Escape Artist Greenville was ranked No. 7 in the country in USA Today's 10Best Readers' Choice Awards, a national honor for a business that started as a free haunted house in a Greenville couple's backyard. Will and Kim Rutherford opened the city's first escape room on Stone Avenue in 2016, and a decade later their company now runs two locations and eight original experiences across the city.
From Backyard Haunts to National Recognition
According to Greenville News, Escape Artist Greenville is a locally owned entertainment company specializing in original, story-driven immersive adventures, and the USA Today 10Best ranking marks this year's second appearance in the awards after the business was first included back in 2021. Kim Rutherford said being recognized as a top escape room in the country was incredible, and she said the couple did not expect national recognition when they first opened, per the same report. USA Today's 10Best Readers' Choice Award nominees are selected by an expert panel of travel and industry contributors before being submitted to a four-week nationwide public voting process, according to The Bureau Orlando.
Before there were any puzzle rooms, there was just a house full of fog machines and fake cobwebs. Will and Kim Rutherford spent four months each year transforming their home into a free haunted house for friends, family, and trick-or-treaters, the Greenville News report states. Kim Rutherford said the couple eventually had to decide whether to scale their haunted-house hobby up into a profession or scale it down, and they learned about escape rooms at a home haunters convention before opening the city's first one on Stone Avenue in 2016.
Two Locations, Eight Original Experiences
Escape Artist Greenville now has two locations within 10 years of opening: the original site at 209 E. Stone Avenue downtown, opened in 2016, and a second location at 1320 Hampton Avenue Ext. The company announced plans in June 2021 to open the Hampton Station site that fall, according to the Upstate Business Journal. That Hampton Station complex is a redeveloped industrial site in West Greenville that also features local craft breweries, restaurants, and creative artisan shops, per the same outlet.
Unlike many franchise operations, the company designs each game from scratch, building the puzzle, storyline, and set design in-house, per the Greenville News report. Will Rutherford said Escape Artist is designed as a story experience rather than an intelligence test, and the company uses live actors inside its rooms to deliver an exciting conclusion. At the Stone Avenue location, five distinct adventures are on offer, including Dr. Fratelli's Cabin, Classified: Operation Nine Lives, The Inventor's Enigma, Yuletide Magic, and The Starlight Motel, according to Morty, a database and review aggregator for escape rooms and immersive attractions. The company's horror-themed rooms, including The Starlight Motel and Dark Lullaby, feature live actors who perform without physically touching players, per Escape Artist Greenville's own site.
A Hardcore Favorite Among Escape Room Enthusiasts
Beyond the USA Today honor, Escape Artist Greenville carries serious weight among dedicated escape room players. The company's flagship experience at Hampton Station, the Chimera Corp Saga, was named the No. 1 escape room in the U.S. and the No. 22 escape room in the world by the Top Escape Rooms Project Enthusiasts' Choice Awards, an international program determined by votes from experienced players worldwide, according to TERPECA.
The Chimera Corp Saga weaves three individual games, Castle Flüffendor, Dark Lullaby, and Help Wanted, into a single interconnected story running more than three hours, with tickets starting at $108 per player for groups of four to eight, as detailed by Room Escape Artist. That same publication has separately named Greenville a regional travel destination for escape room enthusiasts, attributing the draw primarily to Escape Artist Greenville's multi-room offerings. The Greenville News report notes that the company draws visitors from around the country and the world, many of whom travel specifically for the experience. Escape Artist Greenville was also voted the No. 2 escape room in the United States in Newsweek's 2025 Readers' Choice Awards, according to Kidding Around Greenville.
For newcomers, the company's standard lineup is split into 60-minute Classic games starting at $32 per ticket and 75-minute Premium games starting at $36 per ticket, the latter featuring elaborate sets and live actor performances, per Escape Artist Greenville's own listings. A decade after trading backyard cobwebs for custom-built puzzle rooms, the Rutherfords' company has turned into one of the reasons escape room fans plan a trip to Greenville in the first place.
