How to Meet New Escape Room Friends

This post is meant for either people who want to play a particular escape room but need more people in order to 1) reach the hard minimum for that game or 2) make booking the room much more economical. This especially applies to travelling escape room enthusiasts who are looking for a team outside of their normal region.

You can always try converting friends, coworkers, and acquaintances into escape room friends first. But in the event that that doesn’t work, try posting in an local escape room enthusiast community! These local communities typically form on Facebook and Meetup.com. You can also book a public-booking game at a popular escape room in your area and you’ll run into other escape room parties as well.

An example of a (hopefully) successful call for teammates!

Continental Escape Room Groups

These are continent-based English-language escape room enthusiast groups. The Global groups seem to mostly be United States and Canada by volume of posts.

• Global – Escape Room Enthusiasts (27,000+ members)
  • This is the largest and most active escape room community in the English-language world, with 27,000+ members and about 10 new posts per day. The group was started in early 2015 by two Canadians: Scott Nicholson (Game design professor) and Rob Leveille (Ontario escape room owner).
• Global – Escape Rooms Discord (1,000+ members)
  • Great for those familiar with Discord. This is the successor to the Escape Room Slack.
• Global – r/escaperooms (12,000+ members)
  • Great for redditors
• Europe – Europe Escape Enthusiasts (1,100+ members)
• Australia & New Zealand – Escape Room Enthusiasts – Australia & New Zealand (2,000+ members)

Regional Escape Room Groups & Meetups

We’re trying to compile all active escape room groups with over 100 members in English-speaking areas. If you know of any we missed, please leave a comment or contact us!

Western United States

• Southern California
  • Southern California – Escape Room Artists (ERA Socal) (4,200+ members)
    • This group is very active, with about 3 new posts per day.
  • Southern California – Escape Room Enthusiasts of SoCal (1,400+ members)
  • Orange County – OC Escape Room Enthusiasts (400+ members)
• Northern California
  • SF Bay Area – Bay Area Room Escapers (1,800 members)
  • SF Bay Area – Bay Area Escape Room Enthusiasts (800+ members)
  • Sacramento – Sacramento Escape Room Enthusiasts (400+ members)
• Pacific Northwest – PNW Escape Room Enthusiasts (600+ members)
• Phoenix – Phoenix Escape Room Enthusiasts (150+ members)
• Colorado – Colorado Escape Enthusiasts (100+ members)

Eastern, Midwest, and Southern United States

• Florida – Escape Room Enthusiasts Florida (1,400+ members)
• Dallas-Fort Worth – Escape Room Enthusiasts DFW (600+ members)
• New England – Escape Game Enthusiasts of New England (500+ members)
• East Coast – East Coast Room Escape Enthusiasts (500+ members)
  • Mostly contains announcements from the blogger-admins
• Midwest – Escape Room Escapers (Indiana & Midwest Area) (400+ members)
• Carolinas – Carolina Escape Room Enthusiasts (400+ members)
• New York City – NYC Room Escape and Puzzle Enthusiasts (300+ members)
• Southeast – Southeast Escape Room Enthusiasts (300+ members)

Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia

• United Kingdom – UK Escape Room Enthusiasts (5,800+ members)
  • This group is very active, with about 5 new posts per day.
• United Kingdom – Escape Rooms UK (700+ members)
• Toronto – Toronto Room Escape Games (500+ members)
• Ontario – Escape Room Enthusiasts of Ontario (800+ members)
• Sydney – Sydney Escape Rooms (1,200+ members)

These groups are full of other escape room enthusiasts, and a common usage of these rooms is to discuss escape rooms and look for players to join you on a trip.

Happy escaping!

Companion Cube screenshot by Tom Francis.