TERPECA 2025 results and thoughts

We're on vacation in New Zealand at the moment, and it was only fitting that we would be inside an escape room when the annual TERPECA results were announced on 20 December 2025 (it was the 21st in New Zealand).

I knew it was going to be a close race between Escaparium's Magnifico and Madland's Magic Universe, but in the end, Magnifico ended up going back to back as the No. 1 escape room in the world by a razor thin margin of 0.001268. To put this in context, the gap between Magic Universe and the third-place finisher, Monster Mashers by Tales of Torchdale in Belgium, was almost double that at 0.00247.

Escaparium truly dominated again, with FIVE rooms in the top 100 overall: No. 1 (Magnifico), No. 5 (the new Ctl Alt Reboot, which replaced their old game Rain Corp), No. 8 (The Forgotten Cathedral, which dropped from No. 3 last year), No. 36 (Wardrobe for Sale, which fell from No. 14 last year), No. 78 (The Lost Island of the Voodoo Queen, which dropped from No. 36 last year), and No. 79 (their new game Escape Plan at their Dorval location). The only disappointment is that last year's No. 49, The Family, at their Shawinigan location, dropped out of the top 100 entirely to No. 163.

The best news? I'm going to be playing ALL OF THEM in Canada next year! In fact, I intend on playing 20 of the 22 Canadian TERPECA Finalists, except for Rain Corp, which has closed, and Motel Betty, which has a 16+ age restriction (though I am still trying to convince them to bend the rules a bit).

Apart from the games at Escaparium, I'm most excited about playing The Castle of Eternal Suffering at SQP in Montreal, which finished at an impressive No. 19 in its first year, as well as The Tomb: Raiders of the Sword at Revo Escape in Toronto, which debuted at No. 96. Both are said to be exciting new rooms with big budgets and huge sets.

Other former Finalists on my list include the games at Immersia in Laval, Crypto Escape and The Imaginarium in Toronto, and Eliviascape and Cabinet Mysteriis in Quebec. Fingers crossed everything will go ahead as planned!

On the Australian front, I was ecstatic to see the best game I've played to date, Carnivorous, make the top 100, finishing at No. 77. This is extremely impressive considering that only 18 voters have played the room, the second fewest of ANY of the 374 Finalists. In other words, most of the 18 voters must have rated Carnivorous at or near the very top of their rankings — which does not surprise me at all!

What this year's results demonstrate is that the escape room industry is growing very rapidly. Compared to 2024, the total number of voters went up from 1,391 to 1,740, an increase of 25%! This is also reflected in the total number of escape rooms played by all contributors, which rose from 412,730 to 507,791, a 23% increase! The quality of the games are also evolving just as quickly, as evidenced by the 46 new games in the top 100. From the scale to the set designs to the tech to the acting, the rooms are constantly getting bigger, better, smarter, and more immersive.

This doesn't exactly bode well for Australian escape rooms, which simply don't have the million-dollar budgets that some of their European and North American counterparts have. In order to compete or not be left behind, Aussie ER designers really need to up their game and create something truly special. Carnivorous is a great example of this. Metamorphosis by The Cipher Room is another step in the right direction. And I am also hopeful that the new game from The Curium Experience — whenever it is ready — will raise the bar once more.