The 15 Best Roller Coasters in the World (As Voted By YOU)

Take a look at the top 15 roller coasters on Earth according to YOUR ratings!

By now, you know all about our free-to-download park guides that already feature almost 23,000 ratings from our readers, and how those ratings affect the live-updating TPT100. We compiled your ratings to create a countdown of the 15 Best Dark Rides – as voted by YOU. Now, it’s time to take a look at the roller coasters that YOUR ratings have weighed as the world’s best.

Let’s review the rules:

Nothing gets people more upset than a “top coaster” list that they don’t agree with. What makes this different is that there’s no one to argue with! This ranking is NOT determined by the staff of Theme Park Tourist OR by polling extreme coaster enthusiasts. It’s based on the ratings of 23,000 reviews – kids, parents, grandparents, enthusiasts, novices and the general public – who visit our site. There’s no committee. It’s just your own reviews and the automatic rankings they create.
Family coasters are going to score higher than extreme thrill rides. It’s just that simple. If we did poll only extreme thrill-seekers, our results would be very different. But while Maverick may be a clear-cut winner in enthusiast circles, it doesn’t exactly appeal to kids or grandparents, right? So while Big Thunder Mountain racks up 5-star reviews left and right, more “extreme” rides like Maverick or Millennium Force get lots of 5-star reviews, but quite a few 3-star reviews, as well. It makes sense when you think about it, right?
Elaborate dark ride / roller coaster hybrids (usually at Disney and Universal) will dominate the list. You have to anticipate that even before you read. Just like in rule #2 above, rides like Expedition Everest have astronomically large budgets that build entire experiences around a roller coaster. Again, think about it: doesn’t it make sense that, in this open-to-the-public rating experiment, average ratings for Expedition Everest will be higher than average ratings for Millennium Force? So if you’re anticipating that the rides will get taller and faster as we count down, stop right there. Think about it and realize why that doesn’t make sense in this kind of poll.

Disagree with a ride’s rank? Just click the ride’s name to visit its attraction page, where a single click will assign your own rating that may shift the ride’s place on the TPT100 in real time! New ratings won’t live-update a ride’s position in this feature, but we feel this is a pretty nice list of coaster experience rankings as of the publication date.

15. Manta

Location: SeaWorld Orlando
TPT100 Rank: 43

When roller coaster manufacturer B&M stepped into the flying coaster game, they handled it much differently than the other designers, opting to maintain their sweeping layouts and smooth-as-glass style. While not the first entry into their flying coaster canon, Manta at SeaWorld Orlando is perhaps the most brilliant. The queue passes through the park’s ray exhibit, surrounding guests in the graceful animals. Visitors then get to become a ray, strapping into the manta-shaped flying coaster. Its soaring layout culminates in an iconic splashdown where the ray’s wing appears to dip into a lagoon, spraying a misty wave toward onlookers.

14. El Toro

Location: Six Flags Great Adventure (2006)
TPT100 Rank: 41

Not a fan of wooden roller coasters? Wait just a minute. Opened in 2006, El Toro is not your grandfather’s wooden coaster. Part of Intamin’s “plug-and-play” line of coasters, all of the track for El Toro was prefabricated. So while a traditional wooden coaster is built on-site by mounting many layers of wood on top of one another – constantly smoothing and bending beams – El Toro was practically built in a lab, and laser-cut with 21st century precision. Once on site, the labeled pre-cut pieces snap together somewhat like the K’NEX roller coaster in your basement.

It’s the imperfections of the on-site process that give traditional wooden coasters their signature rough feel. With laser-cut precision, El Toro feels like a steel coaster – incredibly smooth from beginning to ending. It even uses Intamin’s cable-lift, with an elevator-like cable to smoothly pull the train up the life hill in mere seconds… so no lifthill click-clack! Some purists argue that El Toro barely counts as a wooden coaster since it lacks the elements most commonly associated with them. No matter what it technically is, the ride is unlike any other on Earth with its bounding airtime hills and glass smooth experience.

13. Dragon Challenge – Chinese Fireball

Location: Universal’s Islands of Adventure
TPT100 Rank: 40

Once half of Universal’s innovative Dueling Dragons, the Fire Dragon and Ice Dragon coasters were annexed to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter when it opened in 2010, absorbing part of the park’s Lost Continent. The two coasters are entirely separate with unique features and elements, designed so that their interlocking courses would meet at three “near-miss” points during their dueling ride, with the two trains coming within 18 inches of each other. It was an alarming and exciting view for both riders and onlookers to see a train racing right at them at 60 miles an hour, only to pull up at the last second.

A few mysterious accidents forced Universal’s hand, as they announced that the two intertwined rides would never “duel” again, with staggered launches to ensure that the near-miss points were never used. Still, the red track (once the Fire Dragon, now the Chinese Fireball) ranks high on our list even apart from its icy blue brother. Maybe because the Fireball track goes 5 miles per hour faster and drops 10 feet further.

12. GateKeeper

Location: Cedar Point
TPT100 Rank: 39

Wing Rider roller coasters are a fun new trend, pairing manufacturer B&M’s trustworthy and super-smooth steel coaster with unique winged seating, placing riders on either side of the track with nothing above and nothing below. Early on, the ride’s gimmick (and a very successful one in the case of Gardaland’s Raptor) was its own style of near-miss, sending the ultra-wide train spiraling through keyhole-cut-outs and sliding right past oncoming obstacles. For both riders and onlookers, the effect hit home, appearing as if a collision was imminent. Later installations (like Dollywood’s Wild Eagle) dropped the gimmick in favor of giant inversions high above the treetops.

Cedar Point aimed for the best of both worlds when they built GateKeeper (the tallest and fastest Wing Rider to date, and with the world’s highest inversion). At the top of the ride’s 170 foot lift, it rolls riders upside down and into a giant drop, followed by swooping, massive hills and inversions. The ride’s key moment – and its namesake – is a near-miss zero-G roll through two massive retro keyhole towers that form the entry gates of Cedar Point. The sky-blue ride with its gold trains is magnificent against the skyline, and a fantastic addition to Cedar Point’s record-breaking lineup.

11. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster

Location: Disney’s Hollywood Studios
TPT100 Rank: 27

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith turned a lot of heads when it opened at Walt Dsney World. The coaster was Disney’s first in the US to flip riders upside down. Apparently undaunted by the hurdle, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster contains three inversions, all hidden in a dark showbuilding full of music-video style lighting and scenery. The ride mercilessly launches from 0 – 58 miles per hour in less than 3 seconds, hurling guests into a dark and disorienting course set to the music of Aerosmith. Certainly one of the most successful of Disney’s attempts to enter the thrill ride world, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster is a fan favorite and a major draw at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

10. The Beast

Location: Kings Island
TPT100 Rank: 26

Easily one of the most revered and celebrated wooden coasters in the world, The Beast at Kings Island in Ohio lives up to its name. Opened in 1979, the ride is still the longest wooden roller coaster in the world at a whopping 7,359 feet long and with a staggering 4:10 ride time. The Beast is so well-loved, wooden coasters have been purposefully built just a bit shorter, as it seems universally understood that the Beast deserves the record! During the ride’s four minutes, the train careens through tunnels and along the forest floor. The Beast is a terrain coaster, with its wooden track built into the hills and valleys of Kings Island’s woods. In fact, the ride sprawls out over 35 wooded acres. The coaster’s deafening finale is a slanted drop that roars into an enclosed 540° helix.

Famously, you can’t see any more of The Beast than the track you’re currently on since it all sits below tree level. Ask coaster enthusiasts about Beast night rides and you’ll hear about the exciting horror of careening through the forest at 65 miles per hour in pitch black darkness, with only the moon above and the dark endlessness all around without a light in sight. Let’s put it this way – day or night, you won’t forget the Beast!

9. Millennium Force

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Location: Cedar Point
TPT100 Rank: 23

Remember the year 2000? Roller coaster fans always will, since it signaled the arrival of Millennium Force. The sleek royal blue coaster with its 300-foot hill running along the coast of Lake Erie broke just about every record for the time. It was the first full-circuit coaster ever to break the 300-foot height barrier, also giving it the longest drop and fastest speed. Even with over 6,500 feet of track, Millennium sure feels like it maintains its 93 mile-per-hour tempo through most of the ride. With no inversions nor any mid-course brakes, Millennium is like a speeding bullet, racing through enormous overbanked turns and sailing over airtime hills with unexpected grace and deafening velocity. Even the most seasoned of coaster afficionados disembark with grins, as Millennium is simply unique. There’s no other coaster with the same style and attitude. That’s a compliment.

8. Space Mountain

Location: Disneyland
TPT100 Rank: 22

Magic Kingdom in Florida was actually the first to open a Space Mountain, with the original Disneyland following in its footsteps a few years later. The two rides, though, share nothing in common. Magic Kingdom’s is actually two coasters mirror-imaged and snuggled next to each other (both modeled after Disneyland’s Matterhorn Bobsleds).

Disneyland’s is a whole other creature, with three themed lift hills (including updated effects), two-by-two seating, a much faster and more wild ride, and synchronized on-board audio that perfectly lines up to the ride experience. As well, each autumn the mountain becomes home to Ghost Galaxy, a genuinely-startling take on the classic as incredible special effects simulate a galactic ghoul’s loud and frightening chase. With Ghost Galaxy in season, the ride’s iconic white dome is cast in dreary green as – a few times an hour – the entire dome pulsates with the creature’s roars thanks to texture-mapping projection.

Magic Kingdom’s version of the interstellar coaster has its own devoted fan base, but it only comes in at number 86 on the TPT100. Disneyland’s, meanwhile, rockets forward to number 22, making it the 9th highest-rated coaster on the list.

7. Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride

Location: Universal Studios Florida
TPT100 Rank: 19

Billed as the world’s first psychological thrill ride, Revenge of the Mummy truly is a thing of wonder. The roller coaster begins as a dark ride, encountering one of the most advanced and horrifying animatronics figures on Earth. The dark ride then passes through chambers of gold, flames, attacking mummies, lowering walls threatening to crush the whole train, scarab beetles, and more. After an unexpected trip backwards and a hidden turntable that rotates the train through a scene, the coaster launches uphill and into the Mummy’s smoke-filled mouth, careening through the dark. What happens next is a tightly-guarded secret, but suffice it to say, the best is yet to come. Folks go nuts for Revenge of the Mummy, and rightly so. The Premier coaster is quick, nimble, and unlike anything else you can find in Orlando or the United States for that matter. First timers will be shocked.

6. The Smiler

Location: Alton Towers
TPT100 Rank: 17

For the life of us, we can’t tell if the intentions of the Ministry of Joy are insidious or benevolent! Surely, a secret organization hellbent on spreading smiles couldn’t be that bad! Enter The Smiler. This absolutely insane coaster is constructed around the Ministry’s Marmalizer contraption, a sort of technological arachnid with five arms corresponding to five smile-improving techniques. The hypnotic coaster just reeks of brainwashing, but if the pulsating visuals of the queue and Marmalizer don’t sell you, the ride’s stats will. With 14 inversions, The Smiler turns riders upside down more times than any other coaster on Earth. If you’re looking for a one-of-a-kind experience, The Smiler is waiting. Those Ministry of Joy fellows aren’t half bad.

5. Nemesis

Location: Alton Towers
TPT100 Rank: 15

Perhaps the most famous coaster in the UK, Nemesis at Alton Towers is one wild ride. What’s most interesting, though, is how it doesn’t need extreme stats to pull it off. In fact, local ordinances require the park to never build above the treeline. As such, the lift hill of the inverted Nemesis is built into a hillside, with the ride’s circuit dug down into trenches in the ground. It’s all for the best, since the ride’s post-apocolyptic theme fits perfectly with the barren canyons, rusted track, and the maroon rivers of “blood” that the coaster rides over. Interestingly, Nemesis also doesn’t have a traditional “first drop” after the lift hill. Somehow that doesn’t stop it from being action-packed from beginning to end, perfectly paced, and a fan favorite.

4. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Location: Disneyland
TPT100 Rank: 15

In terms of classic steel coasters, they don’t get much more beloved than Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. All of the Disney Resorts have a version of a runaway mine train attraction, but Disneyland’s ranks highest on our list (and is linked to above). With a winding, dipping course over the rusted red hills of Utah, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is no where near the most intense roller coaster at Disney Parks, which has cast it as a perfect “middle ground” ride. For many kids, it may be their first “big” roller coaster! Disneyland’s version was recently re-built and updated (just as their Space Mountain was a decade before) with an explosive new finale. That may be why it edges ahead on our list.

3. Incredible Hulk

Location: Universal’s Islands of Adventure
TPT100 Rank: 10

A dominating visual center of Universal’s Islands of Adventure, the Incredible Hulk coaster – like its namesake – is angry. The ride is the only launched coaster built by B&M in the whole world (though the company – which stresses reliability and uptime – purposefully had nothing to do with the launch mechanism). As the train slowly climbs through the inclined Gamma Tube, it suddenly accelerates to 67 miles per hour uphill, inverting into a zero-G roll at the top of the hill, 110 feet over the Great Inland Sea below. It then dives down and races into a massive cobra roll visible from anywhere in the park. The ride has a total of 7 inversions along its twisted circuit, and is a signature attraction of the park.

2. Expedition Everest

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Location: Disney’s Animal Kingdom
TPT100 Rank: 7

The largest and single most expensive attraction at Walt Disney World, Expedition Everest has been highly rated on our list even from the beginning. The queue wraps through an Asian Yeti museum, documenting the existence of the mysterious cryptoid also known as the Abominable Snowman. The dark ride / roller coaster hybrid is meant to resemble a Sherpa train ride through the Himalayas that goes very wrong. After the train climbs through an ancient temple city where an altar to the Yeti seems to signal trouble ahead, riders encounter a startling piece of uprooted and twisted track that blocks the way. A dizzying and forceful backwards section leads to an 80 foot plunge from the mountain and a few encounters with the horrifying Yeti itself.

1. Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts

Location: Universal Studios Florida
TPT100 Rank: 6

What exactly awaits within the sealed vaults of Gringotts, the Wizarding Bank of Diagon Alley? Let’s just say that Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts has more than a few twists and tricks up its sleeves. The elaborately-dressed family coaster had been the talk of the town since its announcement. Thankfully for Universal (and us), the ride has exceeded the sky-high expectations of fans and park enthusiasts with many early reviews proclaiming it among the best rides in the entire world. Certainly more dark ride than coaster, Gringotts still uses its coaster technology in two key moments to leave riders stunned, which earns it the leading position on our list. At least, until the hype dies down.

Conclusion

Don’t forget: this isn’t a list of our favorites, it’s a list of yours. The rankings here are determined by the tens of thousands of star ratings our readers have assigned to these great rides. Only tiny decimal place differences exist between many of these coasters, and one particularly bad review or a really good one could shift the whole ranking. Still, it seems to us that this is a pretty good list! If we were tasked with coming up with a list of the best from scratch, it would probably have all of these coasters on it.

If you disagree with our list, visit the attraction’s page (making sure you’re at the right park… The Big Thunder Mountain link above is for the Disneyland ride, for example) and rate it appropriately. Otherwise, you can visit the TPT100 and read down the list, rating any attractions you’ve ridden! In the meantime, let us know what you think of this list by commenting below and rating the rides.