It’s funny actually, because as much as I like escape rooms, there’s always some hesitation at the start as it dawns on me that I’m about to be in a room for an hour with 3-4 people, at least one of whom annoys me (and that’s not to sound superior as I probably annoy everyone).
But, as I say, I enjoy the themes, and as soon as you’ve got your mind focused on a puzzle, you forget about the socializing factor 
I’m not trying to convince you to play, just describing my experience.
Most of my 10-12 escape room experiences have been part of workplace team building days. Most of these have been better received than bowling, city scavenger hunt or pub quiz.
Some were duds, clearly the staff were just mailing it in. Most were good to very good.
My wife, daughter and I went to one at a ski resort and another in our beach resort. We enjoyed them immensely because we are a smidge on the geeky side 
I’ve only been to escape rooms with friends and family. I’ve general enjoyed them. Some are much better than others.
I seem to remember a number of years back watching several episodes of a show where a group of people were trying to solve an escape room. Or more precisely, several rooms; getting out of the first room led them to a second room, and then a third, and finally a fourth. There was a time limit, and they could buy clues by sacrificing some of their game time. Unfortunately my google-fu and wiki-fu are failing me. Has anyone else heard of this, or has senility started setting in?
There was an American version of The Crystal Maze in 2020, on Nickelodeon. You may be thinking of that.
Or, you know,
This…seems to imply a LOT of workplace team building days. Are these on company time/hours and do most people enjoy them? I’m well aware I’m very mildly antisocial (in a totally non-hostile sort of way) and I have a job that suits that - I work alone at least a couple days a week. But the thought of that much enforced team building honestly fills me with a certain amount of bewilderment and angst. I like most of my co-workers, but do not want to spend my off time with them, especially not in a curated group task I may rather dislike.
I guess it is a little different if it is during normal work hours, then at least it is a potentially fun paid break. And I get more social people that gravitate towards working in a collaborative team probably enjoy these things way more than I would. Still, I think if someone announced “we’re all bowling today!” for the tenth time, I’d be tempted to go home sick. Unless of course there is an easy-going allowance made for me not bowling, but rather sitting there eating nachos, chatting and drinking beer while everyone else bowls.
It varies because this is at three different companies, but the formula is similar. Two to three a year. Not always the same people. Sometimes local, sometimes a part of an offsite multi-day meeting.
Events involving junior staff are within working hours - ish. Might go to 7 and include a casual dinner (e.g. nice burger place). Events with more senior folks would go into later into the evening.
I’ve never heard any complaints. Except when our “leader” was a ln endurance athlete and arranged team building exercises that were obstacle courses. Basically he and a small group of fit muscular people making fun of the rest of us trying to climb, jump and wriggle over/through baffles.
Our bowling outings also include pool and arcade games. No one is forced to bowl.
I once worked for a European company that had a team building exercise for all its employees worldwide. I wasn’t crazy about the go-kart racing, but I enjoyed the free trip to Amsterdam.
I love escape rooms! I’ve only been to, like, 5 since they became a thing but I’ve had a blast at each one.
I wish I had more time, money and friends to do them. The first one I did was a long time ago on my birthday and I invited anyone who wanted to come. This was when everyone was still super involved in Facebook so I got a bunch of really different types of folks to come out and we laughed so hard I was exhausted.
Used to be that if you couldn’t get at least 5 people to come out you had to go with other randos who also didn’t have enough people. That kind of turned me off because I didn’t want to work with a bunch of strangers. Now there’s so many of them they just charge a ton of money and you can do it as just a couple.
Anyway, they’re super neat and I love all of the things they come up with and the cool mechanisms they use.
I used to have “team building” days about once a year. Always on company time, except sometimes a dinner was tacked on. (And you could skip the dinner with any plausible excuse.)
I also had “leadership” meetings which were usually a couple days offsite, with required evening events. But it’s not crazy that corporate “leaders” are expected to put in some evening hours, and those usually came with excellent continuing professional education (which i needed anyway) along with useful updates on what the corporation was up to.
I have no desire to be stuck in a small room with a group trying to figure out whose fault it is that we haven’t gotten the correct clue. lol. But apparently there was a prankster who kept padlocking the only door out of an escape room facility leaving only a sheet of paper with the clue on it for the combination to the padlock. The escape room owners got pissed and eventually just stocked bolt cutters.
Other than the aforementioned times where it’s physically impossible for one person to gain or use a clue on their own, how exactly does teamwork help solve the puzzle?
Some puzzles are difficult and more brains are more likely to find the answer. Also, some people are better at some types of puzzles than others (wordplay, spatial, math, etc.).
Part of the game is just physically searching the room for hidden stuff. That can be easily parallelized.
Talking things through helps a lot. Plus different people have different logical skills and knowledge bases.
Someone knows the symbols of all the [chemical] elements, someone else knows their literature or Latin, etc.
Considering parlour games are being turned into top rating reality shows now, there has to be a way to turn an Escape Room into something more dramatic for TV, instead of chaotic or limp as past attempts have been.
You need it to be one part Survivor, one part Hunted, one part Only Connect, one part Taskmaster.
Gotta raise the stakes somehow. Electrocution, fire, flooding, spikes, something like that. And no faking it.
I’m thinking of the trash compactor scene on the original Star Wars.
What the others said, but also doing it as a team gives us extroverts a buzz that makes us perform better, I think.