ORLANDO, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES – 2019/07/17: Cinderella Castle in Walt Disney World. (Photo by Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images)
ORLANDO, Fla. – Disney’s magic remained strong last year as Magic Kingdom was again the most visited theme park in the world, a new industry attendance report says.
The Disney World park had an estimated 17.8 million visitors in 2024, a 0.7% increase from 2023, according to the TEA Global Experience Index.
Disneyland, Disney’s original park on the West Coast, ranked second with 17.3 million visitors. Universal Studios Japan, Tokyo Disneyland and Shanghai Disneyland rounded out the top five.
Disney and Universal
Disney parks dominated the rankings with 12 of its parks claiming spots among the top 25 parks worldwide.
The Disney World parks fared well last year, with all of them seeing attendance gains.
EPCOT (No. 8) had 12.3 million visitors, up 1.3%; Disney’s Hollywood Studios (No. 9) had 10.3 million visitors, up 0.3%; and Disney’s Animal Kingdom (No. 15) had a 0.3% increase with 8.8 million visitors.
Disney California Adventure, Disney’s other West Coast park, had 10.1 million visitors in 2024, an increase of 0.5%. That put the park 11th among the top parks worldwide.
SOUTHWEST ORLANDO, ORLANDO, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES – 2016/01/18: Universal Orlando Resort. (Photo by John Greim/LightRocket via Getty Images)
But it was a different story for Universal. Universal’s U.S. parks saw small declines in attendance last year, according to the report.
Universal Studios Florida had 9.5 million visitors, down 2.6% from the year before, while attendance at Islands of Adventure fell 5.5% to 9.45 million visitors. Those parks were ranked 13th and 14th on the worldwide list.
Universal Studios Hollywood in California also had a dip in attendance, with 8.8 million visitors, a drop of 9.9%. It was edged out of the top 15 parks, ranking 16th on the list.
Other parks
According to the report, SeaWorld Orlando had 4.3 million visitors last year. Busch Gardens Tampa Bay had 3.9 million visitors.
Although none of SeaWorld’s parks made the worldwide rankings, which lists the top 25 parks overall, both SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay ranked 11th and 13th among the top 20 parks in North America.
Theme Park rankings
The top 10 theme parks worldwide, according to the report, are Magic Kingdom, Disneyland Park, Universal Studios Japan, Tokyo Disneyland, Shanghai Disneyland, Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, Tokyo DisneySea, EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disneyland Park (Disneyland Paris).
What they’re saying:
Globally, theme park attendance had modest gains—a positive trend for an industry still rebounding from the pandemic.
“The global attendance landscape saw a return to stable growth in 2024, as travel and tourism patterns leveled out to roughly pre-pandemic numbers,” TEA said in a news release. “The combined attendance of the top 25 theme parks globally grew 2.4% in 2024 to almost 246 million.”
What we don’t know:
The report only provides data for 2024, so it’s unknown what impact Epic Universe has had on Universal’s attendance numbers since it opened in May. That information will be reflected in the 2025 report, which will be released next year.
The Source: The article was written using information from the TEA Global Experience Index.
