4. Disneyland Paris

Image: Disney

Ride count: 21

When Disneyland Paris opened in 1992, it was instantly recognized as the most beautiful and detailed Disneyland-style park on Earth. The park was carefully crafted to give the American concept a European spin that the French would accept, and carefully blends style and substance in a skillful mix. Put in simple terms, Disneyland Paris somehow has the charm and coziness of Disneyland, the size and grandeur of Magic Kingdom, and the storytelling and detail of DisneySea.

When the Parisian park borrowed from American classics, it did something unusual… it reinvented them! From Pirates of the Caribbean to the Haunted Mansion, the stories you think you know were given an entirely unique European spin to fit into the beautiful and storied park. That makes almost all of Disneyland Paris’ rides – even the ones you think you know – fresh experiences.

What’s next? Despite its glowing international acclaim, Disneyland Paris is in a constant state of catch-up as it tries to recoup the finances that continue to bleed from the undervalued and overbuilt park. The 2002 opening of Walt Disney Studios only strained the resort more. Thankfully, a multi-year effort to beautify the park and restore it to its grand origin is in effect, and in the meantime, the park finally swapped its Lost Legend: STAR TOURS for the upgraded version other parks debuted years earlier. Of course, not all progress is the kind fans admire, and the park’s ambitious and entirely reimagined, custom-built Lost Legend: Space Mountain is currently overtaken with its own Star Wars overlay that’s left Imagineering fans weeping.

3. Tokyo Disneyland

Image: Disney

Ride count: 24

Disney’s first international expansion may still be its most successful. That’s in part because the Tokyo Disney Resort is fully owned and operated not by Disney, but by the Oriental Land company who pays big licensing fees to Disney to use its names, characters, and brand almost like a franchisee. The OLC requested that Disney build them an exact duplicate of Magic Kingdom, simply widening pathways for the massive crowds that would descend on this urban mega-park.

It’s a win-win for Disney, since the OLC spends big to secure their park the best versions of Disney’s best rides, which is why Disney fans the world over migrate to Tokyo to ride the one-of-a-kind Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, or the exceptional Monsters Inc. Ride & Go Seek.

In return, Tokyo Disneyland is swarmed with Japanese citizens of all ages day and night, as the Japanese culture has wildly embraced Disney and merged with their “community first” culture. Arrive at the park’s gates two hours before it opens and you’ll find neatly-ordered lines stretching the length of several football fields; everyone collectively organizes themselves and sits unobtrusively for parade; there’s not one single piece of litter anywhere. In this alternate-reality Magic Kingdom, guests queue for hours to meet obscure Disney characters and guests literally empty out gift shop shelves every night. It’s a truly remarkable place custom-built for a one-of-a-kind culture.

Tokyo Disneyland welcomes a New Fantasyland in 2020, bringing a cinematic-stylized mini-land based on Beauty and the Beast and a new starring trackless dark ride (while also carving out space for a new Big Hero 6 flat ride in Tomorrowland). However, the impending expansion saw the closure of the park’s Star Jets and the Grand Circuit Raceway, meaning that the massive undertaking technically keeps the park's ride count flat. 

What’s next? Unknown.

2. Magic Kingdom

Image: Disney

Ride count: 25

The most visited theme park on Earth needs a collection of rides to match, and Magic Kingdom’s headlining lineup features all the favorites fans know and love with enough adventures to fill a day or two. Imagineers designed Disneyland’s little sister to grow, and it has. Also worth noting: Walt Disney World’s first theme park has more rides than the other three parks there combined.

Magic Kingdom just finished up a New Fantasyland, revitalizing the 1971 original by flattening more than half of the land to create immersive environments based on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Little Mermaid, Dumbo, and Beauty and the Beast. Unfortunately for the park’s ride count, the creatively ambitious expansion – “the largest in Magic Kingdom’s history” – added a new one ride, since one (a Lost Legend: Snow White's Scary Adventures) closed to make way for it.

What’s next? First and foremost, a surprise announcement at 2017's D23 confirmed fans' long-standing wishes that a copy of Shanghai's TRON Light Cycle Power Run would come to Magic Kingdom. Rumored to takeover the park's aging Tomorrowland Speedway, TRON will instead be built on a plot of land behind Space Mountain, saving the opening day classic. The only other potential project on the radar is that the most despised Disney attraction on Earth – as told in its own Declassified Disaster: Stitch’s Great Escape – has been gutted. What will come in its place has been hotly debated, with insiders expecting a virtual-reality attraction themed to Wreck-It Ralph (which doesn’t really fit in Tomorrowland, but neither do Monsters Inc., Lilo and Stitch, or Toy Story, so…)

1. Disneyland Park

Image: Disney

Ride count: 36

In the eternal battle between fans of Disneyland and Disney World, those who stand behind California’s resort are often quick to proclaim their superiority by saying that Disneyland is “quality over quantity.” We won’t say who wins in the former, but believe it or not, Disneyland has a LOT more rides than Magic Kingdom does.

It makes some deal of sense, though. After all, Disneyland Park has almost all of Magic Kingdom’s starring attractions (Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan’s Flight, etc.) plus a cavalcade of its own (Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin, Indiana Jones Adventure, Star Tours, Matterhorn Bobsleds, Submarine Voyage, etc.) which is to say nothing of Disneyland exclusives like the Storybookland Canal Boats, Pinocchio’s Daring Journey, and Alice in Wonderland. And while Magic Kingdom has axed them both, Disneyland still has Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride and Snow White’s Scary Adventures, plus The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh!

With the completion of the West Coast edition of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge in 2020, Disneyland's ride count was boosted by two. It's astounding to think that, though both Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios house identical Star Wars lands, the area's two E-Tickets are 2 of 36 rides at Disneyland, and 2 of 9 at Hollywood Studios! 

The end result is that Disneyland is much, much smaller than Magic Kingdom, but actually has 9 more rides! You can chalk that up to quite a few variables, like Disneyland’s need to grow to accommodate increasing tourism (whereas Disney World’s executives are more like to see their parks as “mature,” able to coast with minimal investment thanks to pop culture and a steady role in the American dream).

What’s next? Though many fans expected Disneyland's somewhat tired Toontown land to be razed for a seemingly inevitable New Tomorrowland of Frozen, Beauty and the Beast, and Tangled, that doesn't seem to be the plan at all. Instead, Disney announced that a clone of Hollywood Studios' highly sought after Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway will make its way to California's Toontown, seemingly ensuring the land's survival! It's not expected till 2022, though, leaving the classic park a few years to savor the new Star Wars attractions as its headliners.

Resort Face-Off 

We’d be remiss if we didn’t take a final tally of the ride counts at each resort as they exist today:

• Walt Disney World: 54 rides
• Disneyland Resort: 55 rides
• Disneyland Paris: 30 rides
• Tokyo Disney Resort: 44 rides
• Universal Orlando Resort: 31 rides

The numbers don’t lie. It’s true that the Disneyland Resort (including its two parks, three hotels, and Downtown Disney) could comfortably fit inside of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, yet the Californian resort’s two parks contain more rides than all four of Disney World’s combined… And sure, like we said, that’s only rides (not counting walkthrough, shows, character experiences, or other “attractions”) but the side-by-side is astounding, and maybe just a little telling.

Image: Disney

Tokyo Disney Resort’s two parks are right on Disney World’s heels, too.

And while Disneyland Paris and Universal Orlando feature nearly the same number of rides, we know, for example, that Universal’s parks are more evenly balanced, whereas Paris’ Studio park drags the average down.

In any case, there's another story this raw ride count doesn't quite tell: the number of E-Ticket anchor attractions each park features, totally scrambling this list! Make the jump to that feature to get a new perspective of how these ride counts really settle out.

And listen… We know that rides alone don’t make for a great park. We know that all those things we’ve excluded here – shows and entertainment and streetmosphere and walkthrough and restaurants – are essential elements of a theme park visit. But when you think of your favorite thing to do at Disney World, it’s probably a ride. So in terms of measuring the stuff that brings people to parks, the number of rides can show us something about a park’s investment.

If you’re interested, the final page features an alphabetical listing of the rides we’ve counted for each park.