“ I love shining a light on escape room creators and telling their stories.”
For the last 10 years, Lisa Spira of Room Escape Artist has been tracking the growth of the US Escape Room industry and publishing industry reports. For our Season 10 finale episode, Lisa joins us to talk about this year’s annual report.
New this year is a collaboration with previous REPOD sponsor Morty, an app that tracks individual games as well as escape room companies. Through this collaboration, Lisa was able to look at additional metrics, including revenue.
The 2025 Industry report is available on the Room Escape Artist website, and Lisa shares deeper analysis on this episode.
Some interesting trends noted include consolidation of ownership, and expansion of immersive gaming business models. We also talk about some interesting stats, including which days might be better for an escape room company to go dark; it’s not what you would expect!
We close out the episode with some musings on exciting new design trends in escape room design, trends we don’t care for, and where we think the escape room industry is headed. Whether you’re an escape room owner, aspiring to work in the escape room industry, work in the immersive entertainment field, or just a data-loving enthusiast, the REA US Escape Room Industry Report is a must-read.
This is the last episode of Season 10. Thanks so much for listening. We’ll be back with a new season of REPOD in the spring of 2026. Meanwhile, consider joining our Patreon for access to our library of Bonus Aftershows and Spoilers Club episodes.
Thank You to Our Sponsors
We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: REA Patreon Backers, PG’s Playhouse, Buzzshot, and COGS. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community.
Support Room Escape Artist on Patreon
Love escape rooms as much as we do? At Room Escape Artist, we’ve been analyzing, reviewing, and exploring the world of immersive games since 2014. We help players find the best experiences, and push the industry forward with well-researched, rational, and reasonably humorous escape room and immersive gaming content and events.
By becoming a Patreon supporter, you’re not just backing a blog — you’re fueling a mission to make the escape room and immersive gaming community stronger, more thoughtful, and more connected. You can also access exclusive Patreon content such as the Bonus Aftershow, Spoilers Club, and get early access to escape room Tour tickets and REA articles.
Your Patreon support goes toward our mission: paying our contributors, funding our infrastructure, and supporting deep research and industry advocacy.
PG’s Playhouse Podcast
If you love wordplay, puzzles, and trivia, this is the podcast for you! PG’s Playhouse recreates a fun game night with friends, all in a short, 30-minute format. Of course, what’s game night without making new friends? We bring on different guests for the different episodes!
Each episode features a puzzle packed with wordplay and trivia, a short chat with the guest, and a segment exploring an interesting topic. I hope you’ll take a listen and play along with us at PG’s Playhouse.
Buzzshot
Buzzshot is Escape Room Software, Powering Business Growth, Player Marketing, and improving the Customer Experience. They offer an assortment of pre and post game features including robust waiver management, branded team photos, and streamlined review management for Yelp, TripAdvisor, Google Reviews, and Morty. Buzzshot now has integration with the other REPOD sponsors: Morty and COGS.
Special Offer for REPOD Listeners:
REPOD listeners get an extended 21-day free trial plus 20% off your first 3 months, with no set-up fees or hidden charges. Visit buzzshot.com/repod to learn more about this exclusive offer.
COGS
COGS by Clockwork Dog is an easy to use software/ hardware platform for running interactive events, including escape rooms, and other immersive experiences. They have plug & play hardware that seamlessly integrates with their software so you can create a show with lighting and sound cues without having to write a single line of code. Map all kinds of inputs to outputs by building up simple logic steps which determine what you want to happen and when.
Special Offer for REPOD Listeners:
REPOD listeners can get the COGS Starter Set for only $130 + free shipping to the USA. This bundle is usually valued at $257. You can learn more and purchase your Starter Set at cogs.show. Use code REPOD at checkout.
Topics Discussed in this Episode
- 00:00 Sponsor Break: Buzzshot, Escape Room Marketing Software
- 04:12 Big Announcement
- 06:25 The State of Escape Rooms: Industry Insights
- 09:12 Tracking Escape Room Data: Methodologies and Challenges
- 13:08 Trends in Escape Room Industry: Consolidation and Growth
- 20:19 Trends for Challenge Arcades
- 22:27 New Data Collaboration with Morty
- 26:35 Analysis of Booking Time Data
- 28:37 New Learnings from Revenue Data
- 33:58 End of Year Highlights and Awards
- 36:49 Sponsor Break: PG’s Playhouse – Puzzles, Pals, and Trivia
- 39:05 What Escape Room Should People Be Talking About More?
- 42:08 Is There an Underappreciated Game Mechanic?
- 46:10 What Do Other Escape Room Fans Care About More Than You Do?
- 51:31 Sponsor Break: Cogs By Clockwork Dog, Interactive Show Controls
- 52:54 What Content Are You Most Proud of This Year?
- 01:03:53 Hopes for Escape Rooms in the Coming Year
- 01:07:06 What Comes Next?
- 01:15:05 Credits
- 01:17:45 Escape the Elevator
Leave a Voicemail
Got a question or thought for the podcast? You can submit a voice recording by calling the Room Escape Artist not-so-hotline that always goes straight to voicemail (551-227-7273).
About Lisa Spira
Co-Founder of Room Escape Artist
Whether she is editing REA’s content, leading the Hivemind, or wrangling the logistics for RECON or the Escape, Immerse, Explore Tours, Lisa is the reason that everything runs like clockwork. As a linguist and data expert, Lisa also leads our Industry Data efforts and is responsible for our annual Industry Reports. Lisa is the heart of REA and also bakes all of our escakes.
Support REPOD
- Subscribe to Patreon for bonus content.
- Please rate and review our podcast!
Thanks for listening!
Support Room Escape Artist’s Mission
There are lots of ways to support Room Escape Artist, like buying from Amazon or Etsy after clicking into the links included in this post or backing us on Patreon.
The money that we make from these helps us to grow the site and continue to add more value to the community that we love so much.
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