The 25 Top Paid and Free Virtual Escape Rooms for Work and Friends
Whether with colleagues or friends, virtual escape rooms are a fun way to shake off the pandemic blues, kickstart your brain, and reconnect with one another.
When it comes to building bonds, solving problems, and putting your mental fortitude to the test, nothing beats virtual escape rooms.
And, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues causing disruptions to in-person work and making it harder than ever to engage with colleagues, family, and friends, virtual escape rooms also provide a fun and safe way to connect with your peers.
So, we’ve built a comprehensive list of the best free and paid virtual escape rooms for colleagues and friends.
12 Paid Virtual Escape Rooms for Work
If you’ve got a little bit of budget to invest in a virtual escape room for yourself and your colleagues, the options are pretty much limitless.
Here are some of our favorite paid virtual escape rooms available on the internet.
1. Virtual Escape Room: Jewel Heist
There’s been a robbery! Someone has masterminded a heist to steal a priceless collection of precious jewels, and it’s up to you and your team to recover them before time runs out.
In this virtual escape room, you and your team will need to uncover hidden clues and solve a series of brain-boggling challenges that require collaboration, creative problem-solving, and outside-the-box thinking. But be quick! The clock is ticking before the stolen score is gone forever.
This virtual version is based on our popular in-person Corporate Escape Rooms, Jewel Heist and The Mummy’s Curse.
Price: Virtually-hosted starting at $11 per person
2. Escape Experience
Much like the last virtual escape room we shared, Escape Experience is a hybrid activity hosted by an on-site guide. There are a ton of options available, including a race to stop a nuclear bomb, a getaway from a runaway train, or a daring prison break. Most games last approximately one hour.
Price: $25 per person + $50 flat rate
3. The Escape Game Remote Adventures
For remote teams who can’t get together in person, The Escape Game Remote Adventures offers 60-minute virtually-hosted challenges with themes like Prison Break, Gold Rush, and More. A digital dashboard also keeps track of clues and allows you to do a 360-degree scan of the room.
Price: $30 per person
4. The Grimm Escape
This mythical challenge takes place in an enchanted forest accessible via Zoom, where you and your team will need to solve puzzles and escape a witch’s curse.
Price: $25 per person
5. YouEscape
There is no shortage of virtual escape room options available from YouEscape, with themes ranging from music to constellations, bomb-diffusing, and solving murders.
Price: Starting at $30
6. Wildly Different Escape Rooms
If you’re looking for a custom-built virtual escape room challenge, Wildly Different can accommodate. With its app-based escape rooms, they’re able to tailor questions and clues to fit your industry or brand.
Price: Custom escape rooms start at $750 plus $25 per person
7. Paruzal Games
While many virtual escape rooms focus on heists, curses, and spies, Paruzal Games offers puzzle-based challenges with themes focused on things like pizza, rock ‘n roll, golf, coffee, and movies.
Price: Starting at $15 per person
8. Mystery Escape Room
These virtual escape rooms are perfect for people who absolutely love a good mystery. Channel your inner Sherlock Holmes for themed escape rooms like The Bell Witch Hauntings, Nancy Drew, Moriarty’s Parlor, and more.
Price: Starting at $80 per event
9. Trapped in the Web
Unlike the question-and-answer format of many other virtual escape rooms, Trapped in the Web is all about using the internet to track down clues in text-based adventures that utilize video and picture elements.
Price: Starting from $13
10. Cofundrum Escape Rooms
If you’re looking for a virtual escape room with some added production value, check out Cofundrum. With its 3D graphics, this escape room offers a video game feel to add a new level of engagement.
Price: $30 per activity
11. Brain Chase
For teams that want to take a more education-based approach to their virtual escape room team building activity, Brain Chase is a great bet. Its themes include engineering, coding, photography, and reading, making it perfect for students and teachers or anyone who simply likes to test their smarts.
Price: Starting at $19 per activity
12. Black Noir Online Escape Room
Looking for a virtual escape room with a great story and some fun challenges? Then this is a perfect fit for your team. Centered around solving a mysterious murder, this escape room includes multiple different rooms, each with its own unique theme.
Price: $49.00
9 Free Virtual Escape Rooms for Work
When you want to take part in a virtual escape room but don’t have budget to allocate towards paying for more elaborate ones, there are a ton of great, simple free versions available.
Here are our favorites.
1. Hogwarts Digital Escape Room
If you ever dreamt of attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry alongside Harry Potter and his pals, you’re going to love this free virtual escape room.
It draws on the experience of your first year at the fantastical institution and uses a mix of Harry Potter references, logic puzzles, and fun challenges to create a magical experience for all.
2. Dr. Who Escape Room
For full transparency, this elaborate escape room might have a niche audience: die-hard Dr. Who fans. But if this sounds like you, then you’re going to revel in the fun of this one.
Packed with logic puzzles and carried through a long, elaborate narrative, this free virtual escape room is perfect for critical thinkers and people who love a little storytelling.
3. The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Part escape room and part pick-your-own-adventure, you’ll actually get to choose between two scenarios to craft your experience with this virtual escape room.
Rooted in history and fused with a touch of humor, this free virtual escape room can be played multiple times in multiple different ways.
4. Romeo & Juliet
“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?”
Shakespeare loves rejoice! In this free virtual escape room, you’ll need to solve the feud between the Montague and Capulet families through math problems, literature knowledge, and logic.
5. Golden Girls Escape Room
Another niche-focused escape room, this one is based on the classic Golden Girls TV show. And in this activity, you’ll be working through fun themed trivia questions. The great thing about this free virtual escape room is that it moves quickly so you can even incorporate it into the beginning or end of a meeting.
6. Oscar’s Stolen Oscar
The National Aquarium created this online adventure centered around oscar fish. Teams will use resources like the aquarium’s virtual tour and educational video to answer questions while learning submarine fun facts and insights.
7. Mr. X
Whereas many free virtual escape rooms use forms and questions, this one is actually an interactive online treasure hunt.
So, rather than simply answering questions, you’ll need to use online tools like YouTube and Google Maps to find and decipher clues as you work to locate the elusive Mr. X.
8. Minecraft Escape Room
Whether you’re a fan of the classic Minecraft computer game or not, you’ll still have a blast with this free virtual escape room.
9. See Me Escape Rooms
If you love puzzles, you’ll be a big fan of See Me Escape Rooms. This free virtual escape room is all about solving puzzles in order to crack codes and ultimately escape. They also offer imaginative and engaging stories with this rooms which make them even more fun to take part in.
4 Virtual Escape Rooms for Friend Groups
Virtual escape rooms aren’t just for colleagues and work purposes. They can be a great way to have fun with your friends as well.
Here are some of our favorite social virtual escape rooms to play with your friend group.
1. Ultra Mega Super Death Escape Room
We’ll just say this right off the bat: this is not your typical G-rated virtual escape room. It’s geared towards adults and offers complex problems with a tongue-in-cheek tone. If you and your friends have a darker sense of humor, you’re going to have a blast doing this escape room together.
2. Pikachu’s Rescue
Tap into some childhood nostalgia, channel your inner Pokémon trainer, and play an escape room packed with Pokémon trivia and basic math problems.
3. Luco Online Escape Rooms
If you’re looking for a fun pastime with your pals, this virtual escape room offers three adrenaline-pumping storylines for you to choose from. They’re also all uniquely illustrated to give them an extra touch of fun.
4. 60Out
When it comes to virtual escape rooms, 60Out is unique. While it offers fun rooms to participate in with your friends, it also offers you the ability to work with strangers on puzzles in case you’re feeling a little stir crazy from staying home during the pandemic.
When you’re feeling stuck in a pandemic brain fog, virtual escape rooms are a great way to shake off the haziness, have some fun, and get re-engaged with your colleagues, family, or friends.
Do you have a favorite virtual escape room that we might not have included here? Let us know what it is in the comments section below!
Want to learn more about virtual escape rooms?
If you’ve got questions about the right virtual escape room for your needs, reach out to an Employee Engagement Consultant.
Originally published at https://www.outbackteambuilding.com on September 13, 2021.
