Epic Universe is almost empty. Dead. Devoid of guests. A ghost town. Etcetera. We’re talking COVID-era attendance. The newest park at Universal Orlando has been the least busy of the three gates over its opening weekend (and slower than Walt Disney World, for that matter), with 1/10 crowd levels at worst, and most attractions being walk-ons or having minimal waits regardless of their posted times. This covers what we’re seeing thus far over Memorial Day and a few takeaways.
For starters let’s make our perspective on this clear: huge kudos to Universal Orlando for choosing to have low crowds for the opening weekend of Epic Universe. Some cynical Walt Disney World fans are somehow criticizing Epic Universe for this, calling it a flop or pointing to the current crowds as “proof” of the park’s unpopularity. This is utter nonsense.
We have been vocal detractors of Universal Orlando’s high-friction approach to Epic Universe park tickets, warning since last summer that Universal risked repeating the same “crowdpocalypse” mistake with Epic Universe as Disney did with Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and other highly-hyped theme park additions. We’ll have a lot more to say about those missteps and the crowd consequences in the days and months to come, but that is not what is happening right now. Not at all.
Universal Orlando could have sold out Epic Universe at full capacity over opening weekend. Probably multiple times over. Organic demand likely would’ve supported the sale of 100,000 tickets to Epic Universe each day of this holiday weekend. Instead, Universal Orlando appears to have sold about one-tenth that many tickets.
In short, it absolutely was a choice to have crowds be this low for opening weekend. At the risk of stating the obvious, the easier decision would’ve been to sell many more tickets, take short-term profits, endure heavier crowds and whatever else came with that. The word-of-mouth wouldn’t have been as positive, so it would’ve come with a tradeoff. But it was nevertheless a choice–and not due to lack of demand, unpopularity, or the result of Epic Universe being a flop. Again, all rubbish.
How attendance at Epic Universe plays out in the weeks and months to come will be a totally different story. It’ll also be a result of deliberate choices by Universal Orlando, specifically, those to introduce excessive friction into ticket sales. But that’ll be more indirect, and less a matter of Universal choosing to keep the capacity cap incredibly low (although both will play roles).
The bottom line is that we should be praising guest-friendly decisions like the one Universal Orlando made with opening weekend of Epic Universe. That’s true even as Walt Disney World fans, as the competitors learn lessons from one another. Instead, I’m fairly convinced that criticism from some Walt Disney World fans was preordained.
They would’ve complained if lines were too long, pulling a Chapek and calling it a sign of failure; instead, they’re complaining that the lines are too short. Thankfully, it’s a vocal-but-small minority of Disney zealots. The rest of us see this as a good thing.
I’ve been watching this closely via the Universal Orlando app and also talking to several friends on the ground at Epic Universe. We’ve also been enjoying eye in the sky coverage from friend-of-the-site bioreconstruct, the go-to source for aerial theme park photography (a highly recommended follow who graciously provided the helicopter shots here and has hundreds more on Twitter).
Anecdotally, most attractions are walk-ons or close to it by mid-afternoon, regardless of the posted wait times. The only exceptions to that are Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, Mario Kart, Mine-Cart Madness, and the Meet Toothless & Friends character greeting.
The actual wait times for those are all over the place, with Battle at the Ministry and Toothless being the only things averaging posted wait times that are over an hour long. Even Mario Kart and Mine-Cart Madness, which have averages of 30-45 minutes, are routinely walk-ons in the second half of the day. Even the parking lot has been relatively empty over opening weekend!
The obvious question is why are crowds so low at Epic Universe? How did Universal Orlando let this happen? Given the wait times, wouldn’t it have been fine to sell a few thousand more tickets? Why leave so much money on the table?
As you might recall, ticket sales to Epic Universe were a hassle. We have used the phrase high-friction a lot, and will continue to do so often in the months to come. But for right now, all we really need to cover is that Universal Orlando announced the opening date of Epic Universe, started selling multi-day tickets plus vacation packages to the general public, and single day tickets for Annual Passholders all within quick succession in late October of last year. All of this–from announcement to release–occurred in the span of a single week.
Five months later, Universal Orlando finally started selling 1-day Epic Universe tickets to the general public, only a couple weeks after starting multi-day ticket sales to Florida residents. When that happened back in mid-March of this year, only dates on or after June 1, 2025 were available. Meaning that opening week (or so) was already “sold out” by the time regular guests could purchase single-day Epic Universe tickets.
There are air quotes around “sold out” because, if you really wanted to attend Epic Universe this weekend, you could find a way. Stalking the ticketing page has revealed pop-up availability, so being diligent about that would’ve eventually yielded results. Just a couple weeks ago, Universal Orlando ‘restocked’ tickets for most dates that were previously sold out.
Aside from Helios Grand (and even that came up from time to time), there was also still hotel and vacation package availability. Of course, that would come with the restrictive ticketing policies that are pushing away many tourists in the first place, but the point is that it was still possible for highly motivated fans to visit on opening day/weekend.
Most interestingly, Universal Orlando has made same-day Epic Universe tickets available, without limitation, every single day since opening (see above). This is downright funny to me, as it’s a sharp contrast to the high-friction sales approach of the Epic Universe rollout that started last summer.
I can almost imagine my very offline dad watching Law & Order: Big Bad Crime City Spinoff Show on NBC, catching an Epic Universe commercial between Detective Stabler taking names & kicking assassins, and deciding to drive down and see the new park. Totally oblivious to all of the ticketing policies, and inexplicably having none of the issues or hurdles hardcore fans encountered when they waited in virtual queues several months ago–many still coming away empty-handed!
That type of scenario could’ve played out in theory, but is probably rare in actuality. I cannot imagine there is much overlap between this type of offline individual and actual theme park enthusiasts in the year 2025. I’m going to go out on a limb and say those same-day, walk-up sales account for less than 5% of attendance at Epic Universe thus far. The die was cast months ago with restrictive ticketing policies followed by months of previews. Very few locals are going to buy last-minute given the previews plus prohibitive pricing, and tourists don’t change or make plans on such short notice.
If now is too late to move the needle on attendance, the next question is why Universal Orlando didn’t release more tickets months ago?
In a normal scenario, that’s precisely what we would’ve expected to see happen–Universal throttling sales significantly at first, and then ‘opening the valve’ and releasing more over time as operations became more confident about the crowd-load the park could bear for the official opening.
My best guess is the previews gave Universal significant pause, as opposed to confidence. As we explained in Why You Should Skip Epic Universe, ride reliability and breakdowns have been big and persistent issues–and not just with Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry. Pretty much every single one of the park’s marquee attractions has levels of downtime higher than what guests would consider reasonable.
During previews, there have been some really rough days. Between breakdowns and weather delays (which close 7 of 11 rides), there were occasions when only 1-2 rides were operational. This had a cascading effect on crowds, and even on days attendance is heavily capped.
A couple of days were so bad that Universal Orlando actually issued refunds. It was for this reason that we warned about being in Epic Universe on the first day when there was an operational meltdown at higher capacity. It’s going to be a nightmare.
Over the course of previews, reliability seemed to get worse instead of better. A couple of the worst days came towards the end. Between the timing of that and a growing chorus of guest complaints, I’d hazard a guess that Universal chose to take the cautious approach. Instead of releasing another huge batch of tickets towards the end, they might’ve released a few hundred. Even with same-day availability so that the park isn’t officially “sold out,” we know that the caps are still pretty low by virtue of leaked ticket data.
As for the “why” of crowds being so low, the obvious answer is capped capacity. Just as with the paid previews, Universal Orlando is significantly limiting attendance. Based on the aforementioned ticket data, it’s our understanding that current limits are less than one-third of total park capacity.
That’s only part of the answer, though. Because, again, ticket sales were throttled during paid previews and there were some days that had significantly higher wait times. The single biggest difference between then and now is ride reliability.
Epic Universe has enjoyed its best stretch ever–the last few days have seen absolutely incredible uptime. This doesn’t look like a brand-new park, it looks like one that’s found its operational groove and been running smoothly for years. I would say it’s a miracle, but this is almost exactly what I experienced during previews.
It remains to be seen whether those technical rehearsals served their purpose and what we’re observing now is the new normal, or the theme park gods smiling on Epic Universe for its opening weekend. Either way, this is the outcome-determinative factor as contrasted with the worst days of the previews (which also means that those bad days could return).
There are other variables. Another big one is that the opening weekend crowd is not representative of regular guest dynamics. This much should be obvious by all of the hoops these people jumped through to be there (virtual queues to buy tickets, packages, etc). By and large, these are not regular tourists–they’re locals, Annual Passholders, and hardcore fans.
Many probably already attended previews, got their fill of rides then, and are at opening weekend for the memories and being part of history. They’re there to buy opening merchandise, take photos, eat at Pizza Moon, etc. On a much different scale, we’ve seen something similar at Disneyland since the launch of the 70th. If you go by wait times data, the parks are dead. As someone who has spent several days there in the last week-plus, I can assure you that isn’t the case.
Another factor is that Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry now has a standby line as opposed to a virtual queue. This means that it is now absorbing crowds, as opposed to allowing guests to be in two places at once. This is a not-insignificant factor at times, as Battle at the Ministry has a massive physical queue, and has had a posted wait time as high as 300 minutes (when in actuality, it was just broken down).
Speaking of Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, that’s a good place to segue into strategic takeaways from the first few days of Epic Universe. There aren’t really many, but the big one is that you should absolutely not rope drop the new Harry Potter E-Ticket. This isn’t a totally new piece of advice–it’s already mentioned in our Epic Universe Morning Strategy: Rope Drop Rides to Do & Avoid to Save Time!
It’s nevertheless worth reiterating because we now have another week’s worth of data points. If you would’ve disregarded our advice in the days since that was published, you would have either encountered the highest average wait times of the day for Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry or stood in line for nothing, because the ride was actually broken down even when the line was open. Absent an incredible amount of luck, you would’ve been much worse off starting with Battle at the Ministry than literally anything else. Even if you got lucky, the opportunity cost would’ve made it unadvisable.
Maybe this will change in the weeks or months to come, but as of right now, the best strategy for Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry is doing it in the mid-afternoon. We wouldn’t recommend doing it too late, as the ride is still prone to extended downtime; if it breaks down at 4 p.m. or later, there’s always the possibility it never returns–or has a multi-hour wait once it does. Right after it returns from a breakdown is the best time, assuming you can move fast and beat the rush.
Other than that, the biggest change from previews is that Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge has a higher average wait time than Donkey Kong Mine-Cart Madness. This has been fairly consistent over the course of several days, and is notably different from previews.
I do not believe this is the start of a permanent pattern. Again, demographics of opening weekend skew more towards locals and regulars, and Mario Kart has better re-rideability than Mine-Cart Madness. As discussed in our Ride Rankings & Reviews for Epic Universe, we view the Donkey Kong coaster as the biggest disappointment of the Epic Universe headliners. While I love the characters and will do it again on their account, I would never wait more than 30 minutes for Mine-Cart Madness.
Mario Kart is also polarizing–but most guests will want to ride it more than once since it’s interactive. You also pretty much need 2-3 ride-throughs to experience both the gameplay and see the great dark ride environments. With wait times so low everywhere else, I could see Mario Kart being one of the top attractions that guests repeat once they’re “done” with everything else at Epic Universe. About the only thing with higher re-ride potential is Stardust Racers.
In the end, my expectation is that Mario Kart and Mine-Cart Madness both settle into being top 3 wait times, alongside Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry. But I expect Donkey Kong to take the crown over Mario Kart due to capacity and first-timer demand. Mine-Cart Madness might be second-banana to Harry Potter, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s #1 over time, despite being the inferior attraction. We shall see, though!
Ultimately, a great opening weekend for Epic Universe and a big win for guests. Here’s hoping that the positive coverage of crowds garners more attention than the 300-minute posted standby wait for Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry. Universal Orlando deserves it after erring on the side of caution and limiting ticket sales to such a degree that, even were there more ride downtime, guests in the park still would’ve had a positive experience.
We’d caution against extrapolating too much from opening weekend for the exact same reason–ride reliability and downtime might still be a wildcard. That’s one of the big reasons why we pushed off our planned opening weekend trip to Universal Orlando, and while we’re kicking ourselves for that decision now, hindsight is 20/20. Given the possibility of breakdowns more on par with later previews, high heat & humidity, and the practical reality that the park doesn’t have a ton for toddlers, it was probably the right decision for us.
However, the next few months could be a fantastic time to visit Epic Universe for theme park fans and low crowd enthusiasts with a bit of flexibility and risk tolerance. We’ll cover that very soon, with specific recommendations about when to visit. Stay tuned!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of Epic Universe’s insanely low crowds for opening day and weekend? Do you expect attendance to increase over the coming couple of weeks as summer kicks into high gear? Think Universal Orlando bungled the ticket and package rollout of Epic Universe? Did that dissuade you from attending this summer or year? Agree or disagree with our analysis? Any questions? We love hearing from readers, so please share any other thoughts or questions you have in the comments below!