Attendance at SeaWorld Orlando, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando’s established theme parks declined in 2025, according to new estimates released by the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) on October 27, 2026.
The figures, published in TEA’s 2025 Global Experience Index, show relatively small declines at SeaWorld Orlando and Walt Disney World’s four theme parks, while Busch Gardens Tampa Bay and Universal Orlando’s two existing parks experienced larger decreases.
Universal Epic Universe was the notable addition to the market. The new theme park opened in May 2025 and welcomed an estimated four million visits during its first partial year, helping push Central Florida’s combined attendance higher despite declines at the region’s established parks.
SeaWorld Orlando Remains Steady While Busch Gardens Tampa Bay Sees Larger Decline
SeaWorld Orlando recorded an estimated 4,335,000 visits in 2025, down just 0.3% from the previous year. That was enough to place the park 10th among North America’s most-visited theme parks, narrowly ahead of Knott’s Berry Farm in California.
The small decrease puts SeaWorld Orlando nearly in line with Walt Disney World’s four theme parks, each of which recorded an estimated attendance decline of 0.2%.
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay had a more difficult year. Attendance at the Tampa park fell an estimated 4.4%, bringing its annual total to approximately 3.8 million visits. That was the largest percentage decline among the major Florida theme parks included in this comparison.
SeaWorld San Diego, another United Parks & Resorts property, remained relatively steady with an estimated 4,015,000 visits, a decrease of 0.2%.
The difference between SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is particularly noticeable given that both parks operate under United Parks & Resorts. While SeaWorld Orlando’s attendance barely changed, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay experienced a considerably larger decline.
How Florida’s Major Theme Parks Compared
The TEA report provides the following estimates for 2025:
| Theme Park | Estimated Attendance | Change from 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Magic Kingdom | 17,800,000 | -0.2% |
| EPCOT | 12,109,000 | -0.2% |
| Disney’s Hollywood Studios | 10,312,000 | -0.2% |
| Universal Studios Florida | 9,300,000 | -2.1% |
| Universal Islands of Adventure | 9,200,000 | -2.6% |
| Disney’s Animal Kingdom | 8,782,000 | -0.2% |
| SeaWorld Orlando | 4,335,000 | -0.3% |
| Universal Epic Universe | 4,000,000 | New Park |
| Busch Gardens Tampa Bay | 3,800,000 | -4.4% |
Universal Studios Florida saw attendance decline by 2.1%, while Islands of Adventure dropped 2.6%. Those decreases were more substantial than the modest declines reported at Disney’s parks and SeaWorld Orlando, although neither approached the 4.4% decrease at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay.
Disney’s four Orlando theme parks continued to attract substantially more visitors individually than most of their competitors, with Magic Kingdom remaining the most-visited theme park in North America at approximately 17.8 million visits.
Epic Universe Adds Millions of Visits, but Universal’s Existing Parks Decline
Universal Epic Universe opened on May 22, 2025, becoming the first major new theme park to open in Orlando in more than two decades.
TEA estimates that Epic Universe attracted approximately four million visits between its opening and the end of 2025. Those visitors helped Universal Orlando’s combined theme park attendance climb to roughly 22.5 million, compared with approximately 18.95 million visits across Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure in 2024.
However, Epic Universe has no previous-year attendance for comparison. Its four million visits were added to the resort’s total, while Universal’s two established parks actually welcomed fewer visitors than they had the year before.
Combined attendance at Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure fell by approximately 450,000 visits in 2025.
It’s possible that some visitors chose to spend more of their vacation at Epic Universe instead of Universal’s existing parks, particularly during the new park’s opening year. The attendance figures don’t establish how much of the decline, if any, resulted from visitors shifting between parks.
The broader Central Florida market still recorded an estimated 4.3% attendance increase, with Epic Universe providing a substantial portion of that growth. Without the new park’s attendance, the established major theme parks in the comparison would have collectively finished the year below their 2024 totals.
Aquatica Orlando Also Records a Decline
United Parks’ water park business also experienced mixed results.
Aquatica Orlando welcomed an estimated 1.4 million visits in 2025, a decline of 2.4% compared with 2024.
Elsewhere in Orlando, Disney’s Blizzard Beach recorded a significant attendance increase of 50.5%, reaching approximately 1.35 million visits. The increase coincided with Disney returning to a schedule that allowed both Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon to operate during portions of the same year, following several years of alternating operations.
Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon welcomed approximately 1.76 million visits, while Universal’s Volcano Bay recorded an estimated 1.6 million.
These water park figures are particularly sensitive to operating calendars, which can make direct year-over-year comparisons more complicated.
A Mixed Year for Florida’s Theme Parks
The 2025 attendance estimates show that even Florida’s largest theme park operators weren’t immune to declining attendance at established properties.
SeaWorld Orlando held relatively steady, performing much closer to Walt Disney World’s parks than to the larger declines recorded at Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure. Busch Gardens Tampa Bay experienced a more pronounced decrease, while Aquatica Orlando also finished below its previous year’s estimated attendance.
Epic Universe brought millions of additional visits into the Orlando market, but its debut didn’t prevent attendance declines at Universal’s neighboring parks.
Whether these trends continue into 2026 will be worth watching, particularly as Epic Universe completes its first full calendar year and United Parks continues developing new attractions and experiences at SeaWorld and Busch Gardens.
The figures are estimates compiled by TEA and should not be confused with official attendance counts released by the individual park operators.
The complete report is available through the Themed Entertainment Association’s 2025 Global Experience Index.
