United Parks reports lower attendance, revenue in 2025
Attendance and revenue dropped at the SeaWorld and Busch Gardens theme parks in 2025, parent company United Parks reported today.
The company reported that its parks welcomed 21.2 million guests in 2025, down 1.8% from 2024. Total revenue dropped 3.6% for the year, to $1.7 billion. That contributed to a 26% drop in net income, to $168.4 million for the year.
The company's attendance decline accelerated in the final three months of 2025. Attendance was down 2.6% for the quarter when compared with the same period one year earlier, to 4.8 million guests. Total revenue dropped 2.8% in the quarter compared with the year prior, to $373.5 million. Net income was down 46%, to $15.1 million, which included a one-time write-off of $7.6 million in bad debt.
For the year, total revenue per capita dropped 1.9% to $78.54. However, the company pointed to a 1% increase in in-park per capita spending in 2025, to a record $36.81.
Nevertheless, United Parks spent $157 million last year to repurchase 4.2 million shares of common stock, which accounted for approximately 7.6% of its total shares outstanding. The company accelerated its stock buy-back in the first quarter of 2026, spending about $90.1 million so far this year to buy about another 2.5 million shares, or approximately another 4.5% of total shares outstanding.
Company officials pointed to lower international attendance in driving the decline in 2025 and now into 2026. (They also blamed the effects of unfavorable weather, but that has become a common excuse cited in United Parks and Six Flags earnings reports.)
"Our fiscal 2025 results did not meet our expectations," CEO Marc Swanson said. "While the consumer environment was uneven and our results were impacted by negative international tourism trends and volatile weather during certain peak visitation periods, we should have delivered better results, particularly on the cost side of the income statement. We have moved decisively to address our less than optimal cost management and have updated and focused our plans and investments for 2026 designed to drive attendance and guest spending across our parks."
SeaWorld San Antonio next week will open its Barracuda Strike family coaster, while SeaWorld Orlando will open a new dark ride, SEAQuest: Legends of the Deep, later this year. SeaWorld San Diego is refreshing its Shark Encounter, while Busch Gardens Williamsburg is reimagining its Verbolten roller coaster with new storytelling and special effects, in Verbolten - Forbidden Turn. In Tampa, Busch Gardens is opening a new Lion & Hyena Ridge habitat.
Replies (3)
The constant blame of poor results on the weather is getting ridiculous, and yet instead of trying to use that "excuse" to drive change and increase resiliency, they play the "woe is me" card and double down by saying "at least we're not Six Flags".
It's frankly pathetic, because United Parks does have so much going for it, and they can tell some positive stories to combat all of the negativity. The new attraction in Orlando is indoors, so should increase attraction capacity during poor weather. The new coaster in San Antonio will increase the ability of that park to attract families and groom young thrill seekers who will come back when they are big enough to ride the parks more thrilling rides. BGW is committing resources to increase theming on one of their already highly themed attractions, which shows a commitment to higher quality attractions that was becoming a common complaint among long-time fans.
However, this is what happens when you let private equity buy controlling stake in the service/hospitality industry. Every one of these transactions has eventually led to further decline. The fact that Swanson wants to improve "the cost side of the income statement" while committing so much capital to stock buybacks is exactly why the company has been losing money, because the product can't match the experiences top parks and loyal guests are growing frustrated with the constant excuses and cutbacks.
Perhaps the admission that the company is not living up to expectations is a corner that can be turned, and the fact that United are not Six Flags means it is just a corner to be turned and not pulling a 180 with the Titanic steaming towards an iceberg is promising. However, at some point this company needs to have a heart to heart with itself and understand that there is a middle ground where they can succeed between SF and Disney/Universal.
Something just occurred to me- every United park is located in the same region as a larger, or nearly as large, park. BGW is near KD, SWO and BGT are right next to MK and UOR, SWSA is in the same city as SFFT, and SWSD is in a high- concentration area of Southern Californian parks.
What I'm getting at is that United hasn't differentiated itself against other major players in the industry. Which is strange, considering the "new-expansion-every-year" approach that they've taken with the Busch Gardens parks and SWO. My guess is that they aren't putting in those showstopping, major attractions that draw people to the nearby parks, but they also aren't investing in maintenance, groundskeeping, and operations that would convince people to pay a premium advice for a premium experience.
If they want to dig themselves out of this rut, they should establish themselves as high-quality, and update animal and family attractions for the next few years while they fix their broken parks. This way, by 2030, they are seen less as places for "cheap thrills" and more as places where a family can spend the day. So in a way, animal exhibits at BGT and family attractions for USO and SWSA are the way to go, but it shouldn't be their only priority.
Or, y'know, maybe it was just the weather.
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The gist that I took from the presentation this morning was that United believes it is undervalued because its market cap is trading less than what it sees as the replacement value of its land and attractions.
Swanson said that the company has received sell-and-lease-back offers, which I dearly hope that United does not accept, since that has so often proven to be the kiss of death for other companies. United offered some industry comps to further make its case for undervaluation, but the most relevant one was with... Six Flags.
I don't know how compelling 'at least we're not Six Flags' is as an argument, but United is going with it.