Los Angeles, CA, May 23, 2019—USHR//

The annual Theme Index, produced jointly by the Themed Entertainment Association and engineering/consulting firm AECOM, showed Universal Studios Hollywood’s attendance rise 1% to an attendance of 9,147,000 in 2018, compared with 9,056,000 in 2017. This placed it 15th in the world among all parks and 9th among North American parks, the same ranking as last year. Last year, its attendance grew 12%.

Universal’s other American parks enjoyed attendance increases: Islands of Adventure rose 2.5% to 9,788,000 guests, just beating out Universal Studios Hollywood for 14th place. Universal Studios Florida also rose 5%, with attendance totalling 10,708,000 at the park for a ranking of 11 worldwide, down from 10. Volcano Bay drew 1,725,000 visitors in its second year, up 15%.

It is important to note, however, that Universal Studios Florida was in fact not the most popular Universal Parks & Resorts property. That honor went to Universal Studios Japan, the fifth most visited park in the world. With 14,300,000 visitors, USJ had a 4% increase from 2017. Universal Studios Singapore fell out of the top 25 but had 4,400,000 visitors, a 4% increase.

In total, Universal saw a 1.2% attendance growth across all of its properties with 50,068,000 visitors, ranking it third among all operators. Universal’s main rival, Walt Disney Attractions, still took first place with a massive 5% increase to 157,311,000 visitors. While Universal and Disney do not officially provide attendance figures, TEA & AECOM use a “variety of sources, including statistics furnished directly by the operators, historical numbers, financial reports, the investment banking community, local tourism organizations, and professional estimates where necessary” to determine attendance figures.