This year’s shortlist brings together large-scale experiences that show what happens when ambition, infrastructure, and creative precision align.
Across the category are productions that transform ships, stadiums, breweries, museums, city skylines, and vast purpose-built environments into fully operational worlds — balancing spectacle with systems, narrative with throughput, and immersion with commercial reality.
What connects them is not just scale, but the ability to deliver experiences that feel expansive, memorable, and built to move large audiences without losing their sense of wonder.
Here are our shortlisted entries:
THE DEAL
A fully transformed cruise ship in Shenzhen becomes a 1920s Parisian world, using its vertical architecture (decks, stairwells, hidden rooms) to create layered exploration rather than flat scenography.
The promenade format removes seating entirely: audiences move, choose paths, follow characters, and experience different narrative strands. A live, roaming three-piece band scores the action in real time across spaces. Intimate proximity to performers and tactile environments (tarot rooms, workshops) deepen immersion.
What elevates it is the spatial complexity and agency; what holds it back is lack of hard metrics on scale, throughput, or repeatability.
THE TRAITORS: LIVE EXPERIENCE (UK)
A precise system translation of a TV format into a live, replayable experience.
Eight identical Round Table rooms run in parallel (14 players each), enabling high throughput while maintaining consistency. Over 1.5 million programmable lighting cues dynamically respond to gameplay, escalating tension in real time. A live host orchestrates pacing while players drive outcomes, ensuring no two sessions are identical.
Commercial performance is strong: £6M revenue, 120,000 tickets, six months sold out. It stands out for combining narrative, systems design, and operations into a scalable, repeatable, and commercially proven live experience format.
STRANGER THINGS: FACE THE DARK (NETFLIX HOUSE)
A 15,000 sq ft, 50+ minute walkthrough placing guests inside Hawkins between Seasons 4 and 5.
The core mechanic is personal: each guest carries a flashlight that triggers effects and an individual audio device delivering character dialogue and cues. Eight live actors and 1:1 recreated sets (Creel House, Police Station) anchor the experience physically. Capacity reaches 160 guests/hour, balancing immersion with throughput. The strength lies in tightly integrated sensory design and narrative continuity with the IP. It’s highly polished, but sits within a known immersive-IP playbook rather than redefining the category.
THE TRAITORS EXPERIENCE – LIVE (USA)
A 75-minute hybrid of game show, escape room, and immersive theatre set in a manor estate.
Guests navigate missions (cornfield maze, laser gauntlet, puzzle rooms) guided by 15 actors, building alliances and identifying traitors. Unlike the UK version, it leans more into physical challenges and scenographic variety than systemised repeatability. Scale is smaller (2,000+ attendees) but media impact is strong (48M impressions, 50+ press outlets).
Its strength is theatrical ambition and IP translation; its limitation is lower throughput and less operational sophistication compared to the UK format.
GUINNESS: THE OPEN GATE EXPERIENCE
A five-part journey reframing a brewery tour into a multi-sensory brand world.
Key spaces include a 360° intro (“Step into the Pint”), a working microbrewery, a highly visual “Beautiful Guinness” installation, and a communal tasting room. The narrative ties Guinness to Covent Garden and its creative heritage. Commercial performance is strong: opening week sold out, 94% first-month ticket sales, 97% satisfaction.
The experience balances education, social interaction, and brand storytelling effectively. It sets a new benchmark for brewery experiences, though it remains within the brand-home category rather than pushing beyond it.
ATLAS9
A 46,000 sq ft original IP built around a “glitched cinema” narrative, combining RFID-driven gameplay with dense interactive environments.
Guests use wristbands to trigger effects, complete quests, and personalise their journey—hacking computers, controlling projections, and generating real-time movie posters featuring themselves. The system integrates lighting, sound, and narrative interfaces into a unified operating layer.
Fabrication innovation (large-scale 3D printing, digital sheet metal forming) supports the world-building. It stands out for depth of interaction, originality, and technical integration, positioning itself as both an attraction and a new model for immersive IP creation.
REALMADRID GAMES
Transforms unused stadium corridors at the Bernabéu into a year-round interactive attraction.
Guests progress through a structured journey—from training drills to team gameplay—using a connected device and avatar system that tracks performance in real time.
The experience blends projections, sound, and physical challenges, while integrating sponsor zones seamlessly. Its strength lies in converting passive infrastructure into an active, monetisable experience beyond match days. The system is coherent and scalable, appealing to both fans and newcomers.
It’s commercially smart and well executed, though less groundbreaking in format compared to top-tier entries.
WEATHER EXTREMES – KLIMAHAUS BREMERHAVEN
A science exhibition anchored by a 12-meter hydraulic platform lifting 40 visitors through simulated extreme weather.
The 12-minute “Uplift” combines 360° projection, wind, water spray, fog, and 90 dB sound to create full-body immersion.
Supporting exhibits include real fog manipulation and a laser-generated tornado. The build required structural intervention across three floors and 50 km of cabling. It succeeds in making climate data visceral and emotionally engaging.
The innovation lies in physicalisation of content, though it remains within the museum/exhibition category rather than scaling beyond it.
NETFLIX STRANGER THINGS NYE SKY SHOW
An eight-minute New Year’s Eve drone show over Las Vegas using 5,500 drones (including 450 pyro drones) across a 950-foot canvas.
The show was never fully tested prior to launch—executed live under strict battery and timing constraints. A team of 30–40 managed deployment, with pyro drones individually prepared. The content drew directly from the series, translating scenes and characters into aerial storytelling.
It achieved 131M+ online views. What sets it apart is the combination of extreme technical risk, scale, and cultural impact—turning a broadcast moment into a globally shared spectacle.
GUANGDONG–MACAO TCM EXPERIENCE CENTRE
A 36,000㎡ immersive cultural centre translating Traditional Chinese Medicine into spatial storytelling.
The lotus-shaped building reinforces thematic coherence, while interiors combine large-scale Wētā sculptures, projection environments, and interactive media. Visitor numbers are significant: 610,000+ since opening, with peaks of 40,000/day and 4.8/5 ratings. The experience communicates abstract concepts like balance and energy through sensory environments rather than didactic displays.
It’s a strong example of cultural translation at scale, though it fits within the emerging immersive museum typology rather than redefining it.
BRAWL STARS – WELCOME TO STARR PARK
A free, five-day Comic-Con activation designed as a live prototype for game IP in physical space.
The experience prioritised human interaction over screens: players formed teams, completed quests, and interacted with adaptive characters. Performance is exceptional: 800M+ impressions, 50M social views, 97% enjoyment, and a 97% uplift in new users locally. Dwell time exceeded targets, and 84% reported increased interest in the game.
It stands out for proving that large-scale brand experiences can drive both emotional connection and measurable behavioural change.
EXCURIO’S HORIZON OF KHUFU
A free-roam VR experience allowing 130+ participants to explore the Great Pyramid simultaneously across 5,000 sq ft.
The 45-minute journey includes inaccessible chambers, funeral rituals, and historical reconstructions built with Harvard Egyptological input. Since 2022, it has scaled to 35+ locations with 2.5M+ visitors. The proprietary platform enables high throughput without compromising immersion, positioning it as a benchmark for location-based VR.
Its strength lies in combining scientific accuracy, commercial scalability, and global distribution—effectively defining a new category of immersive cultural entertainment.
The WXO World Experience Awards 2026 take place on Tuesday 21 April at Ministry of Sound.
The ceremony marks the end of Day One of the World Experience Summit, a part of London Experience Week 2026.
Winners come decided by votes by members of the World Experience Organization – all leaders and practitioners shaping this industry – can vote. That is what gives these awards their unique weight.
Tickets are still available – click below for more.
