Disney Has 7 Of World’s 10 Most-Visited Theme Parks, Universal Has The Other 3

When it comes to creating the world’s most popular theme parks, Disney is the undisputed king. But Universal gained notable ground in 2022, according to a report that touts last year as a “a return to normal” for the theme park industry.

The 2022 TEA/AECOM Theme Index Report reveals that Disney operates seven of the 10 most-visited theme parks in the world, a stat that helps explains how the company’s parks division raked in $7.9 billion in operating profit last year.

The 2022 rankings are also a testament to the supremacy of theme-park rich Orlando, where parks collectively drew 69 million visitors. All four Walt Disney World theme parks and both of Universal Orlando’s landed on the world’s top 1o list.

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The perennial favorite, Magic Kingdom park at Disney World, once again grabbed the crown as the world’s most-visited theme park, attracting a reported 17.1 million visitors in 2022. That’s a huge 35% increase over 2021, yet 18% shy of the 21 million visitors who pushed through the park’s turnstiles in pre-pandemic 2019.

Disney World’s 50th anniversary, which ran throughout 2022, anchored a bumper year that featured specialty retail as well as new attractions and shows. The indoor roller coaster Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind debuted in May 2022, driving attendance to Epcot.

Landing in second place in 2022 was the Disney original. Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California, attracted 16.9 million visitors, according to TEA/AECOM. That’s a 97% jump in attendance from 2021, a year hampered by California’s Covid rules, which forced the park to close for several months and then reopen with limited capacity. A more telling stat: Disneyland’s 2022 visitor volume is 90% of the 18.7 million it saw in 2019.

Yet while many of Disney’s parks approached their pre-pandemic visitor volumes, one Universal park managed to exceed its 2019 numbers. The list’s biggest mover in 2022 was Universal Orlando Resort’s Islands of Adventure, which climbed seven spots and pipped Disney World’s Hollywood Studios park for the No. 5 position with 11 million visitors. That was enough to make Islands of Adventure the No. 3 most-visited park in the U.S. Its sister park, Universal Studios Florida, drew a respectable 10.8 million visitors, good enough for fifth place in America.

Universal’s theme park division reported revenues of $7.5 billion in 2022, up almost 50% over the previous year, while adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) hit a record $2.7 billion.

In the fall, Universal Studios’ immensely popular Halloween Horror Nights (HHN) scarefest events in Orlando and Hollywood continue to be major attendance drivers, allowing these parks to essentially double their daily attendance with the separately ticketed after-hours event at prices that start at $80 for a single night. Notably, HHN 2023 will be extended from 31 nights to a record-breaking 44.

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After Florida, Japan is the world’s second largest amusement hub. The country’s theme parks drew 38.7 million visitors in 2022, with a trio of Japanese parks — one from Universal and two from Disney — snagging spots in the top 10. The most popular of the three, Universal Studios Japan, attracted a reported 12.4 million visitors last year, edging out both Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea, which drew 12 million and 10.1 million visitors, respectively.

Another notable climber on the 2022 list is Disneyland Paris, which was deemed a flop when it opened 30 years earlier and took 15 years to start making money. But now the French park’s turnaround is seen as one of Disney’s big success stories. Last year, Disneyland Paris bested its 2019 numbers, drawing 9.9 million visitors to earn the No. 10 spot worldwide and hold the No. 1 spot in Europe.

“The park is an economic powerhouse,” the French tourism minister told the New York Times in 2021, noting that, up until then, Disney’s Gallic outpost had pumped roughly $83 billion into the French economy since opening in 1992.