Which Disney World park is busiest? A posted-wait answer

In WaitScout's posted-wait data from 2026-06-04 to 2026-10-19, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom had the longest ride waits, with a median posted wait of 35 minutes at each. Hollywood Studios had the higher average, 34.6 minutes against 33.9. Magic Kingdom had a median of 20 minutes and EPCOT 15.

"Busiest" here means the longest posted ride waits. We do not measure how many guests are inside a park, so this is an answer about lines, not head counts. The data covers summer and early autumn only.

Which Disney World park has the longest ride waits?

Hollywood Studios, by a small margin over Animal Kingdom. Ride-only figures for the four parks:

Park	Median posted wait (min)	Average (min)	90th percentile (min)	Rides' posted waits
Hollywood Studios	35	34.6	60	112,265
Animal Kingdom	35	33.9	60	60,952
Magic Kingdom	20	22.8	45	246,388
EPCOT	15	24.7	60	115,738

The last column is a count of readings, not of guests. Magic Kingdom has more rides than any other park, so it has more readings. A bigger count does not mean a bigger crowd.

EPCOT is the odd one. Its median is the lowest of the four, but its average of 24.7 minutes is above Magic Kingdom's 22.8, because a few headline rides post very long lines while many of its rides post short ones. Its 90th percentile, 60 minutes, equals Hollywood Studios. For the ride list behind that spread, see which rides have the longest waits.

Which park is busiest at 11am?

Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom, at a median of 45 minutes each in the 11am hour. Magic Kingdom and EPCOT sat at 25.

Park	Lowest hour (local)	Median (min)	Highest hour (local)	Median (min)
Hollywood Studios	8am hour	15	11am hour	45
Animal Kingdom	7am hour	10	11am hour	45
Magic Kingdom	8am hour	5	11am, noon, 1pm and 5pm hours	25
EPCOT	6pm hour to 8pm hour	10	10am hour to 12pm hour	25

Every park has a clear morning ramp. Magic Kingdom's median in the 8am hour was 5 minutes and Hollywood Studios' was 15, against 25 and 45 three hours later. If you want the full curve, each park has its own guide: Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom.

Which park is busiest by day of the week?

The weekday changes the order a little but not the top two. Average posted wait by weekday, in minutes:

Weekday	Magic Kingdom	EPCOT	Hollywood Studios	Animal Kingdom
Monday	24.1	26.7	33.9	36.9
Tuesday	21.6	23.9	35.2	31.6
Wednesday	25.8	22.9	32.7	27.8
Thursday	22.3	24.1	34.0	29.9
Friday	20.5	25.8	38.0	36.9
Saturday	24.0	26.3	35.6	38.0
Sunday	20.8	23.0	32.8	35.3

Animal Kingdom had the highest average on Monday, Saturday and Sunday, at 36.9, 38.0 and 35.3 minutes. Hollywood Studios had the highest on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and Friday was its peak at 38.0 minutes. Animal Kingdom also had the biggest swing between its lowest weekday, Wednesday at 27.8, and its highest, Saturday at 38.0: a gap of 10.2 minutes. Each weekday covers 19 or 20 calendar days per park, so these are small samples. For the weekday story park by park, read the best day of the week at each park.

Is Magic Kingdom the busiest park?

Not by posted waits. Magic Kingdom had the second-lowest median and the lowest average of the four parks in this data, and its evening hours dropped to a median of 10 minutes by the 9pm hour. It looks busy for another reason: it has 21 rides in the data, so a guest sees many lines at once and a few of them, such as TRON Lightcycle / Run at a median of 55, run long.

The honest comparison is ride against ride. TRON Lightcycle / Run is the park's longest line; Slinky Dog Dash at Hollywood Studios, at 60, is longer; Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT, at 70, is longer still. See the best time to ride TRON Lightcycle / Run.

How should I pick a park from this?

Use the data to break ties, not to override your plans.

• If you can choose, the lower-line parks in this period were EPCOT and Magic Kingdom by median.
• If you are going to Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom, plan the headline rides for the first and last hours of the day, when the median was lower.
• Check the live numbers on the morning of your visit: Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom and EPCOT.
• Use the crowd calendar to compare days before you choose.

How do the evening hours compare?

The parks separate again after the afternoon. Hollywood Studios had a median of 30 minutes in the 7pm hour and 20 in the 8pm hour. EPCOT's median was 10 minutes in the 6pm, 7pm and 8pm hours. Magic Kingdom's was 20 in the 8pm hour and 10 in the 9pm hour. Animal Kingdom's median was 40 in the 1pm hour and 20 in the 5pm hour, its last hour with at least 100 days of data.

In the last hours with data, every park's median was 20 minutes or less, and EPCOT and Magic Kingdom reached 10. Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom start the evening higher but still fall. If you plan a long-line ride for the end of the day, check the live number first on Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom or EPCOT.

Frequently asked questions

Which Disney World park is the least busy?

By ride waits in this data, EPCOT, with a median posted wait of 15 minutes. Its average was higher than Magic Kingdom's, so it is a close call.

Is Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom busier?

They tie on the median, 35 minutes. Hollywood Studios has the higher average, by 0.7 minutes. Treat them as equal.

Does this show crowd size?

No. It shows posted ride waits. We do not have attendance counts.

Does the ranking change in other seasons?

We cannot say. Our data starts on 2026-06-04 and ends on 2026-10-19. It has no winter, spring or holiday weeks.

Where do the numbers come from?

From WaitScout's own record of posted waits, polled through the day. See how posted waits work.

Methodology

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Every figure comes from WaitScout's wait_history table joined to attractions and parks, from 2026-06-04 to 2026-10-19 (138 local days), converted to America/New_York. Only rows with a posted wait are used. A ride is an attraction with entity type ATTRACTION and attraction type ride; meets, shows, films, walkthroughs and transportation are excluded. Medians and percentiles are exact, rounded to the nearest minute, and posted minutes come in 5-minute steps. Hour rows are shown only for hours with at least 100 days of data. The queries are recorded in docs/content/claims-dis362-busiest-park.md. These are posted waits, not measured standing time. There is no winter, spring or holiday data.

WaitScout is an independent planning tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by The Walt Disney Company. All park names are used for identification purposes only.