100 Most Common Escape Room Theme Ideas

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:

1. Prison Escape
2. Zombie Outbreak
3. The Secret Agent’s Office
4. The Bank Robbery
5. Ancient Egypt Tomb
6. The Casino Escape
7. The Diamond Heist
8. The Museum Break-in
9. Da Vinci’s Code
10. Spy Mission
11. Medieval Castle
12. Murder Mystery
13. Treasure Hunt
14. Time Travel
15. Jungle Adventure
16. Pirate’s Treasure
17. Zombie Apocalypse
18. Sherlock Holmes Mystery
19. Haunted House
20. Indiana Jones Adventure
21. Harry Potter Wizarding World
22. Superhero Hideout
23. Escape from Alcatraz
24. Ghost Ship
25. FBI Investigation
26. Arctic Expedition
27. Atlantis Adventure
28. Secret Agent Mission
29. Alien Invasion
30. Lost City of Atlantis
31. Escape from Pompeii
32. Wizard’s Tower
33. Escape from the Apocalypse
34. The Matrix
35. Submarine Adventure
36. Espionage
37. The Titanic
38. Escape from the Circus
39. The Wild West
40. The Inca Empire
41. Trapped in a Snowstorm
42. The Secret Laboratory
43. The Bermuda Triangle
44. The Black Plague
45. Virtual Reality Game
46. Casino Heist
47. Escape from a Nuclear Bunker
48. The Great Pyramid of Giza
49. The Wizard of Oz
50. The Underwater City
51. Time Machine
52. The Pirates of the Caribbean
53. The Hobbit’s Lair
54. The Lost Kingdom
55. The Wizard’s School
56. The Upside-Down Room
57. The Arabian Nights
58. The Matrix Reloaded
59. The Sherlock Holmes Adventure
60. The Vampire’s Lair
61. Space Station
62. The Titanic Sinking
63. The Cyber Crime
64. The Lost Island
65. The Zombie Attack
66. The Atlantis Temple
67. The Haunted Hotel
68. The Ghost Train
69. The Ninja’s Hideout
70. The Super Villain’s Lair
71. The City of Gold
72. The Jungle Temple
73. The Ghost Ship Pirate’s Treasure
74. The Time Travel Experiment
75. The Virtual Reality Maze
76. The Medieval Castle Siege
77. The Zombie Survival
78. The Black Ops Mission
79. The Haunted Forest
80. The End of the World
81. The Secret Society
82. The Lost Pyramid of the Mayans
83. The Escape from the Underworld
84. The Haunted Asylum
85. The Alien Experiment
86. The Apocalypse Survival
87. The Zombie Hospital
88. The Abandoned Mine
89. The Deserted Island
90. The Haunted Mansion Mystery
91. The Carnival of Horrors
92. The Secret Agent’s Hideout
93. The Treasure of El Dorado
94. The Jungle Safari
95. The Sherlock Holmes Investigation
96. The Upside-Down Mansion
97. The Wizard’s Tower Siege
98. The Zombie Outbreak Response Team
99. Bank Heist Escape Room
100. 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!

1. The Cyber Crime Investigation
2. The Escape from the Mafia
3. The Haunted Lighthouse
4. The Ghost Train Robbery
5. The Superhero Training
6. The Treasure Hunter’s Quest
7. The Alien Abduction
8. The Space Odyssey
9. The Space Station
10. The Escape fromThe Volcano Eruption
11. The Lost Temple of the Aztecs
12. The Ghost Town Mystery
13. The Crystal Maze
14. The Underwater Adventure
15. The Abandoned Theme Park
16. The Secret Island
17. The Time Warp
18. The Haunted Dollhouse
19. The Escape from the Zoo
20. The Interstellar Adventure
21. The Lost World
22. The Secret Society Conspiracy
23. The Circus Escape
24. Escape a Plane About To Crash
25. 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. Wether 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!