We had the honor to be selected as one of the four bloggers on an “expert” panel to nominate games for USAToday’s 2017 reader’s choice award for American escape rooms.

As native Californians, we’re pleasantly surprised by the heavy California representation on this list. From both our own personal experience and what we’ve heard from other escape room enthusiasts, Los Angeles is the strongest escape room market in North America, so that may explain at least some of the heavy California representation. Our own escape room play log is biased towards the West Coast, but we made sure to have some more geographic diversity in our nominations.

These are the 20 escape room companies on the final nomination list. This list includes 13 of our own nominations.

Western US Games

  • 60out, California
  • Cross Roads Escape Games, California
  • Enchambered, California
  • Epic Team Adventures, Washington
  • Escapade Games, California
  • Omescape, California
  • Palace Games, California
  • Quest Room, California
  • Roomescape Los Angeles, California

Central US Games

  • 13th Gate Escape, Louisiana
  • 60 to Escape, Illinois
  • Breakout Lawrence, Kansas
  • Escape Code, Missouri
  • Escape my Room, Louisiana

Eastern US Games

  • 5wits, Massachusetts and New York
  • Escape Room Insomnia DC, Washington DC
  • Escape the Room NYC, New York
  • Komnata Quest, New York
  • Mission: Escape, Georgia
  • Wicked Escapes, Massachusetts

 

The voting system allows one vote per day, so log in and vote daily for your favorite escape room at http://www.10best.com/awards/travel/best-escape-room-2017/. The contest closes on Monday, September 25 so put in your votes before then!