Universal Islands of Adventure sees a bump while Universal Studios Florida and Universal Hollywood stays stagnant

Ironically, it was exactly the opposite last year with Universal Studios seeing the bump and Islands of Adventure staying stagnant. Unfortunately for Universal Studios Hollywood their attendance stayed flat in 2019.

With the highly anticipated Hagrid's Magical Motorbike Adventure opening at Islands of Adventure on June 13, 2019 Universal were undoubtedly expecting an influx of guests and they certainly did flock which explains the 6.0% increase in attendance in 2019, the biggest increase of any in the list of Top 10 North American theme parks.

SeaWorld Orlando has minimal attendance increase with SeaWorld San Diego seeing large decrease

After the 16% growth in 2018, which propelled it once again into the Top 10 Theme Parks attendance list in North America, 2019 saw a 1.0% rise in attendance. SeaWorld had put itself back on the map after many hard years. We really hope SeaWorld can get through the current tough times and emerge seeing increasing attendance figures in the future.

It is certainly depressing viewing for SeaWorld San Diego which saw a 8.1% decrease in attendance in 2019 taking it to 3.485,000.

Other US Theme Parks see positive trends

There have been postive attendance boosts for many of the other top parks across the US and in Canada. The number to the left of the name of the park gives their current ranking in the top 20 North American theme parks based on attendance. These include:

• 11 KNOTTS BERRY FARM -  Up 3.0% to 4,238,000
• 12 BUSCH GARDENS TAMPA BAY - Up 1.0% to 4,180,000
• 13 CANADA'S WONDERLAND - Up 4.0% to 3,950,000
• 14 CEDAR POINT - Up 1.5% to 3,731,000
• 16 KINGS ISLAND - Up 1.0% to 3,521,000 
• 18 SIX FLAGS GREAT ADVENTURE - Up 1.5% to 3,451,000 
• 20 SIX FLAGS GREAT AMERICA - Up 2.0% to 3,169,000

Interestingly, Cedar Fair reported the largest increase, totalling 7.8% across their portfolio of parks.

For anyone wanting to view the complete report, you can read it here. It has complete attendance listings for top theme parks operators, theme parks, water parks and museums across the globe.  

To re-read our round-up of last years report (2018) you can find it here, SeaWorld and Disney Parks Make Big Gains While Universal Slumps in New Attendance Report.

Although majority of 2020 has so far seen doom and gloom across the theme park world with over 3 months of closures, hopefully the top US parks will be able to ride out the current COVID-19 storm and come out of it with fans still wanting to head back and enjoy their favourite theme parks. We hope to see attendance figures returning to what we have seen here and beyond in the coming years.