2005–2011: Founding and popularity The Escapist was conceived as a PDF-format magazine by Themis Media, whose president Alexander Macris had previously found success with its sister site
WarCry Network. Editor-in-chief Julianne Greer had not been involved in the gaming industry before
The Escapist, and had a background in marketing and new media. The website MMORPG.com noted that the webzine had become the "flagship brand" for Themis, which runs other websites and ventures related to the gaming industry, with the reputation of "a widely read and highly respected form of game journalism" and "paying writers top dollar". On July 9, 2007, the site relaunched with a completely new design, which also saw the end of the weekly PDF issues and a shift in layout to one more similar to other websites. Although the weekly topic and publish schedule was retained, new regular content additions included more game reviews, editorial articles, conference coverage, and a relaunch of Shoot Club by
Tom Chick. The most notable addition to the content lineup was
Zero Punctuation, a weekly animated review series that led to a four-fold increase in web traffic. Within the next four years,
The Escapist contracted several creators including
LoadingReadyRun,
Miracle of Sound, and Bob "MovieBob" Chipman, as well as helping launch
Extra Credits as a rebrand of its creators' videos. In 2010,
The Escapist launched a membership service called the Publisher's Club which for $20 a year removed advertisements from the site, conferred forum benefits and entry into special contests.
2011–2018: Dispute and decline Around the end of July 2011, there was a dispute between
The Escapist and James Portnow, co-creator of
Extra Credits. After not being paid for months, the
Extra Credits team needed to pay for surgery for their artist, Allison Theus. They began a charity fund on
RocketHub, separate from
The Escapist, and received substantially more money than was necessary for Theus's surgery. They planned to use this extra money to create a game publishing label, where the revenue would go directly into funding subsequent projects. Alexander Macris, owner and co-founder of The Escapist, stated the money should have been used to create more episodes of
Extra Credits for
The Escapist and to compensate Themis Media for donation incentives, such as premium memberships and T-shirts. During the dispute, a number of other contracted creators spoke out in support of
Extra Credits, relaying similar stories of mistreatment by the management. Among them were MovieBob,
James Stephanie Sterling,
LoadingReadyRun, and the creators of
No Right Answer. Later, those creators would also break ties with
The Escapist, leaving
Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw as the sole contracted creator by 2017. As a result,
Extra Credits broke ties with
The Escapist, moving to
Penny Arcade and later becoming independent. Macris would later become involved with the sale of Themis Media to Alloy Digital, as well as supporting the
Gamergate controversy in 2014 by openly adopting stricter policies. On November 15, 2012, it was announced that Themis Media had been acquired by Alloy Digital for an undisclosed sum. For a few years afterwards, Alloy cross-promoted
Smosh Games on
The Escapist. In 2014, Alloy Digital merged with Break Media to form
Defy Media, with a consolidated portfolio that did not mention
The Escapist. On January 21, 2015, Defy Media announced it was cutting staff across a portfolio of its main sites including The Escapist,
GameTrailers and
GameFront. In 2016, The Escapist laid off a 'number of employees' and shuttered its main office in Durham, North Carolina leaving the website's main operation out of Seattle. By late 2017, the site was reduced to Croshaw, a small streaming team and the editor-in-chief with the closure of the site seeming imminent as the community volunteers were the only contributors to the site besides Croshaw.
2018–2022: Enthusiast and relaunch In July 2018,
The Escapist was purchased by
Enthusiast Gaming, owner of
Destructoid, and a relaunch was announced with former editor-in-chief Russ Pitts at the helm. These changes came into effect September 2018, along with a website name change to
Escapist Magazine Volume Two.
The Big Picture, produced by MovieBob, was the first series to be officially relaunched alongside the continued
Zero Punctuation. Following a Twitter exchange with
Zoë Quinn over a now-deleted article about Gamergate, Russ Pitts announced he would be taking a "voluntary leave of absence" from
The Escapist in February 2019. Nick Calandra, who joined the site in 2019 as the managing director of video, replaced Pitts as editor-in-chief in July 2019. In April 2020, the site name reverted to
The Escapist. The site also launched
The Escapist +, which allows readers to view the site without advertisements. Later in October, the Escapist Movies YouTube channel was relaunched. In April 2021, the
Escapist Plays YouTube channel was relaunched as "
The Escapist Live". In May 2021, the
Escapist Movies YouTube channel merges with the main
Escapist YouTube channel.
2022–present: Gamurs Group and Clickout Media Enthusiast Gaming sold the website to
Gamurs Group in September 2022. On November 6, 2023, Calandra alleged he was fired from Gamurs Group, citing "not achieving goals" as the justification. resigned to form an
employee-owned outlet,
Second Wind; Gamurs kept the rights to
Zero Punctuation among other
Escapist properties. In July 2025, Gamurs sold
The Escapist to Clickout Media. Under Clickout Media,
The Escapist refocused its content to create reviews of online casinos and other gambling-related promotions. In 2026, Clickout Media laid off the majority of
The Escapist staff, only maintaining a small staff of "AI editors" to create AI-generated content. ==
The Escapist Games Showcase ==