Universal vs. Disney — Where Are People REALLY Going on Vacation? New Report Reveals the Surprising Answer

How do Universal’s theme parks stack up against Disney World’s? You might think you know the answer…but these numbers could prove you WRONG!

Recently, we’ve seen Disney announcing potential new expansions while Universal has announced a third theme park in Orlando, a theme park in Texas, and a year-round horror experience. But enough about the future — what about the near past? How do these companies’ existing parks stack up against each other when it comes to pure attendance numbers from 2022 — where id people ACTUALLY go? We found out!

TEA and AECOM have released their annual Theme Index and Museum Index for 2022. For the 2021 numbers, this index revealed some interesting things — like how Universal Orlando saw higher attendance than several Disney World parks. In 2021, the theme park with the most attendance 2021 was Magic Kingdom. But, Universal Studios Florida and Universal Islands of Adventure ranked higher in attendance than EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

So just how did things play out in 2022? We have an update!

In this report, they continued to display the rankings from 2019 but the attendance numbers are where we can see some important changes and details.

Magic Kingdom continues to be the most visited theme park in the ENTIRE WORLD (no shocker there) and it actually saw a 35% INCREASE in attendance in 2022 when compared to 2021. Animal Kingdom also saw an increase in attendance (2022 vs 2021) of 25%, EPCOT saw an increase of 29%, and Hollywood Studios saw an increase of 27%.

Disneyland Park in California saw a HUGE increase in 2022 vs 2021 — actually 97% MORE visitors. And Disney California Adventure saw a similar increase of 81%. This is largely due to the restrictions these parks faced in 2021.

Some of Disney’s international parks also saw huge increases like Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris, which saw a 183% increase in attendance in 2022 compared to 2021. Disneyland Park at Disneyland Paris saw a 184% increase. Tokyo Disneyland saw a 90% increase, Tokyo DisneySea saw a 74% increase, and Hong Kong Disneyland saw a 21% increase.

But it wasn’t all good news. Shanghai Disneyland actually saw a 38% DECREASE in attendance in 2022. Considering that the park had to close for parts of 2022 due to COVID-19 restrictions, that makes sense.

But just how did Disney’s parks rank in comparison to Universal’s? Here’s a breakdown in terms of attendance levels in 2022 (numbers are in thousands):

1. Magic Kingdom (Disney World) — 17,133
2. Disneyland Park (Disneyland Resort) — 16,881
3. Universal Studios Japan — 12,350
4. Tokyo Disneyland (Tokyo Disney Resort) — 12,000
5. Universal’s Islands of Adventure (Universal Orlando) — 11,025
6. Disney’s Hollywood Studios (Disney World) — 10,900
7. Universal Studios Florida (Universal Orlando) — 10,750
8. Tokyo DisneySea (Tokyo Disney Resort) — 10,100
9. EPCOT (Disney World) — 10,000
10. Disneyland Park (Disneyland Paris) — 9,930
11. Disney’s Animal Kingdom (Disney World) — 9,027

So, interestingly, while Magic Kingdom and Disneyland (Disneyland Resort in California) lead the pack, Universal Studios Japan beat several other Disney Parks, and Islands of Adventure beat ALL of Disney World’s other Orlando theme parks.

According to TEA and AECOM, “Investment has been the name of the game at Universal.” The company has been working on Super Nintendo World (which opened in Hollywood already) and the new Epic Universe park (in Orlando).

Here’s a look at the theme park outlook JUST within North America (slightly different than when looking at the full world but still with the same attendance numbers).

But wait…there’s more. What about Disney’s water parks? According to TEA and AECOM, water parks in the Americas benefitted in 2022 from “pent-up demand and a largely good weather season.”

In terms of water parks, Disney saw some big changes. In 2022, Typhoon Lagoon finally reopened and had around 1,915 (in thousands) attendance (later closing at the end of the year). But, Blizzard Beach was closed for most of the year. That caused it to report a 92% DROP in attendance compared to 2021.

In terms of the rankings, here’s what that looks like (attendance is in the thousands):

1. Typhoon Lagoon (Disney World) — 1,915
2. Universal’s Volcano Bay (Universal Orlando) — 1,850
3. Aquatica (Orlando) — 1,548

Then, there are several other parks and Blizzard Beach ranks last with just 101 (in thousands) for attendance in 2022, but again it was closed nearly the entire year.

Overall, TEA and AECOM noted, “the year marked a return to normal for many attraction operators around the globe, who reported annual attendance or revenues (and sometimes both) at par or even above pre-pandemic levels.”

But 2022 brought a focus on something specific — “improving the guest experience.” TEA and AECOM share that theme parks learned they could “achieve or surpass pre-pandemic revenues even with reduced attendance levels” and realized they were in an “increasingly competitive entertainment landscape,” so it has become clear that high quality and memorable guest experiences are what could “drive future demand. ”

And that’s a look at the 2022 numbers. What do you think about them? Tell us in the comments!

For more updates from Disney World and Universal, stay tuned. And click here to see how Disney World compares to Universal Studios when it comes to adults.

What do you think about these results? Tell us in the comments.