Room Escape Artist

For this, the second annual REAction Awards, there are 5 winners across 4 categories.

This award celebrates taking action to make the escape room world more vibrant, but the categories of the awards will vary from year to year.

The 2026 winners are being honored for:

• Sustained Iteration
• Format Risks
• Community Engagement
• Inspiration to Action

Each of the winners has made something special.

In this awards video, we speak about each winner and their work. Rather than capture the feelings expressed during the award ceremony with a few short sentences here, we hope you’ll listen to the show and appreciate what each winner has made.

REAction Award 2026 Winners

Sustained Iteration

Winner: Prison Escape

We are celebrating Prison Escape for the transformation they’ve demonstrated since 2018. They’ve iterated both creatively and on the business model. The improvement is enormous.

Format Risks

There are two winners in this category, both established companies who went out on a limb with an unusual idea, a temporary space, and an inexpensive build.

Winner: The ENDings

We are celebrating The ENDings, Strange Bird Immersive’s project that took advantage of a found space and dared to be completely different from any of their previous work, testing new frameworks including a scrappily clever approach to replayability.

Winner: Into the DarkVerse

We are celebrating Into the DarkVerse, DarkPark’s pivot to keep their business afloat, originally a temporary installation, in a new format, that had the staying power to reinvigorate their business creatively and financially.

Community Engagement

Winner: Nazotoki Market

We are celebrating the Nazotoki Market, a community festival in Tokyo sponsored by SCRAP that brought together over 70 different Japanese puzzle companies, showcasing and celebrating creators small and large.

Inspiration to Action

Winner: Lucid Labs

We are celebrating Lucid Labs, a passion project created by escape room fans. While so many enthusiasts dream of the game they’d make, at Lucid Labs, they brought their idea to life.

This experience is no longer running, but you can learn more here and you can see more from this team in 2026 at EMF camp.

Congratulations to the 2026 REAction Award Winners!

This is the second year we’ve given out this award. Read about the 2025 winners here.