Indoor play for pay centers (PPCs) have become very popular over the last decade. Due to the group format and physical design, the PPC promotes fastpaced large muscle activity that appears to increase the heart rate of prepubescent participants. The purpose of this study was to measure children’s heart rate response to self-directed play at a PPC. Fourteen boys and girls (age = 7.8 ± 1.8 years) participated in a treadmill test to determine their maximal heart rate (MHR). On a separate day these same children played freely for 20 min over a 5,000 square foot multilevel PPC while their heart rate was monitored. The average MHR obtained in the laboratory was 204 ± 1.3 bpm, while the average heart rate during free play was 158 ± 38.5 or 77% of the MHR observed in the laboratory. These results suggest that the PPC promotes an increase in heart rate among self-directed prepubescent subjects.