A full year of Remy's Ratatouille Adventure and Guardians of the Galaxy: Comic Rewind lead to sharp attendance gains for Walt Disney World's EPCOT in 2023.
Each year the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) publishes attendance estimates for theme parks, water parks, museums and other related venues around the world. The Walt Disney Company, Universal Studios and most other entertainment proprietors do not publish exact attendance numbers, leaving us to rely on educated calculations from industry sources like TEA.
EPCOT was the big winner domestically in 2023 as its attendance rose an estimated 19.8%, from 10 million visits in 2022 to 11.98 million in '23. This placed the park 8th worldwide, trailing only Florida's Magic Kingdom and Disneyland among US parks. Magic Kingdom's attendance rose by 3.7% to 17.72 million. The other Walt Disney World parks saw modest declines year-over-year with Disney's Hollywood Studios down 5.5% to 10.3 million visits and Disney's Animal Kingdom down 2.8% to 8.77 million. The four Walt Disney World parks ranked 1st, 3rd, 4th and 9th in the U.S., respectively.
Across town, Universal Studios two theme parks did not fare quite as well, with both parks seeing attendance declines in the high single digits. Islands of Adventure dropped 9.3% to about 10 million visits while Universal Studios Florida was also down an estimated 9.3% to 9.75 million. The two parks ranked 5th and 7th in the U.S., coming in behind 3 of the 4 Walt Disney World parks.
Out west, Disneyland and Disney California Adventure both experienced gains. Disneyland was the #2 park domestically with 17.25 million guests, up 2.2% over the prior year. Disney California Adventure rose more than 11% to 10 million visits, finishing 6th in the U.S.
Domestic Top 10:
- Magic Kingdom
- Disneyland
- EPCOT
- Disney's Hollywood Studios
- Islands of Adventure
- Disney California Adventure
- Universal Studios Florida
- Universal Studios Hollywood
- Disney's Animal Kingdom
- SeaWorld Orlando
Disney's Typhoon Lagoon extended its 2-year run as the top waterpark draw domestically with 1.898 million, down slightly from 2022. Universal Volcano Bay was second with 1.8 million visits, also down modestly. Disney's Blizzard Beach did not open until November 2023 and failed to make the top 20 list.
Internationally, Shanghai Disneyland experienced a massive increase of 164.2% to 14 million guets. Disney's two Japanese parks saw attendance grow by more than 20% with Tokyo Disneyland attracting an estimated 15.1 million guests, up 25.8% over 2022. Tokyo Disneysea rose to 12.4 million, up 22.8%.
Disneyland Paris rose 4.7% to 10.4 million guests while neighboring Walt Disney Studios Paris increased attendance 6.7% to 5.7 million. Hong Kong Disneyland was up 88.2% to 6.4 million guests for the year.
Worldwide, Disney Experiences was the leading theme park operator with more than 142 million visits, up 17% over the prior year. Second place Fantawild Group--operator of 35 theme parks, mostly in the Asian markets--finisheed combined attendance of about 85 million guests.
The complete 2023 TEA/AECOM Theme Index and Museum Index is available at teaconnect.org.
