Room Escape Artist

The headline of TERPECA 2024 is the success Escaparium in Laval (Montreal), Canada.

The Top Escape Rooms Project is an attempt to find the best escape rooms in the world, by leveraging the experience of an international community of experienced players.

Last Saturday the project presented the Top Escape Rooms Project Enthusiasts’ Choice Award, or TERPECA, to the top 100 escape rooms rooms in the world based on 1,391 contributors who nominated 1,042 rooms, out of the combined 412,340 escape room played. It’s a big deal to win a TERPECA, and to be nominated.

Escaparium set records with their performance last year. But this, their performance is astounding. They claimed the grand prize for their new game Magnifico, and set some records along the way.

This is also good news for us, because we’re taking more than 100 escape room players to visit them in June, as part of Escape Immerse Explore Montreal 2025. (There are only a few tickets left – Get one here!)

Escaparium isn’t the only story in the TERPECA highlights.

Travel Destinations

The top 10 games cover 5 countries: Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Canada, and Greece.

We’ve long been listing 4 of these 5 as top travel destinations. It’s exciting to see Germany on the list with 2 games from Dream Labs Adventures. More on that below.

Looking at the top 100 games, the same travel destinations rise to the top, as in previous years. However, each of these destinations has less winners than last year, which means the regional clustering of top games is lessening.

There are 21 winners from Spain. We finally visited Spain in 2024, and the reviews from that trip were some of the most diverse and though provoking of any escape room trip. But we’ll have to go back. We didn’t see the whole country, and they just keep creating winning games, including #2 A Legendary Adventure at Mad Mansion (in a region we didn’t get to) and #10 K.O.N.G Protocol at Escape Barcelona (which wasn’t open yet when we played CyberCity 2049).

There are 17 winners from the United States. More on that below.

There are 14 winners from Greece. We’re excited to travel back to Greece in January and get to play a handful of these games. It’s been far too long since we’ve played in Greece.

There are 9 winners from The Netherlands , 8 winners from Germany, and 7 winners from Canada (5 at Escaparium).

5 winners from Belgium wasn’t a surprise, but 5 winners from Switzerland was. That’s a new destination on our radar.

The Crowning of Escaparium

Escaparium had (what I believe to be) the best TERPECA showing to date. They had 4 games under one roof (at their Laval location) winning TERPECAs by placing in the top 100. Magnifico’s Circus is the new top game in the world, and it was a dominant winner.

• Magnifico – #1
• The Forgotten Cathedral – #3
• Wardrobe for Sale – #14
• The Lost Island of the Voodoo Queen – #37

Also in the same building in Laval were two other finalists:

• The Final Stop V2 – #112
• Rain Corp – #144

That gives Escaparium a total of 6 must play games in one building, which is an unrivaled feat. This is the top escape room destination in the world.

In addition, The Family at Escaparium’s Shawinigan location (about a 1.5 – 2 hour drive from Laval) won a TERPECA at #49.

There are only a few tickets left to Escape Immerse Explore Montreal 2025. Book your ticket today!

Hello Bavaria

We’ve long been listing 4 of countries with Top 10 winners as the top escape room travel destinations, but it’s been a few years since we put Germany on that list.

This year two games from Dream Labs hit the top 10, calling attention to Germany as a travel destination. These wins weren’t surprising to us, since Matthew had visited earlier this year and reviewed The Tale of the Heartless Pirate. (Metropolis 2099 wasn’t open yet.) The surprise was that enough players visited this more out of the way part of Germany for these games to land in the top 10.

We’ll all have to travel to Bavaria and continue to expand our (newly published) Bavaria Recommendations Guide.

Stability in the Top 10

Many games hit the list and then fall dramatically the following year. Others see a steady rise as more players come to visit. But it’s the games that hold strong in top positions year over year that impress me most.

The Dome from Mama Bazooka (Netherlands) landed at #7 after hovering around the top spot for a full 5 years! (#1 in 2019 and 2020, #2 in 2023, and #3 in 2022.)

Molly’s Game from Down the Hatch (Netherlands) landed at #4 after taking #1 in 2023 and the #2 in 2022.

Chapel & Catacombs at Lockhill (Greece) landed at #8 after taking #1 in 2022 and #3 in 2023. (We are excited to finally play this one next month!)

It took a lot to unseat these 3 games, which have been battling for the top spot for years, but Escaparium and Dream Labs have arrived.

Also of note, The Tavern at The City Escape Room (Spain) climbed to #5, after placing #9 in 2023.

The. U.S. Winners

The Man From Beyond (#36) at Strange Bird Immersive in Houston, TX, remains the top game in the United States, which it has been every year that TERPECA has been in existence. That is exceptional staying power. Its best place was #3 (2018, 2019, and 2020). And while other games pushed it out of the Top 10 in 2021, it has continued to enchant players.

Escape Artist Greenville in Greenville, SC, made a name for themselves this year with two TERPECA winning games. Dark Lullaby (#54) climbed dramatically from it’s position last year (#91). And Castle Flüffendor (#38) debuted as the second highest ranked game in the United States. We are so excited about the success for Escape Artist Greenville and I can’t wait to visit them.

Other top U.S. markets surfaced on the list as well:

California had a strong showing with 7 winners, some from Southern California that many folks played in conjunction with RECON Los Angeles in August 2024, and others in Northern California, where we brought many players for Escape Immerse Explore Bay Area in October of 2024.

• Hope End at The Ministry of Peculiarities (Azusa, CA) – #41
• Ghost Patrol at Trivium Games (Emeryville, CA) – #48
• The Ladder Hatch Escapes (Los Angeles, CA) – #73
• The Ghost of Mentryville at Arcane Escape Rooms (Santa Clarita, CA) – #74
• The Attraction at Palace Games (San Francisco, CA) – #80
• Robotopia at Omescape (Sunnyvale, CA) – #81
• Undercooked Omescape Sunnyvale, CA – #82

Florida also added a winner this year, with a game from The Escape Ventures ranking in the Top 100 for the first time. We expect to see more from these companies in the future:

• Pins & Needles Tattoo Parlor at The Exit Games (Clearwater, FL) – #50
• Crazy Train: The Ballad of Skeemin’ Plotz at Doldrick’s Escape Room (Kissimmee, FL) – #61
• Servants of Sleight at The Exit Games (Clearwater, FL) – #75
• Phantom Files: The Investigation of Lockturne Manor at The Escape Ventures (Port Charlotte, FL) – #83

The next U.S. market we have our eyes on is Phoenix, Arizona. The Nemesis Club had a strong showing with Mogollon Monster at #74 at Henchmen’s Heist at #92. Sal’s Cybernetics at The Immersive Machine placed #148 too.

And finally, Cutthroat Cavern from 13th Gate Escape, the game that inspired so many of today’s top companies, including Escaparium, stayed in the top 100, placing #79.

About TERPECA

Rich Bragg does a ton of work to produce TERPECA: the math, website, awards show, and community. He spends so much time – with the help of the Advisory Board and Regional Ambassadors – to make sure the data is clean, fair, and as unbiased as possible.

Please spend some time appreciating the 2024 results, and check out the awards show!

The amount of work that Rich and others put into this project grows as the community around it grows. It’s a huge undertaking. As board members, David and I do what we can to advise it and promote it. We’re excited about how it continues to grow.

REA’s Travel Advice

It’s not unusual for REA to receive emails from trip planners asking just how far they should go out of their way for one TERPECA-winning game or another. That’s a hard question to answer because everything is a trade off. Our advice is to consider what you value most in a game, and read in depth reviews, like those we produce at Room Escape Artist that dig into the nuances of each game. TERPECA winning games come in all shapes and sizes. It’s ok to pick and choose. And it’s ok to skip something with a high ranking because it’s out of your way or it’s a theme or story you are less excited about.

Every game that ranks in the Top 100 on TERPECA is worthy of your time. In fact, any game that ranks in the Top 200 is worthy. But you won’t have enough time to play them all. So take the numbered list as guidance, and then look deeper into the games for the types of experiences you will enjoy the most. We encourage you to find the games that speak to you, and when you have the time in your travels, explore the games that didn’t win, but surfaced through this project. The TERPECA list in an incredible resource that helps us do just that.

TERPECA Spoilers Club Episodes

We’ve chatted in depth with the creators about these award-winner games:

• Forgotten Cathedral – #3 (It’s a 2 part episode!)
• Stay in the Dark – #17 (It’s a 2 part episode!)
• Man From Beyond – #36 (It’s a 2 part episode!)
• The Lost Island of the Voodoo Queen – #37
• Hope End – #41
• Ghost Patrol – #48
• The Ladder – #73
• Ghost of Mentryville – #74
• Cutthroat Cavern – #79 (This is an early episode without the creator.)

… and many others that didn’t quite make the top 100!

When you support Room Escape Artist on Patreon at $15 per month (or above), you get access to the Spoilers Club, our exclusive podcast where hosts David Spira and Peih-Gee Law chat in depth with creators about iconic escape rooms… spoilers and all!