Epic Universe rang in 2026 with its busiest day ever, with average wait times beating its previous worst day by 20+ minutes! Universal Orlando’s new park is no stranger to colossal crowds that are worse than New Year’s at Walt Disney World, but this really takes the cake. This post takes a look at recent data and tries to make sense of what happened and whether we can expect more of this in 2026.
For starters, this comes during the popular New Year’s week at Universal Orlando. It thus shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that Epic Universe is busy, as we already reported that over One-Dozen Walt Disney World Rides Hit 2+ Hour High Waits During Christmas & New Year’s Peak Week. This time of year being busy isn’t exactly ‘stop the presses’ news, but the twist on that to start 2026 at Epic Universe absolutely is notable because the peak happened after New Year’s Eve.
Attendance trends are comparable at both Universal Orlando and Walt Disney World, with Epic Universe being the caveat to that most of the time, at least when it comes to crowd dynamics with Floridians and Annual Passholders. That’s not particularly relevant right now, as crowds between Christmas and New Year’s are fueled by non-local tourists.
Before we dig into Epic Universe’s colossal crowds to start 2026, let’s start with a quick recap of wait times data. Epic Universe first broke the 80 minute wait time barrier 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.
After a slower off-season (relatively speaking), October saw another spike around Fall Break. The two weeks around Columbus Day were the busiest of 2025 at Epic Universe, with 72 minute weekly averages. Not even Thanksgiving or Christmas could surpass those stats. Those also included a couple of daily high water marks, with Epic Universe breaking the 80 minute barrier on several occasions, and maxing out at daily numbers of 86 minutes (twice).
The week of Christmas ended up not being quite as bad, with a 70 minute average. Still third-worst of 2025, though, and with several days exceeding 70 or 80 minutes (albeit dragged down by Christmas Eve, which had a 45 minute average).
As always, keep in mind that these are averages. Wait times tend are higher midday, but usually lower first thing in the morning or evening. Some attractions are averaging waits that are over 200 minutes, but that’s offset by a few people-eaters, less popular attractions, and one water ride that has had low numbers due to cold weather.
The days with averages over 70 or 80 minutes are notable because only one other Universal or Disney theme park has had an 80+ minute day since 2019 (EPCOT on December 31, 2025). Beyond that, there have been very few 70+ minute days, except at Epic Universe, where it’s a common occurrence.
Against that backdrop, let’s dig into the wait times data for Epic Universe (courtesy of thrill-data):
Let’s start out with the monthly data, which shows January 2026 with a clear and decisive lead over every month that came before. So much so that it’s skewing the scale.
Of course, January 2026 is only 2+ days old at this point, so a lot can change. And as discussed below in the commentary, it will. If Epic Universe is averaging an 90 minute monthly wait time a couple of weeks from now, Universal will need to make major changes. (But it won’t be.)
More interesting here is that June, July and October–as opposed to November and December–were the busiest months of last year. The last two months were dragged down by slower weeks, but we still expected them to be busier. This was actually a pleasant surprise–good news for Epic Universe!
Here are the weekly numbers for Epic Universe.
Nothing truly shocking here. As noted above, Fall Break was busy. Thanksgiving was a similar story, as was the lead-up to Christmas and then New Year’s Eve. The last bar is the current week, which is winding down and has been the worst yet. With a few slight differences, Walt Disney World’s weekly wait time trend line (not the average wait times themselves) more or less mirrors this.
What does surprise me a bit here is the lows after Thanksgiving, which includes our favorite week of the year at Walt Disney World (have we mentioned that before?!). I would’ve guessed that these two weeks would’ve been a bit busier, as the secret is out about them, and savvy fans seek out these dates. It’s not just us.
Based on the popularity of those two weeks among Central Florida regulars, I would’ve extrapolated that savvy fans would target those dates as a great time to do Epic Universe to avoid its infamous crowds.
Clearly that did not happen. That entire week was slow and included two of Epic Universe’s least-busy days ever (Saturday and Sunday, December 6-7). That’s worth keeping in mind if you’re already planning for 2026.
I’d also note that our Secrets to Conquer Crowds at Epic Universe: Best Dates to Visit in 2025 & 2026 recommended those specific dates, as well as others that were slow during the last two months. (I’ll be updating that soon-ish with more recommendations for 2026.)
Finally, we have the daily numbers, showing several 70-80 minute averages in the last week plus, culminating in a 107 minute average on Friday, January 2, 2026.
At the risk of stating the obvious, that’s insane.
The previous high was 86 minutes, hit on a few occasions. Even that number was higher than any other Universal Orlando or Walt Disney World park since 2019 (EPCOT “only” hit 83 minutes on New Year’s Eve 2026). Yesterday was 21 minutes higher than the previous high. And that’s on average–it is not the peak wait times!
Above are the attraction averages for January 2, 2026 at Epic Universe. Here’s a quick rundown of the attractions averaging triple-digit waits:
- Donkey Kong Mine-Cart Madness: 264 minutes
- Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry: 214 minutes
- Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge: 176 minutes
- Hiccup’s Wing Gliders: 119 minutes
- Meet Toothless & Friends: 115 minutes
- Yoshi’s Adventure: 103 minutes
- Curse of the Werewolf: 100 minutes
There more attractions were over an hour. You know it’s a crazy day when Monsters Unchained, a veritable people-eater, is posting average waits of 73 minutes! And as charming as Yoshi’s Adventure is when it’s a walk-on, I cannot imagine devoting a Hallmark Christmas movie worth of my life to waiting in line for it.
If you’re thinking, “well surely savvy strategy would’ve helped beat these crowds,” think again.
Above is a heat map of wait times. Sure, you could’ve knocked out a couple of headliners in the first two hours, but multiple big rides appear to have had delayed openings and then posted triple-digit waits almost immediately.
Waiting out the crowds largely would not have worked, either. Wait times were still high in the final two hours, and based on what I saw in checking the Universal app, both Donkey Kong Mine-Cart Madness and Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry cut their lines (e.g. “at capacity”) well over an hour before park closing. That’s why they’re missing wait times on the above heat map for the final 2 hours.
I would also add that, in my spot-checking of the app throughout the day, it didn’t appear that any attraction suffered from extensive downtime during the midday peaks. (That’s corroborated by the above heat map not having any midday blanks.)
In short, this was not like a rainy summer day when the many outdoor rides had to shut down. It also was not an operational meltdown due to downtime and delays. From what I understand, Universal Orlando has actually been finding its footing operationally with Epic Universe, and the rides are becoming more efficient, not less. (Another silver lining!)
By all appearances, this is a story of Universal Orlando overselling Epic Universe. Sky-high demand during the tail end of a peak week colliding with too many ticket sales and policy changes. That is obviously a bad thing, but it’s at least somewhat excusable (he says as someone who watched this unfold from the comfort of home, and not as a paying guest who endured these lines).
We have been warning for months that Epic Universe was poised to break the 100-minute average wait time barrier at some point.
That it was only a matter of time as the park increased capacity and sold more tickets. We even went as far as to predict that it would happen this past week. What that prediction missed (or would’ve missed if it contained more specificity) is that I would’ve guessed that Epic Universe would see its worst-ever crowds on December 29-30, and not January 2, 2026.
That’s because tickets for the days leading up to Christmas and New Year’s Eve have been sold out for months, with availability occasionally popping up. My assumption was that Universal was going to oversell the park the last two weeks, hitting higher attendance numbers than ever before. From that higher baseline, a day of operational bad luck would push the average above 100 minutes.
With the benefit of hindsight, I would now hazard a guess that Universal was carefully managing capacity on those dates–much like they did around opening day and the week thereafter.
Universal likely knew those days could be problem-points, as it’s not exactly new information that Christmas to New Year’s is a busy stretch. Those dates were still busy, to be sure, but within the realm of what we’ve been seeing for peak dates.
My guess is that what happened with January 2, 2026 is a combination of Universal taking its eye off the ball when it came to managing capacity, relaxed ticket & park hopping policies throwing a monkey wrench into things, and an influx of tourists who spent the week at Walt Disney World (or elsewhere) hitting Epic Universe before heading home.
Maybe those guests specifically avoided the days leading up to NYE, expecting them to be worse? As we’ve pointed out elsewhere, the dates after New Year’s Eve are not slow at Central Florida parks, but there’s a persistent misconception (based on outdated information) that they are. In actuality, the week after NYE is usually the second-busiest of the year at Walt Disney World.
As for what’s next, we don’t expect Epic Universe to break the 100 minute barrier again anytime soon. Ideally, it will never happen again, as the park continues to improve its operational efficiency.
Who knows, though. As we’ve stated countless times before, the high wait times at Epic Universe are mostly a capacity and efficiency story, and not one of overwhelming demand. The park is hitting these crowd levels (which are actually wait time levels) with relatively modest attendance.
It’s notable that January 2, 2026 did sell out of tickets. It’s safe to assume capacity is still capped below Universal’s eventual target.
There’s also the fact that it hit those numbers without Annual Passes being available! (Side note: perhaps we should revise When Will Epic Universe Have Annual Passes? to push back the date another year or more.)
In the near-term, Epic Universe should follow the same trend-line as the other Central Florida theme parks. Tourists are already heading home from their Christmas vacations, so numbers should be in free-fall. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sunday, January 4, 2026 has an average daily wait time of less than half of Friday!
However, there remain major unanswered questions about the impact of ticket policy changes on attendance dynamics and wait times. (That’s precisely why I was checking the Universal Orlando app yesterday when I noticed the sky-high waits–researching how things have already changed.)
Zooming out a bit, I’d predict that Epic Universe attendance will be higher from now through Easter 2026, with the monthly averages for January, February and March being the three highest ever (some weeks will certainly be slower). This is due to both seasonality and the ticket policy changes.
Winter is becoming an increasingly popular of time for tourists, especially frequent visitors to Orlando, and we could see the first few months of the year being “surprisingly” busy at Epic Universe as a result. Obviously, Spring Break is always busy, too. Given that, it’s hardly a bold prediction to say that January through March 2026 will be busy months, on average.
Then there are the aforementioned admission changes. Guests with multi-day tickets can now spend a disproportionate amount of time at Epic Universe, and we’d expect exactly that to happen to some degree (what degree is unclear).
This 2026 ticket policy has downsides, but is welcome and guest-friendly changes that needed to happen at this point. At the same time, last year’s limits were valuable guardrails at preventing even worse wait time woes at Epic Universe.
The biggest wildcard about 2026 crowds is word of mouth about Epic Universe.
Outside of the fan community, is it positive or negative? When average families return home to tell friends about their trips, are they highlighting the envelope-pushing attractions at Epic Universe, or the absurd wait times? Is awareness of the new park increasing?
There have been a lot of complaints about the days with significant downtime due to downpours and ride breakdowns. Even diehard Universal fan communities have soured somewhat on Epic Universe, and now recommend waiting out the crowds. It’s impossible to tell how much this is “breaking containment” and reaching audiences beyond theme park fans, though.
The general public might only be seeing the rave reviews of the excellent Epic Universe ride roster and making plans to visit “after the rush” of the holiday season or early 2026. This could set the next several months up to be big at Epic Universe. On the other hand, if complaints about waits are winning out, it could take longer before attendance climbs.
As demonstrated by January 2nd, there’s also the question of what Universal Orlando does (or does not do) to manage attendance. It’s notable that Epic Universe hit that 107 minute average not on a rainy summer day or one with excessive downtime, pushing guests to the few operational attractions and ballooning those waits, but on a nice winter day.
On dates with higher organic demand, there are choices Universal can make–or not make–that have a major impact on wait times! It’ll be interesting to watch whether they’re prioritize short-term revenue or long-term guest satisfaction and other key metrics.
Ultimately, it’ll be fun to watch what happens next with 2026 crowds at Epic Universe. To end on a more optimistic and upbeat note, it does seem like the park is trending in the right direction operationally. Universal also clearly intends upon increasing capacity by building out more ASAP.
My gut instinct is that the ticketing changes won’t adversely impact wait times too much, and are a net positive in giving guests more flexibility. There are going to be rough days like yesterday, sure, but there should also be more good-to-great days at Epic Universe.
There should be some fantastic times to visit in the next couple of years, especially before Annual Passes roll out. Take advantage! Avoid the bad, savor the good, embrace the chaos.
Again, we’ll have updated recommendations on when to visit soon (I need to see more wait times data for 2026 first, and make a couple visits myself). For now, I’d target weekends on list of the Best & Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 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. Regardless, good luck–you’re going to need it.
Need trip planning tips and comprehensive advice for your visit to Central Florida? Make sure to read our Universal Orlando Planning Guide for everything about Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida. Also check out our Walt Disney World Vacation Planning Guide for everything about those parks, resorts, restaurants, and so much more.
YOUR THOUGHTS
Were you at Epic Universe on January 2, 2026? What was your on-the-ground experience? Have you visited Epic Universe during the holiday season? What did you think of wait times and crowds? Experience any operational meltdowns due to breakdowns or weather? Will you visit Epic Universe in 2026, or will you wait for crowds to settle down (in theory)? Think word of mouth about the new park is positive or negative? 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!
