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Disney’s theme parks had higher total attendances in 2018 than any major sports league worldwide according to a review published in US business magazine Forbes.

Forbes’ reviews shows that Disney’s 14 parks around the world attracted an estimated 157.3 million visitors last year - more than double its nearest challenger, Major League Baseball. The MLB’s attendance total of 69.6 million is driven by 2,415 matches which is far more than the number held by the NFL or the NBA.

Aggregated, Disney’s attendance is greater than the three primary American professional sports leagues combined and based on current trends, the Forbes article suggests this will increase with the addition of new rides at Disney properties around the world.

Behind Disney, Merlin Entertainments, the world’s second largest attractions business, operates more than 130 attractions, including the Legoland theme parks, and until last month was listed on the London Stock Exchange.

It was de-listed after being bought for US$7.7 billion by private equity firm Blackstone, Canadian pension fund CPPIB and Kirkbi Invest, the private holding company of Denmark’s billionaire Kristiansen family which founded the Lego toy company.

Kirkbi Chief Executive Søren Thorup Sørensen said that the new owners have “the unique collective resources necessary to equip Merlin for their next phase of growth.”

As the table below shows, 67 million guests streamed through its turnstiles last year – again, a total that is set to rise with the UK-based business due to open a new Legoland in Shanghai after 2023 and two other parks are on the way before then in New York, USA and South Korea.

Merlin is closely followed by NBCUniversal which runs the Universal Studios theme parks and is also rapidly expanding. In 2023 the doors will swing open to the fifth Universal Studios park and it promises to be a blockbuster. At an estimated construction cost of $6.5 billion, Universal Studios Beijing is set to be the world’s most expensive theme park and comes complete with an on-site entertainment district and two hotels.

The media giant is also adding to its collection of parks in the US theme park capital of Orlando, Florida, with Universal’s Epic Universe which will occupy a 303 hectacre site. It will nearly double Universal’s total available property in Orlando and create 14,000 jobs to add to the 25,000 it currently employs there.

In 2018, Universal’s theme parks revenue was up 4.4% to $5.7 billion and onsite hotel occupancy reportedly topped 90%. Attractions themed to Harry Potter have cast a spell on Universal’s parks in Japan, Florida and California and given them greater attendance growth than any of their rivals over the decade to 2018.

It helped to give Universal an estimated 56.1 million visitors last year which was 27.7% more than the combined totals at every NFL and NBA game. Even its smaller rival SeaWorld Entertainment had higher attendance than the NFL, NBA and NHL as well as international leagues like Formula One auto racing and the ATP World Tour of tennis.

Forbes advised that the sports attendance data is provided by the leagues themselves, industry analysts or major news organisations while the leisure consultancy AECOM and the Themed Entertainment Association cover the theme park industry and museums.

Click here to view the full article in Forbes. 

Images: Shanghai Disneyland (top), Tokyo Disney (middle) and concepts for Legoland Shanghai (below).

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