ESCAPE room, a party game where players must solve some difficult puzzles and use them with objects to find a way out from a room, has gradually become an entertainment favored by young people, Shenzhen Evening News reported Wednesday.

According to e-commerce service platform Meituan’s report on escape rooms, the total volume of orders on immersive escape rooms made via Meituan exceeded 1.3 billion yuan (US$200 million) in 2019, growing by 169 percent from the previous year.

Around 83 percent of the orders were made by young people aged between 20 and 25.

Escape rooms originated in the U.S. and the game’s history in China can be dated back to 2008 when a student from Harbin turned an old room into a mysterious one for people to play escape games.

By 2015, the game was upgraded by introducing nonplayer characters (NPC) to give players a more immersive experience.

He Yan from Hunan Province opened an escape room shop named “Dingjiwanjia” (or “top player” in English) at Dongmen Pedestrian Street in Luohu District in 2018. The city didn’t have a lot of these shops when he started the business.

“Shenzhen is a young city and young people like new things. Compared with traditional ways of entertainment, they prefer interactive experiences,” said He.

He has opened branches in Nanshan and Longhua. Each themed room at his Dongmen shop covers nearly 100 square meters.

According to Meituan’s report, the country’s escape room market has seen a growth of over 20 percent since 2017. In 2019, the country’s market scale exceeded 10 billion yuan, double the scale in 2018.

Lin Sheng, an escape room lover, said that the immersive experience is like a flavoring agent in real life. “The interaction with NPC enables me to forget real worries in life. Sometimes, life is too heavy. I just want to escape to another world. I think the immersive experience provides a world free of worries,” said Lin.

Yi Xiaoxi, another enthusiast, suggested that she prefer horror-themed rooms as she no longer needs to hide her feelings and can scream to release stress.

In He’s eyes, immersive experience is a new trend in the cultural and tourism industry. He even has an idea to create parallel time spaces for players.

(Wang Jingli)