Escape the Backrooms: 4 out of 10 players never make it out of Level 0 — the map of the 34 achievements and the game's real walls

A single number is enough to sum up Escape the Backrooms: 58.2% of Steam players found the exit of Level 0. In other words, four out of ten players have never made it past the first yellow corridor — the opening level, the one where all you have to do is find the right exit.

At the other end of the run, the "Nightmare" achievement, which requires finishing the game with four players on the highest difficulty setting, sits at 0.6%. Between these two extremes, the unlock rates of the 34 achievements draw a very precise map of where players give up.

All the figures below were recorded on August 18, 2026 on the French-language Steam achievements page. They shift over time as sales continue; it's the gap between them that tells a story.

The 34 achievements ranked by rarity, and the three steps that cost the most

The table is ranked by rarity, not by order of play. But if you follow the numbered levels in their order, three drop-offs stand out clearly.

The biggest loss happens between Level 0 and Habitable Zone

A ten-point gap: 58.2% then 48.2%. This is the sharpest drop in the entire game, and it happens at the second level. Part of the explanation is mundane — many buyers launch the game once and never come back to it — but that alone doesn't account for it, since the next drop only costs 4.5 points.

The second drop-off, at Terror Hotel (Level 5), is more revealing: 36.7% get out of the Abandoned Office, 29.2% out of the Terror Hotel, a loss of 7.5 points on a single level, whereas the previous one only cost 0.9. This is where the game shifts from wandering to being hunted, and it's the level that really filters players out.

The third can be seen between Level 5 and Lights Out (Level 6): 29.2% then 25.0%. After this point, the curve flattens out — those who get past Lights Out generally go all the way.

Three anomalies that reveal a lot about how the game is played

1. The end of the game is not The End. The achievement "Escape The End" sits at 25.4%, but "Successful Escape!", which requires reaching "the ultimate ending on any difficulty", is only at 9.1%. Sixteen points separate the two: nearly two-thirds of those who escape The End never reach the true conclusion.

2. Surviving fifteen minutes in Level 0 is rarer than finishing the game. The "Survivalist" achievement sits at 7.1%, below the 9.1% for the ultimate ending. The reason is mechanical: Level 0 can be crossed in a few minutes, and no one stays there voluntarily. If you're going for it, you have to do it on purpose — stop in a corner and wait.

3. Finishing on Easy is three times rarer than finishing on Normal. "Participation Prize" (multiplayer on Easy) caps out at 8.2%, while "Squad" (multiplayer on Normal) reaches 25.6%. Nobody chooses Easy: groups default to Normal. So to check off all four difficulties, it's Easy you'll have to deliberately go back to, not Hard.

The final wall: four players, on Nightmare

The gap between "Group Effort" (Hard, 4.0%) and "Nightmare" (0.6%) is close to a factor of seven. Two constraints stack up: the difficulty itself, and the requirement of four players — whereas the other ending achievements accept any multiplayer setup.

On top of that, there's a rule that discourages attempts: on Nightmare, a player's death sends the team back to the lobby and deletes the save. The in-game message talks about a return to Level 0; that's not actually what happens.

One last benchmark to help calibrate an attempt: on Nightmare, the sanity gauge drains one and a half times faster than on Normal. The factor of 2 put forward by some community guides contradicts the wiki's mechanics pages, which give 1.5.

What these percentages say about your own playthrough

If you've made it past the Terror Hotel, you're already in the top third of players. If you've seen The End, you're in the top quarter. And if "Successful Escape!" still isn't checked off while The End is, then the ultimate ending is still waiting for you — by far the most cost-effective progression achievement you have left.

For collectors, the profitability order is clear: first the bonus levels with double-digit percentages (Snackrooms, Grassrooms, Death Slides, Level 974), then the ultimate ending, then the difficulties — Easy before Hard, and Nightmare last, with a group of four who already know the route by heart.