Cedar Point Ranked 15th Most Popular Amusement Park in North America

Cedar Point was the 15th most popular theme park in North America last year by attendance, according to an annual report from Themed Entertainment Association. Roughly 3,444,000 people visited Cedar Point in 2022, up four percent from 2021. Its water park, Cedar Point Shores, also ranked in the report as the 20th most-visited water park with roughly 405,000 attendees in 2022.

Disney and Universal Studios predictably dominated the top of the list.

Following pandemic lockdowns and travel restrictions, the theme park industry as a whole has seen a bounce back.

“Although 2020 attendance figures showed one of the steepest year-over-year attendance drops in history, the industry also began to show its resilience by working with government agencies to facilitate safe and smooth reopenings and meet the pent-up demand of local markets eager to get out of the house,” said senior analyst Francisco Refuerzo in the report.

Cedar Point is on its 154th season this year, making it the second-oldest theme park in North America. In that time, the Sandusky theme park has opened 70 rides, including the Wild Mouse roller coaster, which debuted in 2023.

But beyond rides, the report notes that its owner, Cedar Fair, has invested in its resorts, hotel and a campground in ways different than its competitors.

"Compared to other operators, Cedar Fair doesn't rely as much on its IP partnership with Peanuts to drive per capita spending. Instead, the company has raised ticket prices and invested in more and better food and beverage options. This was a multi-year program developed prior to the pandemic but accelerated during that down time," the report notes. "The result has been an overall increase in the number of transactions as well as an increase in the value per transaction. Cedar Fair has also invested in plussing their resort hotel offerings, specifically at the Cedar Point location."

Although ticket prices have risen in recent years, 2023 actually brought the first drop in ticket prices at Cedar Point in nearly 20 years. The current price for a day ticket at the park is $49.99 when purchased online.

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