How Was Disney’s Attendance in 2023?

Each year, we wonder a simple question.

Are Disney theme parks growing more crowded?

While Disney officials will never confirm that information, one industry organization researches the matter each year.

Their estimates for theme park attendance cover the entire industry, which explains why their publication is known as the theme park bible.

Well, the latest theme park bible has been released. So, how was Disney’s attendance in 2023? Let’s check the numbers!

About the T.E.A. Publication

The Themed Entertainment Association (T.E.A.) is an international non-profit organization composed of members of the theme park industry.

According to the T.E.A., “Our members bring the experience of engaging storytelling and entertainment to a vast number of theme parks, waterparks, museums, wildlife attractions, casinos, hotels/resorts, restaurants, retail stores, sports/performance venues, and an ever-growing list of destinations that aim to bring a higher level of visitor experiences worldwide.”

So, we’re discussing a vast amount of various entities represented by the T.E.A.

Each year, this organization collaborates with AECOM, a noted consulting firm to produce the TEA/AECOM Theme Index and Museum Index.

This index provides estimates for theme park and museum attendance around the world.

While nobody could ever say with confidence that the data is 100 percent accurate, this annual publication has earned a stellar reputation.

People refer to the index as the theme park bible because it covers such a vast array of businesses.

Some contribute information more readily than others, which causes at least some guesswork with the data.

Still, in future years, when you notice updates to sites such as the Wikipedia entry, the T.E.A. will be the source.

Observers have been especially looking forward to the 2023 data because it’ll be the first non-pandemic-influenced data since 2019.

So, let’s discuss how Disney’s theme parks performed last year.

Disney’s Still on Top

Overall, this publication included the typical good news and bad news for Disney.

Due to the company’s diversification, it experiences highs and lows, and some of the interpretations are in the eye of the beholder.

For example, Disney’s global attendance increased significantly from 2022 to 2023.

Two years ago, Disney tallied 121.027 million guests, which is admittedly an astounding number.

Last year, that total spiked to 142.083 million, a 17 percent gain. Any business would kill for that sort of growth.

As great as the total sounds, a bit of perspective underscores the severity of the pandemic, though.

For 2019, Disney had tallied 155.991 million guests. So, even after all this recovery, overall attendance is still down nearly 14 million.

When critics pretend like Disney has no reason to struggle, this is the harsh truth they must sidestep and/or ignore to talk trash.

In 2021, the entire top 25 theme parks (!) only managed total attendance of 141.35 million.

Yes, Disney on its own last year outperformed the world’s most popular theme parks in totality.

That fact alone reinforces that Disney has experienced a near-total recovery, but it still has room to grow.

Overall, the top theme park companies increased their attendance by 30 percent from 2022 to 2023.

So, the entire industry is trending in the right direction.

The World’s Most Popular Theme Parks

I’ve been writing this article annually since MickeyBlog debuted in 2017, and one trend has remained the same each time.

The Walt Disney Company always claims the two most popular theme parks on the planet.

For the second straight year, the difference is that the competition was much closer than usual, though.

Magic Kingdom once again claimed the top spot with 17.72 million guests served.

Disneyland Park narrowly finished second by hosting 17.25 million guests.

That’s actually a bigger gap than in 2022, when Magic Kingdom’s total was 17.133 million versus Disneyland’s 16.881 million.

As you can see, both parks increased attendance last year, with Magic Kingdom growing 3.4 percent and Disneyland at 2.2 percent.

Something to track for next year is that Universal Studios Japan, the world’s third-most popular theme park, is gaining quickly.

During 2023, that park’s attendance increased nearly 30 percent to 16 million.

That’s the closest any outside competitor has come to Disney in a while.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The behavior appears systemic throughout Japan, as Tokyo Disneyland also increased 25.8 percent to 15.1 million.

Based on the data, revenge travel was particularly impactful in the Asian marketplace.

In fact, Tokyo DisneySea soared 22.8 percent to 12.4 million.

That’s not even the number that will bake your noodle, though.

Shanghai Disneyland’s attendance spiked 164 percent (!!!) from 5.3 million to 14 million.

Overall, Disney claimed four of the top five theme parks in the world in terms of attendance. In the top ten, Disney held eight spots.

So, Universal Studios Japan and Chimelong Ocean Kingdom were the only two non-Disney parks with top ten global attendance.

Disney’s Other Park Performances

Domestically, the big debate remains about how much Universal Orlando Resort is catching up to Walt Disney World.

I maintain that one isn’t even possible without the other, but this past year’s data is fascinating.

While Universal Studios claimed record revenue throughout 2023, Orlando theme park attendance appears to be down across the board.

Yes, Magic Kingdom increased, and so did EPCOT. The latter park gained nearly 20 percent to 11.98 million.

That total approaches EPCOT’s consistent pre-pandemic levels of 12.4 million. Everything else in Orlando…was weird.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios reportedly witnessed a drop of 5.5 percent to 10.3 million.

Similarly, Disney’s Animal Kingdom fell 2.8 percent to 8.77 million.

More alarmingly, the T.E.A. indicates that Animal Kingdom was only the 16^th most popular theme park in the world.

I haven’t had a chance to fact check 25 years of data yet, but that’s the lowest I can ever recall Animal Kingdom ranking.

Remarkably, Universal Orlando’s parks weren’t any better, with Universal Studios Florida dipping 9.3 percent to 9.75 million.

Universal’s Islands of Adventure was more popular, with 10 million in attendance. That’s a 9.3 percent drop as well.

Overall, Walt Disney World’s three most popular parks all earned more traffic than Universal Studios’ best-attended American park.

The feud is dramatically overblown, folks. In fact, 2024 trends suggest a similar drop in next year’s T.E.A. report.

Universal Epic Universe may reverse the company’s fortunes, but there’s a massive gap between them and Disney right now.

More Disney Park Tourism Info

Disney California Adventure had one of its best years ever in terms of chart placement. It finished in 11^th place with 10 million.

So, yeah, DCA did as well as Universal’s most popular theme park. That’ll shut down any lingering competition questions.

To a larger point, DCA attendance increased a stellar 11.1 percent.

Internationally, Disneyland Paris improved 4.7 percent to 10.4 million, while Walt Disney Studios Park managed 5.7 million.

Those two numbers exemplify the perceived quality gap between Disney’s two Parisian theme parks.

Thus, we’re getting Disney Adventure World! Okay, I’m joking, but I also want to highlight something here.

That’s the best performance ever for Walt Disney Studios Park. Before 2023, its best attendance year had been 5.34 million.

Disney’s full control over Disneyland Paris ops is paying immediate dividends.

At Hong Kong Disneyland, the gap between Shanghai and them has never seemed more significant.

The Hong Kong park increased 88 percent (!) to 6.4 million. It places 17^th, while Shanghai Disneyland finishes fifth at 14 million.

So, Chinese tourists are more than twice as likely to travel to Shanghai than Hong Kong for a Disney experience.

Evaluating the Orlando Weirdness

Finally, I only have one water park to discuss this time, as Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon was the only option in 2023.

For the year, it was THE most popular water park in the world, claiming attendance of 1.898 million.

That’s a flat with last year but technically a drop of less than one percent.

Meanwhile, Volcano Bay at Universal Orlando Resort finished second with 1.8 million. That, too, is a modest decline of 2.7 percent.

So, what’s going on with Orlando? Apparently, the T.E.A. anticipated this question. I’ll post their explanation verbatim:

“Orlando remains a heavy hitter in the theme park world, with seven theme parks and three water parks making our list.

“But attendance in Orlando was down in 2023 and the cluster of parks there is not performing on par with other regions around the country.

“A large part of that is related to international travel that has still not returned to pre-pandemic levels.

“While multiple factors affect travel choices, an important one is the relative strength of the U.S. dollar, which makes inbound international travel much less attractive.

“The parks also cite a decrease in group travel as a key reason for lower numbers.

“Even though performance elsewhere in the U.S. was stable or up, the weight Florida has on the whole North American market pulled average numbers down, resulting in very little net growth for the entire North American region.”

I have thoughts on this, but I’ll save them for a later article.

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