Disneyland Paris

Image: DisneyThe Disneyland model applies to its namesake theme park in France as well. As you're about to see, one gate is night-and-day more popular than the other.

Disneyland Park

Image: DisneyFor all of the negative headlines written about it over the years, Disneyland Park is the most successful paid tourist destination in Europe, a continent that’s kind of known for its marvelous travel options.

In 2018, 9.843 million guests entered Disneyland Park, an average of 26,967 daily visitors. So, it’s almost identical to Disney California Adventure in attendance, separated by only 18,000 guests for the entire year or less than 50 per day!

Walt Disney Studios Park, on the other hand, is the worst performer out of all Disney theme parks. Only 5.298 million guests visited this gate during 2018. That’s a paltry 14,515 in daily attendance. If you want an empty Disney theme park, here’s the place to go!

Walt Disney Studios Park does so poorly that it barely cracks the top 25 theme parks in the world, finishing in an un-Disney-like 23rd. It earns only 53.8 percent of the traffic of Disneyland Park, a similar split to the 52.8 percent gap at DCA/Disneyland in California.

Disney fans will not abide a lesser theme park, my friends. And this factoid explains why both DCA and Walt Disney Studios Park will get more rides based on Disney intellectual property in coming years.

China

Image: DisneyThe two Chinese Disney parks are in the purest form of competition with one another. The cities of Hong Kong and Shanghai aren’t the best of friends, and each one wants bragging rights about its park. Alas, this one’s a blowout.

Hong Kong Disneyland

Image: DisneyThis park debuted all the way back in 2005. At the time, it was an impressive endeavor that required a business relationship between Disney and the city of Hong Kong, the latter of which is technically the co-owner of the park.

The problem is that Michael Eisner still had influence during the construction, and he pulled a DCA here. Hong Kong Disneyland (HKD) cut corners across the board, straight down to its castle. They’re actually remodeling it as we speak because Shanghai Disneyland’s is better. That’s not a joke.

Due to the lackluster quality of this park, its attendance has been a flat line for years now. During 2006, its first full year of operation, HKD claimed attendance of 5.2 million. For 2016, the number was 6.1 million, which isn’t the trend-line that anybody wants.

During 2018, HKD earned 6.7 million visits. That’s less than either 2014 or 2015 and tied with 2013. Suffice to say that Disney’s Chinese fans feel like the repeat value at HKD is questionable. Still, that’s an average of 18,356 guests per day, which isn’t bad. It’s just not…

Shanghai Disneyland

Image: DisneyWhile you may feel like you’ve been hearing about Tron Lightcycle Power Run and the Shanghai version of Pirates of the Caribbean forever now, 2017 marked the park’s first full year of operation.

During the part of 2016 that it was open, Shanghai Disneyland earned a stellar 5.6 million guests and then 11 million during 2017. Its 2018 total was even better at 11.8 million, which is an average of 32,329 guests. You can imagine how much they rub that in Hong Kong’s nose.

Overall, Shanghai Disneyland is already the eighth-most trafficked theme park in the world, slotting conveniently between Epcot and Hollywood Studios. Overall, Disney claims eight out of the top nine theme parks in terms of attendance, and so Universal Studios Japan should feel extremely good about its fifth-place position.

To a larger point about all of these stats, I want you to think about the magic of Disney. Even though it dominates the theme park industry in a rare and profound way, cast members somehow make you feel like you’re the only customer in the world that matters to them. It’s a remarkable testament to the greatness of Disney customer service (and company training policies).