Epic Universe’s opening season has been a wild ride. Universal’s new park has had sky-high wait times and crowd levels, but not necessarily attendance. That first half of that trend appears poised to accelerate in the months to come, but not before an off-season slowdown. This comes as 1-day tickets are starting to sell out for select dates through December 2025, with many more days and entire weeks hitting (soft) capacity.
We’ll start by yet again making a plug for our rundown of Why You Should Skip Epic Universe. That was written during paid previews, but it has aged like a fine wine–for the most part. We recently returned with a refresh to that post, as our advice for the majority of tourists is to stay on the sidelines and wait until Epic Universe improves its operations and efficiency.
Among other things, two of the other major points raised in that article are “Unpredictable Attendance & Crowds” and “Ride Breakdowns & Downtime.” These continue to be the overriding issues with Epic Universe, as the new park continues to be a veritable roller coaster of daily crowd levels and average wait times since its official opening three months ago. With that said, there are some interesting updates on crowds and ticketing at Epic Universe, so let’s dive right in to those…
Park Capacity & Ticket Data Loophole
For the first few months of the park’s existence, Epic Universe ticket data could be obtained by scraping the Universal Orlando backend website. Unfortunately, Universal finally wised up and closed the loophole that allowed this data to be acquired, so we no longer can see how many tickets are available and how many have been sold.
Prior to the data lockdown, we knew Universal Orlando was originally limiting attendance at 12,000 to 15,000 guests from the start of previews through the end of June, depending upon the day. That then expanded to roughly 22,000 guests per day in July. That’s where the upper limit stood through the remainder of 2025, per their data.
Separately, it’s our been understanding that Epic Universe has a total theoretical capacity of around 35,000 to 40,000 guests. Corroborating this, Universal Orlando increased its ticket cap to 45,000 across the board for the remainder of 2025, doubling or tripling the limit depending on the date. As we explained in another post detailing the increase, the numbers are a bit misleading. Universal made many more multi-day ticket types available, which few guests were purchasing in the first place.
The bottom line was that even though Universal was offering to sell ~45,000 tickets per day to Epic Universe, organic demand was the real limiting factor since those were less popular ticket types and even regular 1-day tickets mostly were not selling out from mid-July onward. The end result was that Universal Orlando was selling around 15,000 to 20,000 tickets (with a few outliers that expand the range to 13,000 to 22,000) per day. Not once this summer did Epic Universe hit even half of that 45,000 number.
Sold Out Dates Increase & Decrease
All of the above is relevant, even if it’s past tense, because we had been watching ticket data and sales for the final few months of the year. As of late July, there were several dates around Columbus Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve that were sold out of single-day tickets.
In early August, even more dates appeared sold out. I could swear it was around half of all dates between October and December, and even some Mondays in September (kicking myself for not taking screenshots). Then one day within the last couple of weeks, availability had been replenished, pretty much across the board. Only a few dates around Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve were gone.
Now, more of those dates have sold out, but still next-to-nothing in the next few months. The above screenshot is from today (August 20, 2025). Prior to November, the only unavailable date is October 7, 2025. Just two weeks ago, availability was significantly lower.
In all likelihood, this is the result of Universal Orlando reallocating ticket capacity. Back when we wrote that post detailing the previous jump in capacity from ~15,000 to ~45,000 that we (basically) called nothing to worry about, we added one asterisk. That it could be meaningless if it were laying the groundwork for future changes and easier reallocations of capacity among the various buckets of park tickets. Specifically: “If 45,000 single-day Epic Universe tickets were suddenly made available for each day with a week or two notice, our analysis of the impact on crowd levels would be very different.“
Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly what happened with the allocation across ‘buckets’ because the ticket data loophole has been closed. But we can surmise from the circumstances that: 1) tickets have been reallocated from less desirable buckets to more desirable ones, and; 2) previously sold out dates are now selling more tickets. Meaning this is no longer a nothing to worry about situation, and these higher caps absolutely do matter. At minimum, dates during the fall and holiday season are going to sell more tickets than before and exceed the previous 22,000 high water mark.
For whatever it’s worth, the reason I’ve stalked the single-day ticket page on Universal Orlando is not so I could buy tickets to dates that were previously sold out. It’s pretty much the exact opposite. I want to pay attention to which dates and days of the week are selling out most frequently so I can avoid them. My view is not that it’s a “good thing” that tickets are back on sale. This isn’t like a widget that sells out and is restocked.
If tickets become available after selling out, that capacity is coming from somewhere. I have zero desire to visit Epic Universe on any date that sells out, and I would implore you to reconsider visits during those peak weeks. Or at least wait until on-the-ground reports come in from Columbus Day weekend, as that’ll be the first big stress test of Epic Universe operations.
Lowest Crowds on Weekends
Speaking of which, the two days of the week with the lowest average wait times over the last few months have been Saturdays (#2) and Sundays (#1, by far). Friday is third-lowest. The easiest explanation for this is that Epic Universe single-day tickets are most expensive on weekends, so budget-conscious tourists are seeking out less expensive dates.
There’s less consistency for Mondays through Thursdays, and not enough data points to draw definitive conclusions. Statistically, Wednesdays and Thursdays have been worst, which could be a byproduct of tourists starting out their weeks at Walt Disney World, visiting a couple parks there, then doing Epic Universe. Or starting out at Universal’s legacy parks.
To that point, the rest of Universal Orlando is busiest on Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays, followed by Sundays. This is fueled largely by locals and Annual Passholders over the weekends, and then tourists being most inclined to visit on Mondays. Midweek is the absolute best time to visit the other parks, with average wait times bottoming out on Wednesdays.
This makes sense! Floridians work on weekdays, making weekends their best time to visit the other parks for Annual Passholders. But Epic Universe doesn’t have APs, and many locals have already gotten their “fix” of Epic Universe and are waiting for Annual Passes. The result has been a similar dynamic as we saw at Walt Disney World when AP sales were suspended for so long (it still exists to this day, but isn’t as exaggerated).
One thing to note is that as soon as Annual Pass sales or Florida resident ticket deals start for Epic Universe, this dynamic flips. Saturday and Sunday will become the busiest days of the weekend. Moreover, there are exceptions to all of the above when weather rears its ugly head. Nothing throws a monkey wrench into Epic Universe wait times like a stormy day!
Current Crowds
It’s been almost exactly two months since we shared our preliminary 2025 Epic Universe Crowd Calendar, which offered predictions and a recap of current crowds. On the predictions front, that post still holds up.
Obviously, there’s two months of additional wait times data since then to share (courtesy of thrill-data). Crowds have only worsened since then. Epic Universe set a record for its busiest day ever on July 16, when average wait times were 85 minutes and the crowd level was 10/10. That was followed by back-to-back 80 minute days August 6-7. There have been several other days at or above 70 minutes, with daily lows in the mid-to-upper 40s.
Late June was the start of a stretch when weekly averages were 64-68 minutes for 6 consecutive weeks; with all but one week in the 64-66 minute range. For a park that is so inconsistent on a day-to-day basis, that’s remarkably consistent on a weekly one.
Two out of the last three weeks have shown signs of improvement, and our expectation is that this trend doesn’t just continue, but that it accelerates in the next 4-6 weeks. I’m cautiously optimistic that Epic Universe will have a weekly average below 50 minutes sometime in mid-September. At the very least, there should be certain days when the average wait time is under 40 minutes. Epic Universe has been close to that on the two most recent Sundays.
It’s worth noting that no other Universal Orlando or Walt Disney World park is hitting average daily wait times at anywhere near those levels. As we’ve stated countless times before, this is mostly a capacity and efficiency story, and not one of overwhelming demand.
The park is hitting these crowd levels with relatively low attendance. There’s potential for this to get much worse if Epic Universe doesn’t find its footing on ride throughput. (Or gets unlucky with weather on a higher attendance day.)
To put these numbers into perspective, it’s also worth noting that Walt Disney World’s two busiest days since 2019 have been 71 and 70 minute waits–both came during the weeks of New Year’s (early 2020 and late 2023). On the same dates this summer, Walt Disney World’s average wait time has been less than half of Epic Universe and that’s despite higher daily attendance. The same goes for Universal Orlando’s other parks, which are seeing averages of around 25 minutes.
The trendline is starting to turn positive now that school has gone back into session, but we still highly recommend Epic Universe on a weekend, if at all, during the 2025 off-season. Otherwise, waiting until 2026 still seems like the best course of action, but that comes with massive caveats about the park scaling up capacity at a faster clip than it improves ride throughput. It may turn out that the next 5-6 weeks plus scattered dates this holiday season end up being the sweet spot.
If planning a late 2025 or 2026 trip, I’d target all of the same dates on our Best & Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2025, 2026 & 2027. That’s a mix of quantitative and qualitative, and I’d argue that the latter matters more at Epic Universe than Walt Disney World. If you only have one day to do Epic Universe, make it a Sunday during one of those weeks.
Team Member Complimentary Entry
Universal Orlando Team Members can now use up to two of their complimentary passes for entry to Epic Universe each calendar month. Previously, Team Members would have to purchase single-day tickets if they wanted to visit Epic Universe.
Note that Team Members still don’t have self-admit privileges, so they have to use these comp tickets on themselves and a guest if they want to visit the park. Or, they can give both away to family & friends. Comp tickets expire at the end of each month, so Team Members cannot accumulate multi-month stockpiles in order to visit with more people.
It’s hard to say the degree of an impact this will have on Epic Universe crowds. It’ll definitely move the needle to some degree, but diluted over the course of an entire month, probably not significantly so. It’s less significant than self-admit or the rollout of Annual Passes would be.
The angle from which this is probably the most interesting is that it’s a step towards the inevitable rollout of both. This was a logical precursor to AP sales or ID access for Team Members, either of which could be next up. While further Team Member access seems more likely, introducing limited add-ons for the top tiers of Annual Passes is a revenue-generating move, so it might be the first step.
Honestly, we hope that doesn’t happen until sometime in 2026 (and don’t expect it to). Although we’d love to be able to purchase an Annual Pass for Epic Universe, there’s only one month of off-season before crowds pick up again. If that, as the start of Halloween Horror Nights could unleash a form of pent-up demand.
Then it’s the heart of the Halloween and holiday seasons, both of which are likely to be busier. Then in 2026, regular ticketing policies are relaxed, which could further exacerbate crowds. Universal Orlando needs to do everything to preserve the guest experience for casual tourists, and that likely means no Annual Passes for another year unless major strides can be made to improve operational capacity.
Park Hopping Test
Speaking of the relaxation of ticketing policies, we already know that guests booking 2026 Universal Orlando vacation packages for travel in January and beyond will have the option to choose park-to-park tickets that includes Epic Universe. These tickets will no longer include Epic Universe as a separate entitlement, and instead allow park hopping.
We assume the same will be true of regular multi-day Universal Orlando tickets for 2026. While the above Team Member comp entry is a necessary prerequisite to Annual Passes, etc., so too is simply establishing normal ticketing policies for Epic Universe. And the logical date for that is January 2026.
Prior to then, Universal Orlando is reportedly entering select guests with vacation packages into a park hopping test right now. We’ve only seen a couple scattered reports of this on social media, but figured it was worth mentioning proactively in case you’re lucky enough to be selected. Our advice would be hopping to Epic Universe after 4 pm. Do that on your first day and have that be your initial Epic Universe experience. See how it goes and determine whether that’s an appropriate approach for you on subsequent days.
Earnings Call
Comcast recently held its quarterly earnings call and, unsurprisingly, they praised the successful launch of Epic Universe. The park was the direct driver of a 19% increase in revenue for the theme parks segment, which makes sense as it didn’t previously exist! Here are a couple of executive quotes from the call transcript:
“We expect Epic to continue to scale over the course of the year, with higher attendance and per caps as well as significantly improved operating leverage.”
“As expected, our near-term focus is on expanding ride throughput to reduce early attendance constraints. Epic is trending in line with our expectations and well on its way to transforming Universal Orlando into a true week-long destination.”
It’s impossible to know how executives really feel about Epic Universe’s launch, as they’re going to paint a reasonably rosy picture because the numbers did–and will continue to–go up. Nevertheless, these quotes suggest they’re going to continue finding ways to increase attendance while also improving operational efficiency.
This is what we’re seeing above with ticketing changes and it’s what we expected with efficiency. Still, it’s good to hear the executive comments about ride throughput and operating leverage. This is reassuring, and indicates even high-level leaders realize that they can’t simply pack the park–the reliability needs to first improve. I appreciate that.
As a quick aside, I hear a lot of chatter about how Orange County attributing a record setting month for occupancy tax collections to Epic Universe is “proof” that it’s hurting Walt Disney World. At the risk of stating the obvious, having more hotel rooms filled is what increases the potential occupancy tax pool–and Universal just opened three new ones, thereby increasing the county’s total room inventory!
There are more hotels now, so it stands to reason that, even at the same occupancy percentage across all resorts, tax collections would increase. If the same number of guests were visiting but stayed at Universal instead of Disney, occupancy tax collections would be flat. That’s not what happened, though, as Walt Disney World’s occupancy percentage also increased. And this is despite Disney also adding room inventory over the last year. Epic Universe may (rightfully!) get the credit, but both Disney and Universal contributed to the record.
Programming Note: Visiting Soon
Honestly, I’m watching all of the above out of my own self-interest, as I’m intending to visit Epic Universe again soon. I’m definitely going at least one day and am debating a second (already have nights booked at Helios Grand). I’ll definitely be putting my money where my mouth is by going on a Sunday, but have the option to also visit on Saturday if the data (and weather) are looking good or gamble on the following Monday if Sunday goes well (or, I guess, goes really badly and I want a do-over?).
We’ve now pushed off our family trip twice now, with late January 2026 being the new target, so this one is just me again. The goal is to eat as much as humanly possible, testing the limits of how much the human stomach can endure when filled to capacity and loaded into consecutive rides on Stardust Racers. I’ll be doing plenty of other testing as well, and am open to suggestions on this front if there are specifics you’d like to know about current ops at Epic Universe. Or if you have any menu & restaurant recommendations, please share those, too.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you visited Epic Universe since the start of summer? Planning a day in the off-season or during Halloween Horror Nights? What did you think of wait times and crowds? Experience any operational meltdowns due to breakdowns or weather? Is it possible or probable that Epic Universe actually has even higher attendance from October through December 2025, or throughout 2026? Will you visit Epic Universe this year, or will you wait for crowds to settle down (in theory) in 2026? Agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions? We love hearing from readers, so please share any other thoughts or questions you have in the comments below!