In honor of our milestone 10th Anniversary, Escape Authority is bringing back one of our most popular past features, the Keys to Greatness, our own official site awards. This year’s event will be bigger than ever, with a record twenty-five different categories recognizing everything EA covers across the site: Games, Haunts, Immersive Experiences and At Home Games!
Each category will see three winners, traditionally presented as a Gold Key, Silver Key and Bronze Key award.
But what’s a 10th Anniversary party without a few new surprises, right? This year, we’re debuting two new ways to spotlight games and attractions. First off is the Legacy Award, given to a game or attraction which, although gone, is anything but forgotten. In many cases, winners of these purple Legacy Awards might have earned the coveted Gold Key had they still been operating at publication time. We feel there’s no better way to honor ten years of EA’s history than celebrate some of the very best experiences that have wowed us along the way!
For the first time, we’re also introducing a Special Feature Key. We’d like to stress from the outset that, as the name implies, this lime green key is not considered an award. In fact, any language that implies endorsement in the category’s title, such as “best” or “most,” is removed from this new Special Feature Key. This will, for example transform the “Best Comedy Theme” award to simply “Special Feature: Comedy Theme.”
As you probably know, EA’s Founder Chris has been in the attraction design world for more than twenty years, with the most recent decade largely focused on custom escape games, branded as Chris + Creative. We as a site have been vocal from the start that none of his games are to receive awards or Key Ratings from EA. Just the same, Chris is proud to share a special look at some of the cool things he’s been fortunate enough to create across this industry when it fits the conversation. That’s exactly what this new Special Feature Key is for: to share Chris’ work of passion without ever implying these games are better than any of this year’s very deserving winners.
Oh – and before we dive into this year’s categories, we have one or two more surprises. This year, for the very first time ever, it’s possible you might just come across the occasional tie between equally-deserving award winners! Behind the scenes, this change has been a long time coming; as the industry continues to grow and evolve, there have been multiple instances through the years where more than one game could be considered deserving of a Gold Key in a specific category. You won’t see this often – nor should you – to protect the meaningfulness of our Keys To Greatness awards overall. We felt that EA’s 10th Anniversary was the perfect time to try something new, and in the process, in limited instances, create the ability to recognize even more games and attractions that have absolutely earned the honor. Each category will still be limited to just three winners, so, in the event of a tie, the additional Gold Key will replace a Bronze or Silver Key for that set.
We’ve also removed our prior limitation that a game can only win in a single category (not including Best Game.) This year, if an experience earns the honor, they win the award! And speaking of those awards, 2026 sees the debut of nine brand new categories of consideration!
And now… we’re excited to officially announce the twenty-five distinct categories each award will recognize:
One of the record twenty-five different categories’ winners will be revealed every single day at 3 pm EST, beginning on EA’s 10th Anniversary, this Friday, May 15th, 2026. For those wishing to tune in for specific awards they hope to see their favorite games win, the categories above are listed in chronological order, beginning with our first award, Best Story on May 15, 2026. Then, over the course of the next several weeks, it all leads up to the coveted Best Game award winners announced on June 8, 2026!
These awards will be posted in each respective recipient’s review here on Escape Authority, as well as be shared directly with each winning venue so that they may include them on their own sites and social channels. Congratulations are due to each and every game, venue and attraction that was even considered in this process. With more than 1,000 games played across the site, being picked as one of the best three in the country is a well-earned honor to truly be proud of!
