There’s No Escaping The Craze!
Pop Quiz: What fun gaming activity has become so popular across the U.S. that it’s grown by over 9,000% in just under 5 years? Baseball? Hockey? Skiing? Snowboarding? Bowling? The answer: None of the above! Whatever the craze is, there’s no escaping it!
The correct answer: The fun activity we’re talking about, that’s really on fire right now, are Escape Rooms (also known as “escape games”).
Just a short while ago, in 2014 to be precise, there were just 22 escape rooms in America. However, today, that number has grown to 2,000…and counting! And the escape room mania isn’t just confined to the US. It is a global phenomenon. In the U.K., for instance, the number of escape rooms has blossomed to 1,500 – and growing.
The number of escape rooms has blossomed to 1,500 – and growing.
And, if you think about where else escape room fun has spread, consider the Red Bull Escape Room championship games. Here, more than 23 teams from across the globe took part. Additionally, the “fire” has spread across the world. Escape games are popping up in Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, and Slovakia. Also, Britain, Belgium, France, and Greece are all feeling the burn. Even teams from India, Turkey, and Azerbaijan have jumped in on the action.
A search for the hashtag “#escaperoom” on Instagram gets you over 1.7M posts and counting – now isn’t that a trip! Escape room enthusiasts from every continent of the globe are jumping right in, completing “escaping missions”. Finally, they’re posting pictures of some of the proudest moments in their lives.
But how popular are escape-themed games and escape rooms across the USA? And which part of this vast country has the most ardent fans of escape room fun and games? Well, let’s just look at a Google Trend statistic for “escape room”. That’ll give us a hint to answering both those questions. However, be prepared. The answer may surprise you – or perhaps not!
Nevada is the escape room capital of the United States.
It turns out that Nevada is the escape room capital of the United States. Yep! The Silver State is the undisputed king of escape games.
What Is An Escape Room Like?
Consider finding yourself locked in a room. With a bunch of other individuals. Escaping your current “home” in under 60-minutes is imperative. If not, any of the following could happen:
- An evil entity could destroy civilization as we know it today, and impose its wicked regime on us
- The whole of mankind could be wiped out forever
- A crime or mystery, about which clues abound all around you – hidden yet in plain sight – could go undetected or unsolved
- Or worse yet, you could all die a horrible death!
The ingenuity of man and womankind is such that, when faced with any of these eventualities, we all band together to resolve the seemingly unresolvable. It is in such circumstances that humans will usually step up their game. Frequently, they’ll triumph over adversity.
Escape Games Provide You Just That Kind Of Opportunity!
- First, use logic.
- Second, deduce clues.
- Third, follow your intuition.
- Fourth, meticulously observe your surroundings.
- Fifth, think outside the box (or, in this case, outside the Room!)
- Finally, bring your powers of persuasion to bear and convince others to follow your lead.
The escape rooms transport you into a situation or environment, like a mythical dungeon, a medieval castle, an intriguing and enchanted cave, from which you must escape. While early iterations of escape rooms simply had players find a hidden key (or other concealed object) they used to unlock the door, some of the best escape games today have a theme or a story attached to them.
Today, it’s not just about finding an object anymore – there’s more…much more!
What Makes It Fun?
Let’s face it: Who wants to find themselves locked up in a windowless, seemingly un-escapable room, and given a deadline – typically 60-minutes – to solve a mystery, crack a puzzle or find their way out? Well, judging from the over 9,000% spike in popularity of escape rooms across the United States, we’d say there’s an entire population of thrill-seekers that want to taste a piece of escape room action. And once you’ve sampled the goodies, there’s no turning back – EVER!
Today’s aspiring escape artists face a whole array of mind-boggling riddles, puzzles, and mysteries in order to unlock their way out. Alternately, some escape games incorporate specific themes or story-lines, with costumes and real or mythical characters thrown into the mix – fun, scary, and spooky! And when you top all that up with the exceptionally well-designed high-tech-driven environment, amazing sound effects, and acoustics, it all adds up to deliver an immersive experience that’ll blow your mind!
The Thrilling Part
Part of the thrill is in showing off your puzzle-solving prowess in front of friends, family, and colleagues. And then, there are the frequent adrenaline hits that participants experience each time they get nearer to finding their way out, or closer to saving the world – or at least they think that’s what they’ve achieved! But vanity aside, there are many reasons that escape rooms in Reno and the rest of the U.S.A. have grown in popularity:
- With their emphasis on safety first, there’re really few safer pastimes than escape room fun
- Unlike rock climbing and miniature golfing, the technology and special effects of escape games takes you beyond the realm of the here and now, and transport you to mythical places that everyone loves
- There’s a heightened sense of bonding with family and friends when you play together
- Locked in an enclosed space, knowing you only have each other’s wits and skills to count on to pull off an escape, is probably the best way to sharpen a sense of comradery among friends and co-workers
The shared experience, which serves to bring teams of players together, is probably what really motivates thousands to gravitate to escape games. That, and the fact that there’s so much fun and excitement in the escape room – even though you are (make-belief of course!) fighting for your very survival. But there’s also the anticipation of the moment of glory, your photo-op at the end of the escape, that makes it an activity worth escaping into.
Fun Escape Room Occasions
Having read everything that we’ve said so far, you may think dabbling in escape games is fun – but only on a lazy Saturday evening when you have nothing else to do. Well, while time will certainly fly by when locked up in your escape room, boredom is not the only reason why thousands of escape gamers turn to their favorite fun activity:
- Escaping from reality: Tired of same-ole-same-ole? Reading a book. Going to a movie. Visiting a museum? Well, escape games are a great way to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. Escape the real world and get into a third, fourth, or even fifth dimension and have fun. They also make a great date night for couples.
- Pulling the team together: As the boss lady or team leader of a group of new entrants to the company, putting everyone into a locked room to solve a common challenge is a great team-building exercise.
- Building family connections: We all have family disconnections every now and then. But what happens if a group of family members work together, shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand, to take on a challenge head-on and “live” to tell the tale? Family unity is what it’s called.
- Feting up the holidays: Don’t just attend an Independence Day parade or a traditional holiday lunch and call it quits. Try getting your family and friends to join you in an escape room, and do something radically different this year. It’ll become your new holiday tradition – guaranteed!
Escape room fun isn’t just about “play” anymore. There are so many dimensions to participating in escape games, especially with the immersive experiences offered, that they can become part of any occasion you might think of. From class reunions to celebrating a clinched deal, and from girl’s night out to bachelor or stag parties, escape games like Blood of the Original offer something for all occasions.
Safety First, Escaping Second
No matter what the occasion is, you can find a reason to pull a group of friends, neighbors, family members, and work colleagues to celebrate or let off steam at a Reno escape room. And in case you’re wondering if the experience is safe for novice players, the answer is a resounding YES!
- There’s so much safety around the rooms. You never have to fear being hit by a projectile moving at over 100 MPH like you could at a ball game!
- They don’t EVER lock the rooms – there’s always a known path for escaping. The organizers brief players about this before you are “locked” in.
- High-tech surveillance, such as videos, cameras, and manned screens, monitor everything that goes on inside the room. If the organizers suspect even the slightest hint of an issue, they’ll immediately intervene to “rescue” you.
Best of all, because real-life humans constantly have eyes on you, you can call for help anytime you want out! There’s no fear of a disorderly stampede with no chance of escaping. After all, this isn’t a crazy concert or rowdy ball game.
Escape Room 101 For Beginners
Escape rooms are a place where you can really let down all your inhibitions and have fun. It’s great to be in a place that gives you the ambiance of moving into another realm. It’s thrilling to have the opportunity to match wits with demons and goblins to save the world. And, it’s even heart-stopping when you methodically work out clues to solve a puzzle. Finally, you triumph in escaping the room or rooms you’re held captive in.
But to really kick it up a notch on the fun-o-meter, you need to get into the groove of things…and here’s how you can do just that:
Friendly Escape: While you could always hook up with other escape game players to have fun, it’s even more fun to do so with a group of friends and colleagues. At Keystone Escape Games you can give our Blood of the Original game a try with anywhere between 2 and 6 players. The more the merrier!
Dress for an Escape: While there is no escape room dress code per se – not even if you are playing with your boss and colleagues at your Brokerage or Banking institution where you work – it helps to dress casually and comfy. With all the hustling, running, and jostling that you’ll need to do as the clock ticks down, perhaps a 3-piece suit or high-heels may not be the best dress for escape?
Escaping together: Even though you may be the smartest kid on the escape team, don’t underestimate the power of working together. Sometimes, that vial of “green stuff” your teammate pointed to, that you just dismissed, may actually be the key to your escape – and saving the world!
360o Escape: Escape rooms are built with one plan in mind – to deceive and confuse you. If you waste precious minutes looking for the “hidden” key under the doormat or buried in the planter outside the door, you may not make it out alive. Look all around you – up, down, sideways, and even in your hand. The “key” might just be the title of the book you’ve been carrying around since you found it when you solved your last hurdle.
Storied Escaping: In every escape room, you’ll encounter an underlying theme or story. In Blood of the Original, the goal is to recover the historic blood that was stolen by an eccentric collector. While the game has lots to distract you, the success of your quest depends on you always keeping in mind the key elements of the story, theme, or mission.
Broad-based Escaping Strategy: Remember, the clocks start ticking from the moment you say “go” – so you need to be nimble in executing your escape. The best way to accomplish your objective and get everyone out alive is to use a broad-based strategy and fan out across the room for clues. That way, you’ll find clues quicker than you would if everyone looked under the same rock at the same time!
Give It A Try
Just follow these simple rules of escape game participation and you’re guaranteed to come out the other side and pose for a happy, smiling photo-op to post on your Facebook or Instagram page. However, even if you lose, you still win, because you’ll have loads of fun with friends and family by your side. And that’s what’s making escape rooms so much of a craze, not just here in the USA, but around the world!
So, why not head on out to an escape room right now, and book your next adventure. Escaping is critical before time runs out! This might be your last chance for you and your team of escape gamers to save your Blaga covenant from the dreads of mortality! or you can give an Escape Room Gift Certificates.