Magic Kingdom Still Reigns as the World’s Busiest Park — and Epic Universe Just Crashed the Rankings

The biggest theme-park story of the last 24 hours isn’t a ride opening or a price hike — it’s the scoreboard. The industry’s annual attendance report landed on October 27, confirming that Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom is still the single most-visited theme park on Earth, with 17.8 million guests in 2025, even as its lead narrows and Universal’s Epic Universe muscles its way into the North American rankings in its very first partial year. Alongside that headline number, Disney Cruise Line rolled out a concrete set of accessibility upgrades across its entire fleet, and ABC locked in the air dates for its 2026 Disney Parks holiday TV specials. Here is everything that moved since our Tuesday digest, and why each item matters for your next trip.

Magic Kingdom Holds the Crown as Epic Universe Enters the Charts

According to the newly released TEA Global Experience Index for 2025 — the definitive annual attendance study for the themed-entertainment industry — Magic Kingdom retained its position as the most-visited theme park in the world with 17,800,000 visits. That is down a razor-thin 0.2% from 2024, and its lead over second-place Disneyland (17,406,000 visits, actually up 0.4%) is now under 400,000 guests. We’ve watched that gap shrink for years, and it has rarely been this close.

The rest of Walt Disney World’s parks posted the same roughly flat trend: EPCOT ranked 8th globally at 12,109,000 visits, Disney’s Hollywood Studios 10th at 10,312,000, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom 15th at 8,782,000 — each down about 0.2% year over year. Across the top 25 parks worldwide, total attendance came in at 245.4 million, a 0.2% dip from 2024.

The genuinely new entry is Universal’s Epic Universe, which opened May 22, 2025. In roughly seven months of operation it drew an estimated 4 million guests — not enough to crack the global top 25, but enough to land 13th among North American theme parks in its debut year. Given that figure reflects a partial year, we expect its 2026 number to climb sharply.

Park	2025 visits	Change vs. 2024	Global rank
Magic Kingdom	17,800,000	−0.2%	1
Disneyland	17,406,000	+0.4%	2
EPCOT	12,109,000	−0.2%	8
Disney’s Hollywood Studios	10,312,000	−0.2%	10
Disney’s Animal Kingdom	8,782,000	−0.2%	15
Epic Universe (opened May 22, 2025)	~4,000,000	New	Not in top 25 (13th in North America)

The takeaway for planners: Disney’s parks are holding steady rather than growing, while Orlando’s overall visitor pie is being redistributed now that Universal has a fourth gate. Flat-to-declining attendance at the Disney parks can mean marginally shorter waits on off-peak days — but it also explains why Disney keeps leaning on paid line-skipping and premium add-ons to grow revenue when turnstile counts aren’t climbing.

Disney Cruise Line Expands Accessibility Across the Whole Fleet

In a separate October 27 announcement, Disney Cruise Line added two tangible accessibility features across every ship in its fleet. According to Disney’s announcement, guests who are deaf or hard of hearing can now use haptic vests at the line’s silent disco parties; the vests translate music and sound effects into physical vibrations so guests feel the beat they can’t hear. “Now they can feel it,” said Maura King, Disney Cruise Line’s manager of accessibility.

The second addition targets guests with vision loss: braille and tactile guidebooks are now available fleet-wide, with raised, deck-by-deck maps of each ship’s venues plus layouts of the line’s private island destinations. Guests can pick them up at guest relations onboard, at Disney Castaway Cay, and at Disney Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point. These join existing accommodations Disney highlighted — theater induction loops for hearing aids on newer ships, a virtual queue for guests with mobility or cognitive needs, captioning on Funnel Vision, and accessible staterooms. We’ve long rated Disney Cruise Line among the most accessibility-forward lines at sea, and this is a meaningful, low-friction upgrade rather than a marketing flourish.

ABC Locks In 2026 Disney Parks Holiday Special Air Dates

Finally, a date for your DVR. ABC has confirmed the 2026 broadcast schedule for its two marquee Disney Parks holiday specials, both filmed on location at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and Disneyland Resort in California. “The Wonderful World of Disney: Holiday Spectacular” premieres Monday, November 30 at 8 p.m. ET, featuring new musical performances from both coasts. The long-running “Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade” then airs Friday, December 25 at 10 a.m. ET (with staggered start times across the Central, Mountain, and Pacific time zones).

For families who can’t make it to the parks this season, these broadcasts remain the closest thing to a front-row seat at the castle. They also tend to debut the season’s new parade floats and entertainment, so we’ll be watching closely for first looks at anything new rolling down Main Street, U.S.A. this year.

With attendance holding flat and Disney leaning harder on paid conveniences to grow revenue, understanding what you’ll actually pay to skip the standby line matters more than ever — see our full breakdown in how much Lightning Lane costs at Disney World.