Popularity Of The World’s Leading Theme Parks Revealed In New Analysis

Magic Kingdom historically attracts the biggest crowds, but which theme parks are rising in popularity at the moment? (Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)

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The popularity of the world’s leading theme parks has been revealed for the first time in new data showing which events and attraction openings cast the most powerful spell on fans.

The theme park industry may be famous for its escapist environments and cuddly characters but it is actually one of the most competitive battlegrounds in business.

The industry involves some of the world’s biggest movie studios and sovereign wealth funds pouring tens of billions of dollars into the development of attractions and resorts in a bid to grab tourists’ attention.

Attendance and financial results reveal whether an operator has succeeded but the former are often only estimates and the latter are rarely broken down per park. Moreover, both take months to come to light leaving industry observers with little way of finding out which direction operators are heading in before they get there. Until now.

The clearest evidence of whether a theme park is enchanting its audience is the amount that people are searching for it online. Of course, just because a lot of people want to find out about a park that doesn’t mean to say they will visit or that the search results will be favorable. However, there is little doubt that if people aren’t searching much for a park it makes it all the more difficult for it to attract guests.

Likewise, if the volume of search inquiries goes down, that suggests a decrease in popularity or that the park isn’t at the forefront of people’s minds as much as it previously was. Conversely, if there is a spike in searches for a theme park that means it is coming to the attention of more people.

That may be because it is getting more unprompted inquiries which could suggest that more people want to visit. However, it could also be because it has polished its online presence, launched a successful new marketing campaign or improved its search engine optimization. It could even be because an unwelcome incident in the park has gone viral though that could ultimately drive guests through the gates as it gets people talking. As the saying goes, no news is bad news.

There is a surprisingly simple way to monitor the volume of search inquiries all over the world. The answer comes courtesy of Google which processed more than five trillion searches last year giving it a 90% share of the market. Its Google Trends service analyzes the popularity of top queries though the results don’t reveal the number of searches for a specific term. Instead, they show the volume of search inquiries over time with 0 being the lowest point and 100 being the maximum relative interest rather than the absolute number of searches.

The results are presented on graphs with each point relative to the others so a score of 50 means that there were half as many searches for a term on that date than there were when it hit 100. That represents peak popularity for the term whereas a score of zero refers to the lowest number of search enquiries during the given time. It doesn’t necessarily mean that no one searched for it on that date (though that may be the case) as it is also used when there isn’t enough data to register the volume of inquiries.

Crucially, Google Trends captures as many results as possible. It is not case sensitive, it shows worldwide search inquiries and can generate results for specific terms or broader topics. For example, typing in ‘California Adventure’ will bring up an option to search for that specific term or ‘Disney California Adventure Park – Theme park in Anaheim, California’ which is the formal name for the theme park but also yields results which include variations like misspellings and related terms. It is known as a topic search and Google describes it as the way “to measure the overall interest in the concept.”

This can be used to yield the first-ever analysis of the popularity of the world’s leading theme parks. The results are derived from a topic search for the names of the top 20 most-visited theme parks according to the latest data from the Themed Entertainment Association which is based on attendance in 2023.

The analysis reveals which parks have fully rebounded from the pandemic as the chosen search period begins on January 1 2020 when the industry was on a high. Many of the subsequent peaks in popularity can be correlated with specific events and openings in the parks to show for the first time which ones had a magic touch. It really does open up a whole new world of analysis.

Magic Kingdom (Walt Disney World): Orlando, Florida

Attendance: 17.7 million
Google Trends score at January 1, 2020: 100
Google Trends score at October 21, 2025: 79
Change: -21 (-21%)
Peak: January 2020
Notes: Strong 2019 holiday season and New Year’s Eve at the Magic Kingdom carried over into January 2020.

Walt Disney World (commonly-used resort name): Orlando, Florida

Attendance: n/a
Google Trends score at January 1, 2020: 100
Google Trends score at October 21, 2025: 74
Change: -26 (-26%)
Peak: January 2020
Notes: Followed the opening of the hugely-popular Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance attraction in December 2019.

Disneyland: Anaheim, California

Attendance: 17.3 million
Google Trends score at January 1, 2020: 92
Google Trends score at October 21, 2025: 66
Change: -26 (-28.3%)
Peak: February 2020
Notes: On February 28, 2020, ahead of its 65th anniversary, Disneyland launched its Magic Happens parade featuring floats based on films like Frozen 2, Coco and Moana.

Universal Studios Japan: Osaka, Japan

Attendance: 16 million
Google Trends score at January 1, 2020: 43
Google Trends score at October 21, 2025: 71
Change: +28 (65.1%)
Peak: October 2022
Notes: In October 2022 Universal Studios Japan announced a limited-time 20% discount on park admission for vaccinated Japanese residents. It was extremely popular, especially as the park was in the middle of its No Limit! Halloween event.

Tokyo Disneyland: Tokyo, Japan

Attendance: 15.1 million
Google Trends score at January 1, 2020: 74
Google Trends score at October 21, 2025: 72
Change: -2 (-2.7%)
Peak: May 2024
Notes: Japan’s busy Golden Week holiday weekend was in May 2024 which was also one month before the opening of Tokyo Disney’s biggest-ever expansion at the neighboring DisneySea park.

Shanghai Disneyland: Shanghai, China

Attendance: 14 million
Google Trends score at January 1, 2020: 49
Google Trends score at October 21, 2025: 78
Change: +29 (+59.2%)
Peak: September 2025
Notes: In September 2025, Shanghai Disneyland announced an expansion to its popular Soaring Over the Horizon attraction and the first vertical steel column was installed for its upcoming Spider-Man coaster. Both developments generated considerable media coverage and thereby drove search inquiries about the park.

Chimelong Ocean Kingdom: Zhuhai, China

Attendance: 12.5 million
Google Trends score at January 1, 2020: 54
Google Trends score at October 21, 2025: 73
Change: +19 (+35.2%)
Peak: April 2025
Notes: China’s Qingming Festival public holiday fell on a Friday in April in 2025 giving people a three day weekend.

Tokyo DisneySea: Tokyo, Japan

Attendance: 12.4 million
Google Trends score at January 1, 2020: 93
Google Trends score at October 21, 2025: 99
Change: +6 (+6.5%)
Peak: September 2025
Notes: The peak did not coincide with the opening in June 2024 of Fantasy Springs, the biggest expansion in the history of DisneySea.

Epcot (Walt Disney World): Orlando, Florida

Attendance: 12 million
Google Trends score at January 1, 2020: 71
Google Trends score at October 21, 2025: 68
Change: -3 (-4.2%)
Peak: March 2025
Notes: The 30th anniversary of the popular Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival began in March 2025.

Disneyland Park: Paris, France

Attendance: 10.4 million
Google Trends score at January 1, 2020: 72
Google Trends score at October 21, 2025: 64
Change: -8 (-11.1%)
Peak: October 2020
Notes: The resort closed at the end of October 2020 because of a second French lockdown, driving a peak number of search inquiries.

Disneyland Paris (commonly-used resort name): Paris, France

Attendance: n/a
Google Trends score at January 1, 2020: 80
Google Trends score at October 21, 2025: 88
Change: +8 (+10.0%)
Peak: September 2025
Notes: Announcements about Christmas season combined with drop tests starting for the new Lion King ride in the Disney Adventure World theme park.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios (Walt Disney World): Orlando, Florida

Attendance: 10.3 million
Google Trends score at January 1, 2020: 100
Google Trends score at October 21, 2025: 57
Change: -43 (-43%)
Peak: January 2020
Notes: Followed the opening of the hugely-popular Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance attraction in December 2019.

Universal Islands of Adventure: Orlando, Florida

Attendance: 10 million
Google Trends score at January 1, 2020: 73
Google Trends score at October 21, 2025: 73
Change: – (0%)
Peak: June 2021
Notes: Hugely popular Jurassic World VelociCoaster opened.

Disney California Adventure Park: Anaheim, California

Attendance: 10 million
Google Trends score at January 1, 2020: 36
Google Trends score at October 21, 2025: 40
Change: +4 (+11.1%)
Peak: November 2023
Notes: Holiday season began. Peak did not coincide with the opening of the Avengers Campus in 2021.

Universal Studios Florida: Orlando, Florida

Attendance: 9.8 million
Google Trends score at January 1, 2020: 81
Google Trends score at October 21, 2025: 79
Change: -2 (-2.5%)
Peak: February 2020
Notes: The 25th-anniversary of Universal Studios Florida’s popular Mardi Gras celebration began in February 2020 featuring a nightly parade, Cajun-inspired food and concerts.

Universal Studios Hollywood: Los Angeles, California

Attendance: 9.7 million
Google Trends score at January 1, 2020: 100
Google Trends score at October 21, 2025: 73
Change: -27 (-27%)
Peak: January 2020
Notes: Did not peak in February 2023 when the much-vaunted Super Nintendo World opened.

Universal Studios Beijing: Beijing, China

Attendance: 9 million
Google Trends score at January 1, 2020: n/a as opened in September 2021

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park (Walt Disney World): Orlando, Florida

Attendance: 8.8 million
Google Trends score at January 1, 2020: 98
Google Trends score at October 21, 2025: 47
Change: -51 (-52%)
Peak: February 2020
Notes: Busy President’s Day weekend.

Hong Kong Disneyland: Hong Kong, SAR China

Attendance: 6.4 million
Google Trends score at January 1, 2020: 48
Google Trends score at October 21, 2025: 86
Change: +38 (+79.2%)
Peak: December 2021
Notes: Noteworthy holiday celebrations in 2021 involved the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra performing a live concert of Disney and Christmas songs with Mickey Mouse and other characters. The next peak came in December 2023 following the opening of the World of Frozen land.

Europa-Park: Rust, Germany

Attendance: 6 million
Google Trends score at January 1, 2020: 37
Google Trends score at October 21, 2025: 61
Change: +24 (+64.9%)
Peak: June 2023
Notes: In June 2023 a large fire broke out in a control room for an attraction when some 25,000 people were visiting the park. This went viral and the search volume exceeded that of April 2024 when its acclaimed Voltron Nevera roller coaster opened.

Everland: Yongin, South Korea

Attendance: 5.9 million
Google Trends score at January 1, 2020: 1
Google Trends score at October 21, 2025: 83
Change: +82 (+8,200%)
Peak: September 2025
Notes: Korea’s largest theme park. In September 2025 Everland launched a new zone themed to K-Pop Demon Hunters, the most-watched movie in Netflix history.

Walt Disney Studios: Paris, France

Attendance: 5.7 million
Google Trends score at January 1, 2020: 72
Google Trends score at October 21, 2025: 72
Change: – (0%)
Peak: August 2025
Notes: Peak was not in July 2022 when the Avengers Campus opened. Instead it peaked in August 2025 when Disney announced that World of Frozen will open in the park in spring 2026 marking its official transformation into Disney Adventure World.