Epic Universe has now been open for a number of weeks. With that, attendance and crowd stage patterns are beginning to crystalize. This covers these, plus predictions for July 2025 and past at Common Orlando’s new theme park, and why every day capability versus wait occasions (and extra) would possibly come as an enormous shock.
We’ve been monitoring wait time knowledge for the reason that begin of paid previews of Epic Universe, in addition to ticket gross sales statistics and the way wait occasions have assorted from daily based mostly on quite a lot of elements. This was one of many massive motivations for writing Why You Ought to Skip Epic Universe earlier than the park even opened.
Observe that “Heavy Crowds” was not one of many causes; however relatively, “Unpredictable Attendance & Crowds” was. It will now appear that this angle has been vindicated, as Epic Universe has had a veritable curler coaster of crowd ranges and common wait occasions since its official opening a couple of month in the past.
Epic Universe formally opened on Could 22 after months of previews, and its grand opening day was the slowest ever within the park’s temporary existence. The development continued all through Memorial Day weekend, as lined in Epic Universe is Useless. Throughout these days, in addition to many preview dates, Epic Universe had a park-wide common wait time of 25 minutes or much less for a 1/10 crowd stage.
Then got here Epic Universe is Not Useless Anymore, which detailed the ten/10 crowd ranges and common wait occasions of over an hour that adopted sizzling on the heels of these 1/10 crowd ranges. That submit additionally lined breakdowns, climate delays, dumped queues, and stories of lengthy traces for refunds or visitor restoration on at the least two of these days.
You’d most likely be hard-pressed to seek out any theme park with a higher unfold throughout a single three-day stretch than Could 26, when Epic Universe had a median wait time of 31 minutes, to Could 28, when Epic Universe had a median wait time of 73 minutes. That latter quantity is busier than any single day at Walt Disney World since at the least 2019. Crowd ranges have continued to be excessive since then, however not throughout the board–there have been a scattering of days within the 30-40 minute vary since late Could.
The actually attention-grabbing wrinkle right here is that it’s our understanding that Epic Universe bookings have been underperforming inside expectations. Except for 1-day tickets, Common Orlando has had a problem promoting trip packages and multi-day admission that features Epic Universe.
In speaking to quite a lot of folks, together with journey brokers, this has been largely pushed by a mix of the restrictive guidelines for ticketing, issues about experience reliability and operational points, and fears of a “crowdpocalypse.” Consequently, many potential visitors are taking a wait and see method with Epic Universe, simply as they did with Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Walt Disney World and Disneyland, and Fantasy Springs at Tokyo DisneySea.
This might sound actually tough to imagine in gentle of the above crowd ranges and common wait occasions, however we’ll attempt to clarify the discrepancy right here. In a nutshell, Epic Universe doesn’t do a terrific job of absorbing crowds, and even at decrease attendance ranges, the park is strained as a result of its top-heavy experience roster. It’s just like Disney’s Hollywood Studios on this regard–quite a lot of fashionable headliners, however not sufficient straightforward filler.
In any case, listed here are a number of observations and predictions about Epic Universe crowds to date and going ahead:
- Fridays by way of Mondays have decrease wait occasions at Epic Universe to date.
- Epic Universe attendance shall be under half-capacity on all dates all through Summer time 2025, and under one-third capability on many dates barring huge coverage modifications.
- Regardless of low attendance, wait occasions will fluctuate considerably and counsel above-average crowd ranges on most dates–unpredictably so.
- Epic Universe can have greater attendance from October by way of December 2025 than opening day by way of August 2025
I’m fairly assured in all of those observations/predictions, however there are some main asterisks to a few, so let’s break down every level in flip.
Lowest Crowds on Weekends
This one just isn’t a prediction–it’s what’s already taking place, as observable in wait occasions (by way of thrill-data). For the reason that official opening, the 2 days of the week with the bottom common wait occasions have been Saturdays and Sundays. Friday is third-lowest.
There’s little or no consistency for Mondays by way of Thursdays, and never sufficient knowledge factors to attract any conclusions. (I might personally keep away from Mondays, as ticket gross sales knowledge suggests these have the strongest attendance indicators going ahead in July and past.)
Curiously, the remainder of Common Orlando is busiest on Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays, adopted by Sundays. That is fueled largely by locals and Annual Passholders over the weekends, after which vacationers being most inclined to go to on Mondays. Midweek is the best possible time to go to the opposite parks, with common wait occasions bottoming out on Wednesdays.
This is sensible! Floridians work on weekdays, making weekends their greatest time to go to the opposite parks for Annual Passholders. However Epic Universe doesn’t have APs, and lots of locals received their “repair” throughout previews and over the opening week. The consequence has been an identical dynamic as we noticed at Walt Disney World when AP gross sales had been suspended for thus lengthy (it nonetheless exists to today, however isn’t as exaggerated).
One factor to notice is that as quickly as Annual Cross gross sales or Florida resident ticket offers begin for Epic Universe, this dynamic flips. Saturday and Sunday will change into the busiest days of the weekend.
Epic Universe Attendance Will Be Under Half-Capability…
One of many extra attention-grabbing developments is that real-time ticket gross sales knowledge has leaked for Epic Universe. It’s my understanding that that is obtained by scraping the Common Orlando backend web site, as the info has been persistently reported by a number of sources. Check out this thrill-data web page, which aggregates the varied ticket varieties to indicate complete and accessible capability.
To begin with, Common Orlando was limiting attendance at roughly one-third of complete park capability–roughly 12,000 to fifteen,000 visitors by way of the top of June, relying upon the day. That then expanded to roughly 22,000 visitors per day on July 1, 2025. That’s the place the higher restrict stood by way of the rest of 2025, per their knowledge. (All of that is previous tense–it’s the place numbers stood from when ticket gross sales began by way of Could 30.)
Individually, we’ve been informed that Epic Universe has a complete theoretical capability of round 35,000 to 40,000 visitors. It will appear that quantity is definitely on the low facet, as Common Orlando has since elevated its ticket cap to 45,000 throughout the board for the rest of 2025, doubling or tripling the restrict relying on the date.
Nevertheless, as we clarify in one other submit detailing the rise, the numbers are a bit deceptive, as the rise is to undesirable multi-day ticket varieties that few visitors are buying within the first place. However they are accessible, and Common wouldn’t be promoting them in the event that they didn’t imagine the park’s capability was 45,000 visitors.
Primarily based on these numbers, our prediction that Epic Universe shall be at one-third to one-half of its complete theoretical capability is flawed on its face, proper? Effectively, no. That assumes Epic Universe sells out of tickets every single day. They’re at present solely promoting out of single-day tickets, and that’s a small proportion of general stock.
At this level, it’s unlikely that there shall be many impulse buys of the multi-day tickets, so the limiting issue just isn’t the upper cap–it’s demand. And even after the rise, demand remains to be falling nicely in need of the caps. What would meaningfully transfer the needle is growing the ticket stock to match the entire park capability, and eliminating the buckets of tickets. If the capability exists, promoting it upfront as any admission kind as a substitute of taking part in video games. Disabling the friction, versus adjusting totally different dials. However all of this can be a bit within the weeds, and floor we’ve already lined.
The underside line is that though Common is providing to promote ~45,000 tickets per day to Epic Universe, however most days they’re really promoting about 13,000 to 19,000. The capability cap enhance has performed some position in reaching these numbers, and pop-up availability for single-day tickets suggests Common is shifting round stock to some extent. Regardless, there has but to be a single day when Epic Universe ticket gross sales have surpassed half capability.
In equity, Walt Disney World very not often “sells out” of tickets on any given day, however we don’t have visibility into Disney’s ticketing gross sales like we do for Epic Universe. By way of uncooked numbers, I might suppose that Epic Universe won’t expertise crowd numbers anyplace close to what Magic Kingdom pulls for a very long time.
In 2023, it’s estimated that Magic Kingdom averaged some 49,000 visitors per day. If there have been over 50,000 folks in Epic Universe, it will be an absolute operational nightmare. The park can barely deal with 20k, nevermind greater than double that.
To place that in perspective, Islands of Journey averaged roughly 27,400 and Common Studios Florida averaged 26,700. Animal Kingdom, the “worst” of the Disney/Common parks, averaged 24,100 visitors per day in 2023. 2024 numbers will not be but accessible.
It is going to be attention-grabbing to see the place Epic Universe settles in as soon as “regular” regular hits someday early subsequent yr, however and not using a important change in ticketing technique (and possibly the introduction of Annual Passes), it’s going to fall behind the prevailing theme parks. That’s an excellent factor for visitors. I wouldn’t need to go to Epic Universe because it at present exists with 25k folks within the park.
Lastly, the actually attention-grabbing wrinkle right here is that there’s an enormous drop-off in ticket gross sales beginning in July 2025.
To some extent, that is anticipated–extra distant dates ought to have decrease gross sales, and the summer time media blitz and early word-of-mouth are nonetheless anticipated to drive future gross sales. However decrease gross sales in July than Could/June has been the case for months, lengthy earlier than the park even opened. Ticket gross sales began final October, so visitors have been planning journeys for some time now. At this level, it’s unlikely that an enormous variety of vacationers are going to guide summer time journeys proper now for one month into the longer term. (October and past is a very totally different story.)
As of proper now, solely 4 dates in July 2025 have bought greater than 10,000 tickets (July 1-2, plus the primary two Mondays of the month). Just one date after that has bought out over 10,000 tickets (September 8, 2025). Barring a significant coverage change, the second week of July might mirror a marked change for crowds at Epic Universe.
…Barring Main Coverage Modifications
The primary a part of that final sentence is operative: barring a significant coverage change. A minor change at this level could be transferring extra tickets to the one day bucket. Even so, I don’t suppose that might be enough to meaningfully change crowds, as 1-day tickets will not be bought out for many of July and past.
Main modifications could be promoting Annual Passes or a Florida resident ticket deal that features Epic Universe. My guess is that Common Orlando needs to carry off on promoting APs so long as doable, with someday in 2026 being the goal. That the robust desire could be to seize as many high-revenue ticket gross sales as doable, “power” locals to buy single-day tickets, and provides Epic Universe time to seek out its operational footing.
Nevertheless, the wildcard right here is that Common Orlando is only one enterprise unit within the Comcast empire. The company overlords could also be demanding greater numbers and sooner ROI on their $7 billion funding with out absolutely understanding or appreciating these ramifications.
If attendance is “too low” for too lengthy, Common’s hand is perhaps pressured–or they could get spooked and resolve to tug the Annual Cross lever. I might see a situation the place a number of weeks of low attendance as soon as college goes again into session in August causes that lever to be pulled…proper earlier than Fall Break by way of New Yr’s Eve, sometimes the busiest stretch of the yr for theme parks.
Whereas I’d selfishly like to purchase an AP that features Epic Universe, I believe this park might be at the least a yr away from with the ability to assist Annual Passes with out damaging the traditional visitor expertise. Common ought to attempt to pull each lever doable earlier than resorting to the nuclear possibility of promoting APs. If they will in some way maintain off till August 2026, that might be optimum for vacationers.
Attendance Doesn’t Equal Wait Occasions
As famous above, there hasn’t been a single day when Epic Universe ticket gross sales have exceeded half of the 45,000 visitor theoretical capability. Some days have been nearer to one-third. In consequence, you would possibly intuitively suppose that this implies crowd ranges of three/10 to five/10, proper? Unsuitable.
For the reason that begin of June, there have been 8 days with common wait occasions of 60 minutes or extra. Virtually each single day has been above 50 minutes. The busiest day had a median wait time of 70 minutes, and there have been a handful of 67-68 minute dates. That’s simply June. As famous above, Could 28 is the park’s busiest day ever, hitting a median wait time of 73 minutes.
These are nearly all 8/10 to 10/10 crowd ranges, which is a considerably meaningless metric as a result of it’s relative to Epic Universe’s previous wait occasions (so principally, throughout previews when attendance was throttled considerably). It’s solely doable that 73 minute file shall be shattered in the course of the vacation season, and up to date crowd ranges shall be adjusted downward as a result of extra dates with greater averages.
On the subject of crowd ranges being relative, it’s additionally value noting that Walt Disney World’s two busiest days since 2019 have been 71 and 70 minute waits–each got here in the course of the weeks of New Yr’s (early 2020 and late 2023). On the identical dates this summer time, Walt Disney World’s common wait time has been lower than half of Epic Universe and that’s regardless of (presumably) greater every day attendance. The identical goes for Common Orlando’s different parks, that are seeing averages of round 25 minutes.
This could underscore a number of issues. First, averages are throughout all sights, and the opposite parks have a more healthy mixture of headliners with excessive waits and lower-demand rides that seldom have lengthy traces (on the threat of stating the apparent, the latter scale back averages). Second, crowd ranges will not be absolute–Epic Universe has its personal scale, and it’ll find yourself skewing greater than Magic Kingdom or Common Studios Florida (simply as DHS skews greater than MK).
Lastly, due to the headliner-heavy nature of Epic Universe’s experience roster, it’ll have some ridiculously excessive common wait occasions as soon as the park is definitely working near full capability. Days with triple-digit averages are doubtless on the horizon sooner or later. In different phrases, proper now might sound unhealthy…however it may possibly and can worsen!
Decrease Summer time Attendance, Greater Fall & Past
I’ll be trustworthy, I used to be feeling actually assured about this prediction again round Memorial Day weekend. A lot much less so now. However, it’s what we noticed play out at each Walt Disney World and Disneyland with Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, in addition to Fantasy Springs at Tokyo DisneySea. In all three circumstances, crowds materialized beginning round October after slower summers.
Walt Disney World and Disneyland went from being useless to slammed, and that didn’t change till the parks closed in March 2020 as a result of COVID. Within the case of Walt Disney World, seasonality comes into play. The land debuted in the course of the low season there, and Disney (incorrectly) wager that the lure of the land could be sufficient to beat regular attendance patterns. It was not.
Laborious because it is perhaps to imagine given the wait occasions the park is already posting, but it surely’s most likely going to be a considerably comparable dynamic with Epic Universe. Summer time is not peak season for Florida theme parks, and hasn’t been for some time. It’s not low season, both (that’s August by way of mid-to-late September), although. Whereas there’s the preliminary new park fanfare, there are additionally loads of folks suspending visits for that exact same cause.
Epic Universe ought to get pleasure from an identical tailwind from October by way of December 2025. That’s a preferred time for vacationers touring to Central Florida, and Epic Universe will undoubtedly “seize” guests making their annual pilgrimages to Walt Disney World. On high of that, there are Common Orlando’s personal devoted followers who go to for the guts of Halloween Horror Nights season. Erroneously anticipating decrease crowds, plus higher climate (hopefully) and extra seasonal choices, these visitors will doubtless wait till their regular fall and vacation season journeys.
I’d take this a step additional and predict that attendance shall be greater from January 2026 by way of Easter 2026, too. Ticket insurance policies change in 2026, with restrictions for normal tickets being eliminated. It will permit visitors with multi-day tickets to spend a disproportionate period of time at Epic Universe, and we’d anticipate precisely that to occur.
On high of that, there shall be visitors who waited out the preliminary rush visiting. Others can have waited for higher climate (that’s us!) after studying about Epic Universe’s lack of shade and points dealing with warmth and Florida climate. Winter is turning into an more and more fashionable of time for vacationers, particularly frequent guests to Orlando, and we might see the primary few months of the yr being “surprisingly” busy at Epic Universe in consequence.
The most important wildcard is that if phrase of mouth about Epic Universe is definitely unfavourable. There have been quite a lot of complaints in regards to the days with important downtime as a result of downpours and experience breakdowns, however I’m undecided how a lot that is “breaking containment” and reaching audiences past theme park followers. Most of the people would possibly solely be seeing the rave opinions of the wonderful Epic Universe experience roster and planning to go to “after the opening rush” in October or past. Guess we will see!
When to Go to Epic Universe?
For those who’re in search of suggestions to reduce the probability of encountering 70+ minute common wait occasions, now we have a number of.
For these with versatile journey dates, goal the low season after college goes again into session however earlier than Halloween Horror Nights kicks into excessive gear. I’m personally trying on the final couple weeks of August, coinciding with One in all 2025’s Finest Weeks to Go to Walt Disney World. Identical thought applies to Epic Universe.
Clearly, a method that’s not among the many greatest occasions to go to Central Florida is when it comes to climate. It’s one of many hottest stretches of the yr, and Epic Universe lacks shade–in order that’s one thing to contemplate. Extra importantly, it’s the guts of storm season and Epic Universe has quite a lot of outside sights that go down in rain. The vast majority of rides, in reality.
This alone introduces large variability to crowd ranges, as ~7 rides happening causes greater wait occasions on the remaining sights–and longer traces for these rides as soon as they’re again on-line. Between storms and breakdowns, there have been a number of events when Epic Universe solely had a single experience or two open. That’s an issue!
Accordingly, even when my journey dates weren’t versatile, I’d be certain my day to go to Epic Universe was. If I had multi-day tickets, I’d goal Saturday or Sunday, after which select one based mostly on the climate forecast. Regardless that it’s had the very best common wait occasions, I’d choose a transparent Monday over a Sunday with torrential downpours within the forecast.
This is kind of precisely what I plan on doing. I’ve but to buy tickets for my August go to, and received’t till my journey dates roll round and there’s a high-confidence climate forecast. Truthfully, I additionally need to take a wait and see method to evaluate how Epic Universe continues to ‘evolve’ over the following couple of months. It’s been a veritable curler coaster experience already, and I’ve solely low-confidence in a few of these predictions.
Suffice to say, if heavy rain is within the forecast each single day of my potential go to window or single-day tickets in some way promote out, I’m nice with merely not going. I might relatively go to a distinct theme park than drop $169+ per day to do Epic Universe with 60+ minute common wait occasions amidst downtime. That’s not my thought of an excellent time. Maybe your calculus is totally different for a once-in-a-lifetime or rare trip, although. During which case, hopefully a number of the tough pointers right here will help you goal the doubtless greatest days to go to.
Wanting additional into the longer term, if planning a late 2025 or 2026 journey, I’d goal the entire similar dates on our Finest & Worst Weeks to Go to Walt Disney World in 2025 & 2026. That’s a mixture of quantitative and qualitative, and I’d argue that the latter issues extra at Epic Universe than Walt Disney World.
Timeframes to focus on embrace the week after Thanksgiving, mid-January, earlier than winter break, early spring, and post-Easter 2026 are all interesting. Mainly, the dates with the very best probability of lowest attendance and greatest climate. Whereas I’m planning my very own solo analysis journeys to Epic Universe in August (and maybe in late July if issues are already trying higher), our massive household trip will occur within the first quarter of 2026. Climate is the massive deciding issue for us–however my massive concern with dates deeper into subsequent yr is the elevated probability of Annual Passes or Florida resident ticket offers, which might throw a particular monkey wrench into all of this!
Want journey planning ideas and complete recommendation in your go to to Central Florida? Be certain to learn our Common Orlando Planning Information for all the things about Islands of Journey and Common Studios Florida. Additionally try our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Information for all the things about these parks, resorts, eating places, and a lot extra. For normal updates, information & rumors, a heads up when reductions are launched, and far more, join our FREE e-mail e-newsletter!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you ever visited Epic Universe for the reason that begin of Summer time 2025? What did you consider wait occasions and crowds? Expertise any operational meltdowns as a result of breakdowns or climate? Is it doable or possible that Epic Universe really has even greater attendance from October by way of December 2025, or all through 2026? Will you go to Epic Universe in Summer time 2025, or will you watch for crowds to calm down (in idea)? Agree or disagree with our evaluation? Any questions? We love listening to from readers, so please share another ideas or questions you could have within the feedback under!
