Once a year, theme park fans can feel like sports fans and point to a scoreboard to see how their favorite parks have been performing.
The Themed Entertainment Association last week released its renamed TEA Experience Index, which reports attendance at top theme parks around the world. Once again, Disney dominated. Disney had eight of the top 10 theme parks in the world and all of the top five in America in 2024, with Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom leading the way.
Disneyland maintained its second-place position on both the global and North American lists, with a slight bump up to 17.3 million visitors in 2024. But the real scoreboard action is happening in Orlando.
Universal Orlando this year opened its new Epic Universe theme park — its multibillion-dollar challenge to Disney’s lead position in the Central Florida market. Epic Universe will not show up in the TEA report until next year, but it has loomed over Universal’s performance for the past two years.
If Universal wants to challenge Disney in Orlando, it is doing so from the back foot. Attendance at its Orlando parks dropped for the second year, with Universal Studios Florida, Islands of Adventure and the Volcano Bay water park all suffering double-digit percentage declines from 2022 to 2024. Walt Disney World’s theme parks posted mixed results over the same period, from a 5% dip at Disney’s Hollywood Studios to an impressive 21% jump at EPCOT.
Universal owner Comcast reported strong attendance and revenue gains across its Orlando resort after Epic opened in May of this year, but it appears from the TEA report that many Universal fans held off visiting in the years leading up to the park’s debut. If Universal wants to beat Disney in Orlando, it’s going to have to come from even further behind to do it.
The other battle that caught my eye is happening at the other end of the North American Top 20 list. Last year was the year that the old Six Flags and Cedar Fair companies merged to form the new Six Flags Entertainment Corporation. Those parks held six positions on the list. Knott’s Berry Farm jumped 6.5% in 2024 to lead Six Flags and kick SeaWorld Orlando out of the No. 10 position behind all the Disney and Universal theme parks.
SeaWorld owner United Parks held the next three positions in the report with its Orlando and San Diego parks plus Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. But another company entered the Top 20 for the first time last year, with Herschend’s Dollywood making its TEA report debut in the 18 spot, drawing a reported 3.1 million visitors in 2024.
Herschend this year obtained the Palace Entertainment chain of parks from Parques Reunidos, which should push the company’s annual attendance above 20 million. That could be enough to place Herschend among the world’s the top 10 theme park companies in next year’s TEA report, challenging United Parks, which drew a reported 21 million visitors last year.
Ultimately, it’s up to theme park fans to decide who wins and who falls behind in this game.