As an escape room designer, you have a plethora of creative escape room themes to choose from when designing your experience. Some of the most common themes include prison breaks, bank heists, and Egyptian Tombs. The best escape room themes are popular for a reason – they offer a level of excitement and intrigue that appeals to a broad audience. However, while focusing on traditional escape room tropes will make your game more marketable, relying solely on these themes can limit your creativity, leave your audience unable to get immersed in the theme, and make your experience feel generic and uninspired.
To stand out from the crowd, it’s essential to think outside of the box when choosing a theme for your escape room. Consider unique and unexpected themes that will pique the interest of your target audience. For example, you could create an escape room based on a movie genre, or pop culture trends, or incorporate elements from different genres to create a one-of-a-kind experience.
100 Escape Room Theme Ideas
Without further delay, here are the 100 most common escape room themes:
- Prison Escape
- Zombie Outbreak
- The Secret Agent’s Office
- The Bank Robbery
- Ancient Egypt Tomb
- The Casino Escape
- The Diamond Heist
- The Museum Break-in
- Da Vinci’s Code
- Spy Mission
- Medieval Castle
- Murder Mystery
- Treasure Hunt
- Time Travel
- Jungle Adventure
- Pirate’s Treasure
- Zombie Apocalypse
- Sherlock Holmes Mystery
- Haunted House
- Indiana Jones Adventure
- Harry Potter Wizarding World
- Superhero Hideout
- Escape from Alcatraz
- Ghost Ship
- FBI Investigation
- Arctic Expedition
- Atlantis Adventure
- Secret Agent Mission
- Alien Invasion
- Lost City of Atlantis
- Escape from Pompeii
- Wizard’s Tower
- Escape from the Apocalypse
- The Matrix
- Submarine Adventure
- Espionage
- The Titanic
- Escape from the Circus
- The Wild West
- The Inca Empire
- Trapped in a Snowstorm
- The Secret Laboratory
- The Bermuda Triangle
- The Black Plague
- Virtual Reality Game
- Casino Heist
- Escape from a Nuclear Bunker
- The Great Pyramid of Giza
- The Wizard of Oz
- The Underwater City
- Time Machine
- The Pirates of the Caribbean
- The Hobbit’s Lair
- The Lost Kingdom
- The Wizard’s School
- The Upside-Down Room
- The Arabian Nights
- The Matrix Reloaded
- The Sherlock Holmes Adventure
- The Vampire’s Lair
- Space Station
- The Titanic Sinking
- The Cyber Crime
- The Lost Island
- The Zombie Attack
- The Atlantis Temple
- The Haunted Hotel
- The Ghost Train
- The Ninja’s Hideout
- The Super Villain’s Lair
- The City of Gold
- The Jungle Temple
- The Ghost Ship Pirate’s Treasure
- The Time Travel Experiment
- The Virtual Reality Maze
- The Medieval Castle Siege
- The Zombie Survival
- The Black Ops Mission
- The Haunted Forest
- The End of the World
- The Secret Society
- The Lost Pyramid of the Mayans
- The Escape from the Underworld
- The Haunted Asylum
- The Alien Experiment
- The Apocalypse Survival
- The Zombie Hospital
- The Abandoned Mine
- The Deserted Island
- The Haunted Mansion Mystery
- The Carnival of Horrors
- The Secret Agent’s Hideout
- The Treasure of El Dorado
- The Jungle Safari
- The Sherlock Holmes Investigation
- The Upside-Down Mansion
- The Wizard’s Tower Siege
- The Zombie Outbreak Response Team
- Bank Heist Escape Room
- Lost Treasure Hunt
25 Extra Escape Room Ideas
Okay, we couldn’t just limit ourselves to 100. Here are a few more great escape room themes!
- The Cyber Crime Investigation
- The Escape from the Mafia
- The Haunted Lighthouse
- The Ghost Train Robbery
- The Superhero Training
- The Treasure Hunter’s Quest
- The Alien Abduction
- The Space Odyssey
- The Space Station
- The Escape fromThe Volcano Eruption
- The Lost Temple of the Aztecs
- The Ghost Town Mystery
- The Crystal Maze
- The Underwater Adventure
- The Abandoned Theme Park
- The Secret Island
- The Time Warp
- The Haunted Dollhouse
- The Escape from the Zoo
- The Interstellar Adventure
- The Lost World
- The Secret Society Conspiracy
- The Circus Escape
- Escape a Plane About To Crash
- Murder on the Orient Express
Tips On Building An Awesome Escape Room Game
In addition to choosing a unique theme, there are other ways to make your escape room experience stand out. Consider offering customization options, such as allowing customers to choose their own music or lighting preferences or creating special challenges for birthdays or other celebrations. You can also create holiday themes for escape rooms that lean into what you have already built but can then add a new layer to fit the time of year, such as a scary escape room for Halloween where the players must find clues that solve the same escape room puzzles but have been replaced with creepier props or riddles that lead to the same answer but are steeped in mystery.
Another way to make your escape room stand out is to incorporate technology and interactive elements. Many escape rooms rely solely on traditional puzzles and clues, but incorporating technology such as augmented reality or motion sensors can add an extra layer of excitement and engagement to your experience. By combining technology and unique themes, you can create an immersive and unforgettable experience that keeps customers coming back for more.
Lastly, think about who your target audience will be. If you want to build a family-friendly escape room, you may want to make a more family-friendly choice such as a pirate-themed escape room rather than choosing say a military-themed escape room like “escape a POW camp”. If you are building your escape room in an area that already has its fair share of escape rooms where bandits have robbed the bank in town, or zombies are handcuffed to a chair in a room, choose room scenarios that won’t overlap with the current market such as escape the clutches of a dragon instead.
Conclusion
While there are many popular escape room themes to choose from, it’s important to think outside of the box and come up with unique and exciting ideas that will set your experience apart from the rest. By incorporating technology, offering customization options, and balancing difficulty levels, you can create an immersive and unforgettable experience that keeps customers coming back for more.
Don’t be afraid to take risks and experiment with new ideas while incorporating classic escape room ideas. Also, don’t be discouraged if it takes time for you to create a theme offering a unique take on a common idea. Whether you are a DIY escape room artist, an industry veteran, or someone looking to get started in the escape room business, if you’re up to the challenge, we’re happy to chat and compare notes – the possibilities for thrilling escape room themes are endless!