Disney World Attendance Down Slightly in 2025, Universal Gains with Epic Universe

Magic Kingdom remains the most visited theme park in the world, according to the newly released 2025 TEA Global Experience Index. All four Walt Disney World theme parks held almost perfectly steady in 2025, each finishing within a fraction of a percent of its 2024 numbers. Over at Universal Orlando Resort, the arrival of Epic Universe reshaped the resort’s numbers in its partial first year. Disney’s Blizzard Beach also posted one of the biggest gains of any water park on the planet.

2025 Theme Park Attendance Report: Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando & Epic Universe

EPCOT ranked eighth worldwide with 12.11 million guests, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios ranked tenth with 10.31 million. Disney’s Animal Kingdom ranked 15th worldwide at 8.78 million. Combined, the four Walt Disney World theme parks drew about 49 million visits, down roughly 99,000 from 2024.

Every Walt Disney World theme park shows the exact same 0.2% dip. That uniformity likely points to TEA applying a resort-wide estimate across the four parks, since Disney does not share park-by-park figures. The overall direction lines up with Disney’s own numbers, which showed domestic theme park attendance down 1% in fiscal year 2025 as per-guest spending climbed. TEA also noted that Disney is “maintaining healthy attendance while growing capacity” through continued investment.

Disney Experiences remained the top theme park operator in the world, with about 146.8 million visits across its parks, up 1.1%. Six of the ten most attended parks in North America belong to Disney.

Disney’s Blizzard Beach posted one of the biggest gains on any of the report’s lists. The water park drew about 1.35 million guests in 2025, up 50.5% from 897,000 in 2024. That jump returned Blizzard Beach to the global top 20 water parks, where it ranked 13th.

The reason is simple. Walt Disney World opened both of its water parks at the same time from May 21st through September 7th, 2025, for the first time since 2019. Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon remained the most visited water park in North America at about 1.76 million guests, down 3%. Universal’s Volcano Bay followed with 1.6 million, also down 3%. Four of North America’s five most visited water parks sit in Orlando, so the area remains the water park capital of the continent.

Flat attendance at Walt Disney World’s theme parks has a clear explanation. Disney CFO Hugh Johnston said earlier this year that the domestic parks are essentially at capacity, with expanded capacity coming soon. New lands are the path to real attendance growth, he said. Monstropolis is taking shape at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Tropical Americas is under construction at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Magic Kingdom has Piston Peak National Park and Villains Land in the works.

Disney World is still targeting a 2027 opening for Tropical Americas, which would make it the first of those projects to open. Animal Kingdom stands to gain the most, since the park drew nearly 13.9 million guests in 2019.

That growth pushed Universal Destinations & Experiences past Merlin Entertainments into third place among the world’s theme park operators. Universal grew 5.4%, the largest gain of any operator in the top ten. Early on, Universal leadership said that Epic Universe was already helping the company gain market share in Orlando, and the TEA numbers back that up.

The broader Orlando market benefited too. TEA estimates that combined attendance at Central Florida’s leading theme parks grew 4.3% in 2025, ahead of the 1.8% increase in tourists reported by Visit Orlando. Florida’s nine parks on the North American list accounted for 79.6 million visits. Comcast CFO Jason Armstrong later pointed to that same effect, saying Epic Universe’s pent-up demand lifted the entire Orlando market during its opening year.

EPCOT is the biggest success story of the past five years. The park climbed from 7.75 million guests in 2021 to 12.11 million in 2025, a gain of more than 56%. Along the way, it passed both Universal parks and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. EPCOT’s biggest single jump came in 2023, when it gained nearly 20%. Magic Kingdom has held near 17.8 million for three straight years, still short of the 20.96 million guests it drew in 2019.

Universal’s original two parks peaked in 2022, when Islands of Adventure outdrew every Walt Disney World park except Magic Kingdom. Both parks have slipped every year since, and Islands of Adventure now sits about 1.8 million guests below that high. Epic Universe changed the resort’s math in 2025. Next year’s report will offer the first look at a full calendar year of the new park. It should also give a clearer picture of how Orlando’s two resorts share the market. Both resorts are building toward a busy few years, and fans stand to be the real winners.

As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!