{"id":510840,"date":"2026-10-28T17:26:42","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T17:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/510840\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T17:26:42","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T17:26:42","slug":"southern-california-theme-parks-lose-ground-after-setting-attendance-records-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/510840\/","title":{"rendered":"Southern California theme parks lose ground after setting attendance records \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

Southern California theme parks that bounced back after COVID-19 pandemic closures have lost ground once again after setting all-time attendance records, according to a new industry report.<\/p>\n

Southern California theme park attendance has dropped 7.8% from all-time attendance highs, according to the 2025 Themed Entertainment Association Global Experience Index<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ALSO SEE: Disneyland attendance flat, Universal Studios Hollywood drops 8% in 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

SoCal parks have shed 4 million visitors from individual attendance records set between 2012 and 2025 \u2014 dropping from an all-time high of 51 million visitors to 47 million in the latest TEA report.<\/p>\n

Three local parks \u2014 Disney California Adventure, Universal Studios Hollywood and Knott\u2019s Berry Farm \u2014 have set all-time attendance records since returning from COVID-19 pandemic closures that shuttered the parks for parts of 2020 and 2021.<\/p>\n

Three SoCal parks \u2014 Disneyland, Six Flags Magic Mountain and SeaWorld San Diego \u2014 have not yet topped pre-pandemic attendance records.<\/p>\n

\"Source:Source: 2025 Themed Entertainment Association Global Experience Index
\nAll-Time Highs<\/p>\n

The Disneyland resort has lost 1 million visitors since setting a record high of 28.5 million visitors in 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic began.<\/p>\n

Disneyland\u2019s 2025 attendance remains 6.8% below the all-time high of 18.7 million set in 2019 when the $1 billion Star Wars: Galaxy\u2019s Edge<\/a> themed land was first unveiled.<\/p>\n

ALSO SEE: Disneyland focused on \u2018elite\u2019 visitors willing to pay more under Chapek<\/a><\/p>\n

Disneyland has strategically limited attendance<\/a> since reopening after the yearlong pandemic closure through the use of park reservations and tiered ticket pricing to maximize revenue through crowd management.<\/p>\n

Disney California Adventure is the only Southern California theme park currently at its attendance peak \u2014 with a record 10.1 million visitors in 2025.<\/p>\n

\"VisitorsVisitors to Disneyland enter Sleeping Beauty castle\ufffc during the 70th anniversary Disneyland on July 17, 2025, \ufffcin Anaheim, CA. \ufffc(Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)<\/p>\n

DCA attendance has more than doubled in less than two decades from 4.7 million visitors during the first full year of park operations in 2002.<\/p>\n

Universal Studios Hollywood attendance has nosedived since Super Nintendo World<\/a> debuted in 2023 with a record-setting 9.7 million annual visitors. Since then, Universal attendance has dropped 17.2% to 8 million in 2025, according to the TEA report.<\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople ride the West Coast Racers dueling steel roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, Thursday, Apr. 1, 2021. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)<\/p>\n

Knott\u2019s Berry Farm attendance declined 4.2% in 2025 from an all-time high of 4.5 million in 2024 when the makeover of the Camp Snoopy<\/a> kids land opened.<\/p>\n

Six Flags Magic Mountain never fully recovered from the pre-pandemic attendance peak of 3.6 million visitors in 2019 when the West Coaster Racers<\/a> roller coaster debuted. Magic Mountain attendance has remained 300,000 to 600,000 below that all-time high over the past five years.<\/p>\n

\"SeaWorldSeaWorld San Diego visitors ride the Manta roller coaster at the park in Mission Bay. (Alejandro Tamayo\/The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

SeaWorld San Diego successfully recovered from the pandemic, but not the 2013 \u201cBlackfish\u201d documentary film<\/a> which was critical of SeaWorld\u2019s treatment of captive whales. SeaWorld attendance remains 9.7% below the all-time high of 4.4 million visitors in 2012 when the park unveiled the Manta coaster<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Legoland California did not make the TEA Top 20 list of biggest North American theme parks. Merlin Entertainments reported in March that attendance was down 6.2%<\/a> in 2025 at its North American properties, which includes the Legoland park in Carlsbad.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn Audio-Animatronics of Walt Disney greets visitors to the Main Street Opera House during \u201cWalt Disney \u2013 A Magical Life\u201d inside Disneyland on July 14, 2025, in Anaheim, CA. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)
\n2025 Projects<\/p>\n

Southern California theme parks didn\u2019t do much to drive attendance in 2025.<\/p>\n

Disneyland celebrated its 70th anniversary<\/a> with a new audio-animatronic show starring a robotic Walt Disney<\/a> along with the debut of the new \u201cWorld of Color Happiness<\/a>\u201d water show at Disney California Adventure.<\/p>\n

\"OneOne Piece characters in the \u201cGrand Pirate Show\u201d during Fan Fest Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Courtesy of Universal)<\/p>\n

Universal Studios Hollywood rolled out the Fan Fest Nights<\/a> after-hours event in 2025 as a pop culture version of Halloween Horror Nights<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SeaWorld San Diego refreshed the Journey to Atlantis<\/a> roller coaster and opened a jellyfish exhibit<\/a> in 2025.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe new Montezooma: The Forbidden Fortress roller coaster at Knott\u2019s Berry Farm. (Courtesy of Knott\u2019s)<\/p>\n

Knott\u2019s Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain pushed back a pair of long-delayed projects in 2025 \u2014 the Montezooma<\/a> coaster makeover at Knott\u2019s and the debut of the new Thrill Glider<\/a> coaster at Magic Mountain.<\/p>\n

Legoland California reimagined the Dino Valley<\/a> land with a few rethemed rides in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Southern California theme parks that bounced back after COVID-19 pandemic closures have lost ground once again after setting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[2223,163,165,164,1311,7,2222,1341,1743,74884,47,137,611,84,16188,16192,16187,420,3306],"class_list":["post-510840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-amusement-parks","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-buena-park","tag-california","tag-disney-california-adventure","tag-disneyland","tag-hollywood","tag-legoland","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-orange-county","tag-san-diego-county","tag-santa-clarita","tag-seaworld-san-diego","tag-six-flags-magic-mountain","tag-things-to-do","tag-valencia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}