Universal Orlando Attendance Stunned in 2022
Each year, an organization named the Themed Entertainment Association estimates attendance at various theme parks around the world.
In 2021, Universal Orlando Resort unexpectedly claimed triumph when the report praised attendance here.
Photo: touring plans.com
According to the industry experts, two of the three most popular theme parks in the world were operating at Universal Orlando Resort!
This proclamation came with a massive pandemic-related asterisk, but it still gave cause for optimism.
Photo:universal
Now, the 2022 attendance report has arrived, and it’s, if anything, more impressive.
Here’s why Universal Orlando Resort attendance stunned in 2022!
How Universal Impressed in 2022
Photo: Disneyland
Let’s start with the obvious. We knew one trend wouldn’t hold from 2021 to 2022.
In 2021, Disneyland Resort didn’t operate for four months, thereby cutting its potential attendance by one-third.
Not coincidentally, both Universal theme parks in Orlando surpassed Disneyland Park for the first time ever.
Islands of Adventure
No reasonable person expected that behavior to continue into 2022, and it didn’t.
During calendar 2022, The Walt Disney Company claimed the top two spots in theme park attendance in the world, as it usually does.
The parks in question are Disneyland, which finished second, and Magic Kingdom, the latter of which has claimed the top spot for more than a decade.
Photo: TravelSavvy
At this point, Universal doesn’t have the wherewithal to compete with Magic Kingdom or even Disneyland. And that’s okay!
Those parks enjoyed a head start for several decades! In truth, Universal is only competing with itself to gain more customers compared to its past.
That’s where the Themed Entertainment Association (T.E.A.) publication comes into play.
Photo:instagram/universalorlando
We just learned that Universal’s Islands of Adventure claimed the title of the third-most popular theme park in the world for 2022!
Islands of Adventure (IoA) joined Disneyland and Magic Kingdom as one of three parks with at least 11 million guests last year.
Photo:instagram/universalorlando
IoA’s 11 million tourists represent a growth of 21 percent from the park’s 9.1 million guests in 2021.
More importantly, that’s the largest annual total of guests at IoA in the park’s history.
Before the pandemic started, this park hosted 10.4 million guests. So, this park has actually increased its attendance from before the pandemic.
Photo: The Apopka Voice
To those Universal fans looking for a sign that the brand is growing, this is your data point!
None of Disney’s American parks can make that claim!
More about Universal’s 2022 Attendance
Photo:Universal Orlando
I can also confirm a changing of the guard at Universal Orlando Resort.
In 2021, Islands of Adventure surpassed the attendance of Universal Studios Florida for the first time ever.
The difference was quite small at 90,000 guests, which borders on a statistical anomaly…once.
Photo: Universal
In 2022, the same thing happened again, but the gap grew larger.
Universal Studios Florida claimed attendance of 10.8 million. There’s some rounding involved here as well.
The gist is that roughly 250,000 more tourists entered Islands of Adventure rather than Universal Studios Florida.
Photo: Universal
Of course, most theme park visitors attend both, but the difference in attendance likely reflects something I’d expected for a while.
In 2019, IoA opened Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. Then, the VelociCoaster debuted in 2021.
Photo:instagram/universalorlando
So, the two newest rides at Universal Orlando Resort both reside at IoA, which should tip the balance.
Still, Universal Studios Florida attained 20 percent more visits in 2022 than its nine million in 2021.
Overall, the two parks averaged an attendance increase of 21 percent last year.
Photo: Universal
Universal has sustained the momentum it gained by reopening before other Florida theme parks during the pandemic.
Now, park officials can accurately state that Universal operates the second-most and fourth-most popular theme parks on the East Coast.
Photo: Universal
Islands of Adventure edged Disney’s Hollywood Studios (DHS) by 125,000, which means Universal Studios Florida only missed beating DHS by 125,000.
Friends, Universal has closed the gap with Walt Disney World, and that’s before we factor in the impending arrival of Universal’s Epic Universe!
The Other Universal Parks
Photo:Universal Studios Hollywood
We should talk about some other Universal Studios theme parks as well.
For instance, Universal Studios Hollywood spiked its attendance by 53 percent last year.
The Hollywood park earned 8.4 million visits, a huge improvement from 2021’s 5.5 million.
Photo:skillastics.com
We can safely conclude that Universal’s American parks have mostly recovered from the pandemic.
The Universal Studios Hollywood attendance estimate for 2022 falls somewhere between its 2015 and 2016 levels.
Within the next three years, the American parks should all match/surpass their pre-pandemic levels from 2019.
PhotoLjapancheapo.com
Overseas, the picture is a bit blurrier. Universal Studios Japan recovered dramatically in 2022, increasing 125 percent (!).
In 2021, the park only hosted 5.5 million guests but then increased to 12.4 million last year.
While the park isn’t back to its 2019 level of 14.5 million tourists, it is in the range of 2015.
Photo: Universal Japan
I swear that’s really good, all things considered. Remember that Asia still locked down the parks a few times in 2022.
So, there were arbitrary limits on possible attendance. For this reason, Universal Studios Singapore increased 75 percent but only hosted 2.1 million guests.
That’s less than half of its 4.5 million in 2019. Obviously, some recoveries are happening faster than others.
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