Real-Life Escape Game Industry overview YE2015

Source: www.iAudit.info & www.TheBreakOut.eu

Escape Game Industry Overview

February 2016

http://www.iaudit.info

http://www.thebreakout.eu


About the research

● Respondents - Total number of 138 Respondents (representing 217 rooms)● The mix is partially skewed toward Europe as 58% respondents come from Europe and

30% from North America. Remaining 12% were respondents from Asia, Africa and Australia. South America did not deliver any respondents. Because of that only EUROPE, NORTH AMERICA and TOTAL results are shown.

● The survey was made based on random convenience sample technique● The research was conducted between 2nd of February 2016 and 25th of February 2016● While working on this research we have come across of White Paper study “Peeking

Behind the Locked Door” from Scott Nicholson, which would be of a great interest for anyone interested in the Escape Game Industry.

● Another short research came out at February 2016 from EscapeRoom Master



http://scottnicholson.com/pubs/erfacwhite.pdf

http://www.escaperoomsmaster.com/in-depth-look-at-the-questionnaire-results/


Growth of Escape Game Industry

The industry growth has been tremendous in the past 2 years. The operators who opened their rooms in 2014 has seen a growth of almost 3,900% (2014 escape games were only in a few countries with few rooms, where as on the end of 2015 many “new” countries were opened and existing countries are seeing much higher saturation of rooms). On average the growth of the industry is 175%

The respondent's operations have grown by 99%. That means that on average the operators doubled the number of rooms in the past 2 years.




Billing Methods

The way of billing for the product (Escape Games) is done on average 50/50 either by billing per group or billing per person, but there are huge differences in the arrangement based on continents. It can be easily said that North America operates on per person billing as 96% of operations use this way of charging their customers and per group billing is more of an exception. Europe on the other side uses the per Group billing as the way of charging customers as 74% of operator use this form of billing.




The Pricing

The pricing is very different between the continents. North America with their per person billing is on average charging its customers $28 per person. In Europe, where it is used, the average price per person is only $18. That makes North America 55% more expensive than the european prices. And if we look at the per Group billing, North America is again more expensive as the Group pays on average $130 (very limited sample) vs. the european average of $67.




The occupancy

On average the Escape Game rooms of the operators is on a good week filled with 51 groups of players and on a bad week 17 groups play the games. But the differences between continents are enormous. In North America the operators Escape Games on a good week are played by over 100 groups and on a bad week 24 groups enjoy the game. A bad week in North America is almost as good as the good week in Europe since the good week in Europe delivers 29 groups and in a bad week only 14 groups play the room.




Size of Premises

The size of the premises are typically between 50m2 to 150m2 (500 sq.ft. - 1,600 sq.ft.) as more than 50% of facilities are of this size. In the North America the concept of Escape Rooms is done a bit differently and there is also the tendency to operate out of larger premises as 55% of rooms are over 150m2 (1,600 sq.ft.). As an interesting fact, it is possible to note, that not all of the Escape Games must operate from a room, there are some cases to operate Escape games outside in the nature.




The Rooms Themes

The themes used in designing the Escape Game rooms the most are Historical. The Historic story is more accented in Europe, where the Historic theme is used twice as much as the second used theme the Escape from prison. In the North America the history stories are not as popular and it occupies the 3rd position behind Movie based story and Prison Escape story. The other stories in Escape rooms are:

Time Travel, Medical, Bank robbery, Horror, Spying, Mining, Paranormal, Fantasy, Living room, Stop bomb to explode, Science, Mob, Science, Alchemyst, Supernatural powers, Terrorist, Vault Robbery, Life facts, Hackers, Race to the game, Games based, Famous detective to name just a few.




The Employment

To manage the facility the owners usually employ up to 5 people of permanent staff (78%). Another 18% get by with up to 20 permanent staff and 4% use even more permanent staff. There is a slightly more permanent employees in North America, which seems understandable based on the previous info about size of facilities and occupancy rates. As for the temporary staff, again about 77% get by with up to 5 temps and 5% use more than 20 temp workers. The difference between continents is not really significant.




The Marketing

The owners use the most the relatively less expensive marketing, such as Travel sites (TripAdvisor), Social Media and Word of mouth. Secondly SEO, Internet Display Advertising and PPC campaigns are used to attract the customers.




Success of solving the rooms

The players are not that much successful in solving the puzzles in the rooms in allocated time. In 53% of the rooms, the success rate of solving the game in allocated time is 50% or less and on the other hand only 23% of rooms have success rate better than 80%. In general in Europe the rooms are “easier” as only 44% of rooms have sucess rate of 50% and less and contrary in North America the rooms are “harder” - 70% of rooms have sucess rate worst than 50%.




Local residents or tourists?

The players are mostly local residents as almost 80% of operators have more than 70% players recruited from local residents and only 8% of operators rely more on tourist than on the local residents.




The age of the players

The Escape Room Games are mostly played by younger audience as 94% of Players are under 40 years.



Real-Life Escape Game Industry overview YE2015

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