As a general rule, theme parks keep their attendance figures and projections closely held secrets. But fans and investors want to know how individual theme parks are doing, so the Themed Entertainment Association partners with AECOM each year to give it their best estimate.
No surprise, Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom maintains its top spot and Disney holds 9 of the top 10 parks worldwide. But there are a few big changes with the usual contenders and it might be a sign of things to come.
Disney also maintains its spot atop Top Theme Park Companies in the world. #1 is Walt Disney Attractions attracting 134 million guests in 2014, a 1.3% growth over 2013. Merlin Entertainments Group maintains the second spot on the list with 62 million visitors, a 5% growth over 2013. They are followed by Universal Parks and Resorts, OCT Parks China and Six Flags rounding out the top five.
Overall theme park attendance around the world grew by 5.1% last year, a sign that economic recovery continues to free up additional funds for leisure activities. But the recovery isn’t spread evenly around the globe as you can see here.
The top 12 theme parks worldwide with attendance figures in the millions and percentage change are:
- Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom 19.3 4.0%
- Tokyo Disneyland 17.3 0.5%
- Disneyland 16.8 3.5%
- Tokyo DisneySea 14.1 0.1%
- Universal Studios Japan 11.8 16.8%
- Epcot 11.5 2.0%
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom 10.4 2.0%
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios 10.3 2.0%
- Disneyland Paris 9.9 -4.7%
- Disney California Adventure 8.8 3.0%
- Universal Studios Orlando 8.3 17.0%
- Islands of Adventure 8.1 0.0%
Really interesting to see how slow the growth was for The Tokyo Disney resort properties. Maybe they’ve reached their saturation point? The will be dramatically expanding both parks in the near future, so that should help. Disneyland Paris continues its downward slide in terms of attendance. I can’t say I’m surprised as the economic crisis in Europe hasn’t improved much for most families. But other parks in Europe are doing better, so Disneyland Paris had better step up to the plate and earn back those visitors. The good news, Disneyland Paris Resort still attracts double the visitors of its nearest competitor.
Universal Studios Japan is a surprise mover into 4th place after being in 9th place last year. Universal Studios Orlando continued its growth, but Islands of Adventure flatlined. You can see why they’re rushing new attractions to that park now.
Other notables are Hong Kong Disneyland at #15 growing 1.4% to 7.5 million and SeaWorld Florida dropping 8.0% to 4.7 million. Not a good trend for SeaWorld, but after failing to generate much excitement with the Antarctica attraction, they’ve fallen to a distant third choice when it comes to the major attractions in Central Florida. Finally clocking in at 25 on the list is Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris with 4.3 million attendees which is a loss of 4.7% over the previous year.
The whole TEA attendance report is interesting. Read the PDF here. It looks at water parks, museums, and breaks attendance down by continent too. All in all, a healthy report for the world’s theme parks, water parks, and museums. How many do you plan to visit in 2015?
I’m don’t understand the 100% difference between Disneyland and California Adventure. I’d get some difference, but double?
Totally agree, who goes to Disneyland and not to the really great park across the courtyard? Some locals out for a one-day adventure I suppose, but those numbers are surprising.
Paris’s slumping attendance can be in large part attributed to crippling under-investment and sliding show standards. The crushing burden of debt continues to drag operations down in Europe. The re-capitalisation hasn’t really kicked in yet, but – while it should help – long term it’s hard to see how DLRP truly turns it around without TWDC acquiring the remainder of EuroDisney outright.
Disneyland only counts the first admission on your pass. So annual passholders and parkhopper passes only count the first gate through. Most head to Disneyland first and then over to DCA.
Paris also has to contend with cold weather seasons.
We will be doing Disney World a few times this year and Disneyland and Disney World next year. We considered Paris but accommodations seem highly disproportionate to the theme park cost and a trip for our family of three was just too much money.
These numbers are estimates as no company releases actual attendance numbers publicly. In fact these numbers are in some cases not good estimates at all as they are either way too high or too low. For example the MK is way overinflated on numbers. Both Disneyland and MK are always neck-in-neck on attendance. Always. DCA is under inflated as the actual number is between 9 and 10 million. The two Universal parks in Florida are inflated somewhat as are Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. This report is always a joke because it is a bad estimation always based on pure assumptions with no basis rooted in facts and yet many take this as the gospel truth.
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