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Top 10 Most Visited Attractions in the United States

By Dhiraj Sharma · Published November 11, 2026

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The most visited United States attractions with comparable annual attendance are ranked here for 2025, using the TEA Global Experience Index. That report, produced by the Themed Entertainment Association with research partners, is the standard annual comparison for major theme parks. Its figures combine operator statistics, public reports and professional estimates, and they count visits, not unique people ^[1]^[2].

The method matters, because a different official series can look larger or smaller for reasons that have nothing to do with popularity in the everyday sense. National Park Service recreation visits in 2024 included 17.2 million at Golden Gate National Recreation Area, 16.7 million on the Blue Ridge Parkway, 12.2 million at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and 8.5 million at the Lincoln Memorial ^[3]^[4]. Those are real, official counts, but a parkway, a sprawling recreation area, or a national park with many trailheads is not the same kind of gate as a ticketed park, so they are summarised in Key Facts and not forced into the same ten ranks. Unenclosed urban places such as Times Square or the Las Vegas Strip, which often appear in informal lists with very large estimates, are omitted because they lack a single official annual count of the same type ^[1]^[3].

Key Facts

Ranks are 2025 TEA visits for United States theme parks. Park names follow the reporting year. Rank 1 is the most visited.

Most Visited Attractions at a Glance

Rank	Attraction	2025 visits	Change from 2024	Location
1	Magic Kingdom	17,800,000	-0.2 percent	Bay Lake, Florida
2	Disneyland	17,406,000	+0.4 percent	Anaheim, California
3	Epcot	12,109,000	-0.2 percent	Bay Lake, Florida
4	Disney's Hollywood Studios	10,312,000	-0.2 percent	Bay Lake, Florida
5	Disney California Adventure	10,090,000	+0.4 percent	Anaheim, California
6	Universal Studios Florida	9,300,000	-2.1 percent	Orlando, Florida
7	Universal Islands of Adventure	9,200,000	-2.6 percent	Orlando, Florida
8	Disney's Animal Kingdom	8,782,000	-0.2 percent	Bay Lake, Florida
9	Universal Studios Hollywood	8,000,000	-8.0 percent	Universal City, California
10	SeaWorld Orlando	4,335,000	-0.3 percent	Orlando, Florida

1. Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom, which opened on 1 October 1971 as the first of the Walt Disney World parks, was again the most visited theme park in the United States and in the world in 2025, with 17.8 million visits, a decline of 0.2 percent from 2024 ^[1]^[2]. The TEA worldwide table places it just ahead of Disneyland and well ahead of the leading parks in Japan and China.

It is first because 17.8 million is the highest 2025 figure in the comparable series. The four Walt Disney World parks together recorded about 49.0 million visits, almost unchanged from 2024, so Magic Kingdom's lead is a park-level fact, not a story of a whole destination booming ^[1].

A visit is a day of entry, not a unique annual guest. Repeat visitors and multi-park tickets inflate a raw total in a way that is consistent across this list, which is why the comparison still holds ^[2].

2. Disneyland

Disneyland, which opened on 17 July 1955 in Anaheim, is the older of the two parks at Disneyland Resort and the second-most visited United States park in 2025, with 17,406,000 visits, up 0.4 percent ^[1]^[2]. It was also second worldwide, close enough to Magic Kingdom that a later year could change the order.

It is second by a margin of about 400,000 visits. The California resort's second gate, Disney California Adventure, is fifth on this list, so the Anaheim complex as a whole is not far behind Orlando in park-level traffic even though it has two parks rather than four ^[1].

The 1955 opening date is the historical fact that still matters: this is the original Disney park, and its attendance remains in the same band as the much larger Florida flagship ^[2].

3. Epcot

Epcot, which opened on 1 October 1982, recorded 12,109,000 visits in 2025, down 0.2 percent, the same modest dip as the other Walt Disney World parks ^[1]. That total is third among United States parks and eighth among the worldwide top 25 in the same report.

It is third because it sits clearly below the two parks that exceed 17 million and clearly above the 10-million band of Hollywood Studios and California Adventure. The park's original theme, a permanent world's-fair idea rather than a castle park, has not kept it out of the national top three ^[1]^[2].

As with the other Disney World figures, the 2025 change is essentially flat. The ranking is a volume list, not a growth list ^[1].

4. Disney's Hollywood Studios

Disney's Hollywood Studios, which opened on 1 May 1989 as Disney-MGM Studios and later took its present name, recorded 10,312,000 visits in 2025, down 0.2 percent ^[1]. It is the third of the four Florida Disney parks on this list and the first to sit just above 10 million.

It is fourth, ahead of California Adventure by a little more than 200,000 visits. That is a close gap compared with the jump from Epcot down to this row, and it is a reminder that several parks now cluster in the 10-million range ^[1]^[2].

The 1989 opening, and the later renaming, are historical labels. The 2025 figure is the ranking fact ^[1].

5. Disney California Adventure

Disney California Adventure, which opened on 8 February 2001 beside Disneyland, recorded 10,090,000 visits in 2025, up 0.4 percent, matching Disneyland's percentage rise at the same resort ^[1]. It is fifth in the United States and eleventh worldwide in the TEA table.

It is fifth as the last United States park above 10 million visits in 2025. Together, the two Anaheim parks exceeded 27 million visits, a resort total that is discussed in the report as a California counterpart to the larger four-park Florida complex ^[1]^[2].

The 2001 opening date places this park among the younger gates on the list. Its attendance, after two decades and a major redesign, is now in the same band as Hollywood Studios ^[1].

6. Universal Studios Florida

Universal Studios Florida, which opened on 7 June 1990, recorded 9.3 million visits in 2025, down 2.1 percent ^[1]. It remains the most visited of Universal's United States parks, just ahead of its neighbour, Islands of Adventure.

It is sixth, below the Disney parks that still exceed 10 million and above every other Universal park in the country. The same report notes that Universal's new Orlando park, Epic Universe, opened on 22 May 2025 and recorded an estimated 4 million visits in a partial first year, a total that is not in this ten because it did not reach the national tenth place, but that did lift the three-park Orlando Universal total to about 22.5 million ^[1]^[2].

A first-year, mid-year opening is not comparable to a full calendar year at an older gate. That is why Epic Universe is mentioned here and not ranked as if it had been open for all of 2025 ^[1].

7. Universal Islands of Adventure

Universal Islands of Adventure, which opened on 28 May 1999, recorded 9.2 million visits in 2025, down 2.6 percent ^[1]. It is the seventh United States park in the TEA series and, with Universal Studios Florida, forms the older pair of the Orlando Universal complex.

It is seventh by a narrow margin of about 100,000 visits below its sister park. Both parks declined in a year when a third gate opened nearby, a pattern the report records without treating the decline as a disappearance of demand at the resort as a whole ^[1]^[2].

The 1999 opening date is firm. The 2025 attendance is an estimate in the same series as the other nine rows, not a turnstile spreadsheet published by the operator in this article's sources ^[2].

8. Disney's Animal Kingdom

Disney's Animal Kingdom, which opened on 22 April 1998, recorded 8,782,000 visits in 2025, down 0.2 percent, in line with the other Walt Disney World parks ^[1]. It is the least visited of the four Florida Disney parks and still eighth in the national theme-park table.

It is eighth because 8.78 million remains ahead of Universal Studios Hollywood and far ahead of the regional parks that occupy the rest of the North American top 20. A "lowest of the four" label at Walt Disney World is still a nationally high figure ^[1]^[2].

The park is a zoological and theme-park hybrid, but TEA counts it as a theme park, which is the classification used here ^[2].

9. Universal Studios Hollywood

Universal Studios Hollywood, whose modern studio-tour and theme-park operation grew out of a much older studio lot in Universal City, California, recorded 8.0 million visits in 2025, down 8.0 percent, the steepest drop among the nine parks above it ^[1]. It is the only California Universal park, and the only park in this ten outside Florida or Anaheim.

It is ninth, still clearly above the 4-million band of SeaWorld Orlando and of Epic Universe's partial year. The percentage decline is large enough to mention, and not large enough, in 2025, to drop the park out of the national ten ^[1]^[2].

Studio-tour history and theme-park history are intertwined at this site. The ranking uses the TEA park attendance, not a separate studio-tour series ^[1].

10. SeaWorld Orlando

SeaWorld Orlando recorded 4,335,000 visits in 2025, down 0.3 percent, and ranked tenth among United States theme parks in the TEA North American table ^[1]. Knott's Berry Farm, at 4,315,000, was immediately behind it. The gap is 20,000 visits, which is small relative to the estimate methods, and a later year could swap the two ^[1].

It is tenth as the last park in this comparable ten, and as the first marine park on the list. SeaWorld San Diego, at 4,015,000, is close behind in the same regional table and is not included because it is eleventh, not because it is unimportant ^[1].

The opening of the Orlando park dates to 15 December 1973. The 2025 figure is the ranking fact, and the narrow margin over Knott's is the caveat that belongs with it ^[1]^[2].

Conclusion

On the only national series that compares major ticketed attractions year by year, the 2025 United States ten are nine parks in Florida and California plus SeaWorld Orlando, led by Magic Kingdom at 17.8 million visits and Disneyland at 17.4 million ^[1]^[2]. Several official National Park Service totals from 2024 are in the same order of magnitude, including Golden Gate National Recreation Area at 17.2 million and the Lincoln Memorial at 8.5 million, but those counts describe landscapes and memorials, not the same kind of paid gate, and they belong beside this list rather than inside it ^[3]^[4].

The figures will move. Epic Universe already shows how a new park can shift a resort total in a partial year, and the 20,000-visit gap at tenth place shows how tight the lower ranks are ^[1]. A 2026 reader should take the order as a dated industry estimate, not as a permanent league table, and should not confuse a visit count with a unique-person count. For city-level attraction lists, see Finepedia's separate articles on major sites in New York, and for theme-park history more broadly, treat opening years and attendance as two different facts.