Southern California's six biggest theme parks drew 47 million visitors in 2025, a 1.9% drop that worked out to 919,000 fewer people walking through the gates than the year before. Universal Studios Hollywood took the hardest hit among the region's major parks, while Disneyland and Disney California Adventure barely moved, essentially holding flat for the year.
Universal and Knott's Lead the Slide
The numbers come from the Themed Entertainment Association's Global Experience Index, released October 27, and reported by ocregister.com. Universal Studios Hollywood welcomed 8 million visitors in 2025, 700,000 fewer than the previous year, making it the steepest decline among the area's major parks. Knott's Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain each saw roughly 4% declines, though the outlets differ slightly on the exact figures: ocregister.com puts Knott's at 4.3 million visitors with a 4% drop, while themeparktribune.com reports Knott's fell 4.2% to 4.315 million guests, enough to knock the park out of the industry's top 10.
SeaWorld San Diego was nearly untouched by the downturn, per the same ocregister.com report, with attendance declining just 0.2% to 4 million visitors. Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, meanwhile, each grew 0.4% in 2025, reaching 17.4 million and 10.1 million visitors respectively — essentially flat and a sharp contrast to the losses posted elsewhere in the region.
A Steep Fall From Record Highs
The regional dip looks even starker when measured against the industry's peak. Southern California theme park attendance sat 7.8% below its all-time high in 2025, according to a separate ocregister.com report, with the region's parks sliding from a record 51 million visitors down to 47 million in the latest TEA figures. The same report notes that three Southern California parks — Disney California Adventure, Universal Studios Hollywood and Knott's Berry Farm — had actually set all-time attendance records after pandemic-era closures, while Disneyland, Six Flags Magic Mountain and SeaWorld San Diego had never climbed back above their pre-pandemic peaks.
The Themed Entertainment Association attributed North American attendance declines broadly to extreme weather, the Los Angeles wildfires, and fewer Canadians traveling to the United States amid tariff and trade tensions, the same ocregister.com report states. sbsun.com adds that Disneyland has strategically used park reservations and tiered ticket pricing since reopening to manage crowds while maximizing revenue — a approach that may help explain why its attendance numbers have stayed so steady even as rivals slipped.
A Different Picture Beyond Southern California
The regional slump stands in contrast to what happened globally. Worldwide theme park attendance rose 2.8% to 545.5 million visitors in 2025, with Disney remaining the largest theme park company on the planet at 146.8 million visitors, up 1.1%, according to ocregister.com. Universal's global attendance climbed even faster, up 5.4% to 62.1 million visitors, boosted in part by the new Epic Universe park in Florida, which the Themed Entertainment Association estimated drew about 4 million guests between its late-May 2025 debut and the end of the year, per themeparktribune.com.
Central Florida's leading theme parks saw combined attendance climb 4.3% in 2025, according to the Themed Entertainment Association, even as Disney's four Florida parks each posted a 0.2% attendance decline, as reported by dailybreeze.com. Other categories of attractions fared even better than theme parks broadly: the world's top 20 water parks saw visits rise 3% to 36.3 million, and the top 20 museums jumped 5.4% to 161.4 million visits, according to the Themed Entertainment Association's index.
Disney's Finances Still Looking Strong
Despite the Southern California dip, Disney's broader theme park business has continued posting healthy financial results. The company's experiences division, which includes parks and cruises worldwide, reported $9.97 billion in revenue for the fiscal quarter ended June 27, up 10% year over year, according to cnbc.com. U.S. park attendance for that quarter rose 3%, with per-capita spending up 4%, the same report found.
That resilience came even as international travel to the United States fell 6% overall, according to a separate CNBC report. The Southern California attendance figures underscore just how much the region's parks are now leaning on price increases and spending per visitor rather than raw attendance growth to keep revenue climbing, even as the crowds themselves thin out.
