React: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Nov 9

The following podcasts didn't release a new episode this month, but you should definitely check them out anyway:

  • The Escapuzzled Podcast
  • The Cager Express: Escape Break
 

🔎 December's Joke

In December, I don't share a puzzle. It's instead a tradition (that I made up some newsletters ago) to share the cheesiest Christmas joke I've found inside a cracker so far:

What do you get if you swallow Christmas decorations?

Tinselitis

...And with that, another year over! See you on the other side.


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