Ikea has officially banned games of hide-and-seek from their stores after over 32,000 people signed up for a Facebook event to play the game at a store in the Netherlands.

Ikea Officially Bans Hide-And-Seek

Ikea was forced to make an official statement on Monday saying that no games of hide-and-seek would be allowed in their stores after the Facebook event reached a critical mass.

“It’s hard to control. We need to make sure people are safe in our stores, and that’s hard to do if we don’t even know where they are,” said Martina Smedberg, a spokeswoman for Ikea Group.

According to reports, hide-and-seek games at Ikea have become quite popular, with countless events, groups and pages on Facebook, not to mention other forms of social media. The trend gained steam last year after a store in Belgium allowed Elise De Rijck to host a massive hide-and-seek game in their store. That game attracted 500 people.

Twitter Reacts To Ikea’s Hide-And-Seek Ban

After the announcement was made, people took to Twitter to express their sadness.

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Article by Olivia Truffaut-Wong

Olivia Truffaut-Wong was born and raised in Berkeley, California, where she developed her love of all things entertainment. After moving to New York City to earn her degree in Film Studies, she stayed on the East Coast to follow her passion and become an entertainment writer. She lives on a diet of television, movies and food.