TPR 2018 Coaster Poll Results!

[A.J.]

The TPR 2018 Coaster Poll Results are in!

 

https://coasterpoll.com/

The Theme Park Review Coaster Poll is an ongoing effort by myself (A.J.), Chase (Comeagain?) and Robb (robbalvey). We're continuing to work hard to develop THE definitive annual ranking of the world's roller coasters!

 

The reason why this poll exists is because the Mitch Hawker poll, which was considered by many to be the quintessential roller coaster poll for nearly 20 years, had kind of fallen into a black hole leaving few polls or awards that exist that we would put real faith into the results.

 

This year, we had an astounding 628 (six-hundred twenty-eight) people submit ballots! We would like to thank everyone who took the time to submit one - you're helping fulfill the poll's mission!

 

The way Mitch’s poll worked is that instead of being a “popularity contest” of “he who gets the most votes wins”, it actually ranked and weighted people’s real life riding experience against each other. It took into account how many coasters you’ve ridden and how those rankings compare against others with similar experiences. It also meant that no matter if you’ve ridden 50 or 500 coasters, the results were “fair and balanced.”

 

Last year, we did the poll as a live beta test, but this year, the results are for real! These results will form a basis for us to see how roller coasters, and peoples' opinions of them, change from year to year. Your coaster riding experience matters! If your favorite coaster didn’t rank where you hoped they would, AND you didn’t vote this year, please do so in the next poll!

 

Our original plan for this year was to group any set of "roller coaster clones" (that's three or more installations of the same layout) into a singular result. Due to the overwhelming response, that did not happen. However! We do have the capability to do so retroactively and we will - all of the framework is there for us to do so. For now, the results will be displayed much like they were last year, with every coaster given an individual entry except for Intamin's collection of Mega Lite coasters. Because of this, the poll results were late in being made official - from now on, the poll will be conducted earlier in the calendar year.

 

As a refresher, these are the rules:

 

• To qualify for the poll, a coaster has to be the size of a wild mouse or larger, with a select few exceptions
  
• To qualify for the poll, a coaster has to both have operated for the majority of the previous season (2018) AND be scheduled to open during the current season (2019).
  
• To receive a numbered ranking, a coaster must have been marked "ridden" and ranked by at least 12 (twelve) people; any with less than that are given a provisional ranking and not included in the "top" lists

 

EDIT: It has come to our attention that people are unclear about discrepancies between the combined rankings and the wood / steel only rankings. The rankings are different in the wood / steel polls because the opposite type of coaster is removed from the poll entirely, and THEN the preference results are calculated, as if the opposite type of coaster never existed in the first place. This can, will, and does result in certain coasters jumping and falling significantly in the results. This is by design!

 

Are you excited yet? Here come the results!

 

2018 Top 25 Overall Roller Coasters

 

1. Steel Vengeance - Cedar Point

2. Lightning Rod - Dollywood

3. El Toro - Six Flags Great Adventure

4. Wildfire - Kolmården

5. Maverick - Cedar Point

6. Outlaw Run - Silver Dollar City

7. Twisted Timbers - Kings Dominion

8. Medusa Steel Coaster - Six Flags Mexico

9. T Express - Everland

10. Intimidator 305 - Kings Dominion

11. Expedition GeForce - Holiday Park

12. Soaring with Dragon - Hefei Wanda Theme Park

13. Fury 325 - Carowinds

14. Skyrush - Hersheypark

15. DC Rivals Hypercoaster - Warner Bros. Movie World

16. Millennium Force - Cedar Point

17. Helix - Liseberg

18. Twisted Colossus - Six Flags Magic Mountain

19. Jungle Trailblazer - Oriental Hertiage Wuhu

20. Phoenix - Knoebels Amusement Park and Resort

21. Superman the Ride - Six Flags New England

22. Taron - Phantasialand

23. Twisted Cyclone - Six Flags Over Georgia

24. Hyperion - Energylandia

25. Mega-Lite / Kawasemi / Fly Over Mediterranean / Piraten / Light Speed - Various Parks

 

 

 

2018 Top 25 Wooden Roller Coasters

 

1. Lightning Rod - Dollywood

2. El Toro - Six Flags Great Adventure

3. Outlaw Run - Silver Dollar City

4. Wildfire - Kolmården

5. T Express - Everland

6. Voyage - Holiday World & Splashin' Safari

7. Phoenix - Knoebels Amusement Park and Resort

8. Boulder Dash - Lake Compounce

9. Jungle Trailblazer - Oriental Hertiage Wuhu

10. Balder - Liseberg

11. Coaster - Playland (at the PNE)

12. Goliath - Six Flags Great America

13. Ravine Flyer II - Waldameer Water World

14. Wooden Coaster Fireball - Happy Valley Shanghai

15. Dauling Dragon - Happy Valley Wuhan

16. Mine Blower - Fun Spot Kissimmee

17. Mystic Timbers - Kings Island

18. Wood Coaster - Knight Valley

19. Gold Striker - California's Great America

20. Troy - Toverland

21. Renegade - Valleyfair

22. Python in Bamboo Forest - Nanchang Wanda Park

23. Tremors - Silverwood

24. Shivering Timbers - Michigan's Adventure

25. Jungle Trailblazer - Fantawild Dreamland Zhengzhou

 

2018 Top 25 Steel Roller Coasters

 

1. Steel Vengeance - Cedar Point

2. Maverick - Cedar Point

3. Twisted Timbers - Kings Dominion

4. Expedition GeForce - Holiday Park

5. Medusa Steel Coaster - Six Flags Mexico

6. Intimidator 305 - Kings Dominion

7. Mega-Lite / Kawasemi / Fly Over Mediterranean / Piraten / Light Speed - Various Parks

8. Soaring with Dragon - Hefei Wanda Theme Park

9. DC Rivals Hypercoaster - Warner Bros. Movie World

10. Twisted Colossus - Six Flags Magic Mountain

11. Skyrush - Hersheypark

12. Fury 325 - Carowinds

13. Millennium Force - Cedar Point

14. Helix - Liseberg

15. Taron - Phantasialand

16. Twisted Cyclone - Six Flags Over Georgia

17. Superman the Ride - Six Flags New England

18. Hyperion - Energylandia

19. Storm Chaser - Kentucky Kingdom

20. RailBlazer - California's Great America

21. Goliath - Walibi Holland

22. Iron Rattler - Six Flags Fiesta Texas

23. iSpeed - Mirabilandia

24. Wonder Woman Golden Lasso Coaster - Six Flags Fiesta Texas

25. New Texas Giant - Six Flags Over Texas

 

 

 

2018 10 Worst Roller Coasters Overall

 

10. MP-Xpress - Movie Park Germany

9. T3 - Kentucky Kingdom

8. Mind Eraser - Elitch Gardens

7. Mind Eraser - Darien Lake

6. Time Warp - Canada's Wonderland

5. Condor - Walibi Holland

4. Orca Ride - Boudewijn Seapark

3. Anaconda - Walygator Parc

2. Mind Eraser - Six Flags America

1. Volare - Wiener Prater

 

2018 10 Worst Wooden Roller Coasters

 

10. Zach's Zoomer - Michigan's Adventure

9. Wildcat - Lake Compounce

8. Little Dipper - Six Flags Great America

7. Underground - Adventureland

6. Ghoster Coaster - Canada's Wonderland

5. Coaster Express - Parque Warner Madrid

4. Predator - Darien Lake

3. Grizzly - California's Great America

2. Anaconda - Walygator Parc

1. Bandit - Movie Park Germany

 

2018 10 Worst Steel Roller Coasters

 

10. Ednör - L'Attaque - La Ronde

9. MP-Xpress - Movie Park Germany

8. T3 - Kentucky Kingdom

7. Mind Eraser - Elitch Gardens

6. Time Warp - Canada's Wonderland

5. Mind Eraser - Darien Lake

4. Condor - Walibi Holland

3. Orca Ride - Boudewijn Seapark

2. Mind Eraser - Six Flags America

1. Volare - Wiener Prater

 

Thanks again to anyone and everyone who took the time to vote in the 2018 poll. Look out for myself and Chase to keep the thread going with fun, interesting, and random stats! As always, please comment / post if you have any questions, and we can't wait to do this again next year!

 

View full results here:

 

Combined Results

 

Wood Results

 

Steel Results

 

What fun and interesting "top 10" lists do you want to see? Leave a post!

#1 Steel Coaster and #1 Overall Coaster - Steel Vengeance

#2 Steel Coaster and #5 Overall Coaster - Maverick

#3 Steel Coaster and #7 Overall Coaster - Twisted Timbers

#4 Steel Coaster - Expedition GeForce

#5 Steel Coaster and #8 Overall Coaster - Medusa Steel Coaster

#6 Steel Coaster and #10 Overall Coaster - Intimidator 305

#7 Steel Coaster - Mega Lite Coasters (Fly Over Mediterranean, Kawasemi, Light Speed, Mega-Lite, Piraten)

#8 Steel Coaster - Soaring With Dragon

#9 Steel Coaster - DC Rivals Hypercoaster

#10 Steel Coaster - Twisted Colossus

#1 Wooden Coaster and #2 Overall Coaster - Lightning Rod

#2 Wooden Coaster and #3 Overall Coaster - El Toro

#3 Wooden Coaster and #6 Overall Coaster - Outlaw Run

#4 Wooden Coaster and #4 Overall Coaster - Wildfire

#5 Wooden Coaster and #9 Overall Coaster - T Express

#6 Wooden Coaster - Voyage

#7 Wooden Coaster - Phoenix

#8 Wooden Coaster - Boulder Dash

#9 Wooden Coaster - Jungle Trailblazer (Oriental Heritage Wuhu)

#10 Wooden Coaster - Balder

Edited June 27, 2019 by A.J.

[coasterbill]

Great job everyone!

 

For the most part the results are pretty much exactly what you would expect which is probably proof that the algorithm works.

 

There's not much that really jumps out other than the bias that people seem to have towards the "new hotness". The fact that Twisted Timbers is the #3 steel coaster in the world is nuts to me as is the crazy high placement of Twisted Cyclone. Both rides are awesome (like really awesome), but I was still surprised at how those placed.

 

The only other thing that was weird to me was the placement of the Great America Grizzly. I'll never understand the utter hatred of this ride. It's forceless and uninteresting but it's smooth and not really offensive. People would really rather ride things like Predator, Hades 360, Mighty Canadian Minebuster, Wilde Beast and the countless other terrible wood coasters around the world (and a bunch of borderline kiddy coasters like Zach's Zoomer) than Grizzly? Really? I really need to know how anyone really thinks that Zach's Zoomer is objectively better than Grizzly. Help me understand.

[SharkTums]

^I share many of your opinions.

 

A little surprised by the new rides placement, but we'll see how they hold out over the years. No one can deny Twisted Timbers is an amazing top ten coaster, but #3?!?!

 

And yes, Grizzly and Anaconda don't really belong on that bottom list. They're crap and useless, but they don't physically try to lower your IQ and motor function!!!

 

Great job to everyone involved! Love some of those pictures!

[SLCHeadache]

Surprised to see Time Warp make the bottom ten when Flight Deck right next to it didn't. Time Warp was atrocious, but Flight Deck was just that extra level of worse, and had me swearing like the old TPR video of what was then known as Manhattan Express.

[boldikus]

I have been eagerly anticipating this so just gotta say thanks so much to everyone involved! I love that we have an official poll now.

 

The results are not all that surprising. I had to laugh at the worsts: all the SLCs and volares make sense, but what makes Orca Ride so bad? I had to look it up.

 

Also, neat how the top wood and steel are both RMCs, #2 for each are both Intamins, #3 for each are both RMCs, and then #4 and #5 are Intamin vs RMCs.

 

You guys gonna do stats like ranking B&M hypers, floorless, etc like we did last year?

[coasterbill]

Poor orca ride. I feel like Brit and I need to go to Belgium now and she needs to fill out a ballot to save orca ride’s reputation. She would love it by default because the trains look like Shamu. The ride could be objectively terrible and I doubt that it would matter.

[bert425]

Thanks for pulling this together!

 

it's great..tho sad to see Phoenix not crack the top 5 in Wooden coasters (what????)

[A.J.]

Thanks for the support everyone!

 

There's not much that really jumps out other than the bias that people seem to have towards the "new hotness". The fact that Twisted Timbers is the #3 steel coaster in the world is nuts to me as is the crazy high placement of Twisted Cyclone. Both rides are awesome (like really awesome), but I was still surprised at how those placed.

On the steel side, there is just over a one percent (ONE PERCENT!!!) difference in preference between Maverick, Soaring With Dragon, and all of the coasters in between (including Twisted Timbers). Really, it just shows that there are just too many good coasters in the world right now!

 

it's great..tho sad to see Phoenix not crack the top 5 in Wooden coasters (what????)

Again, same thing. The difference in preference between Phoenix (#7) and Voyage (#5) on the wooden-only poll was .32% (thirty-two hundredths of one percent).

 

The only other thing that was weird to me was the placement of the Great America Grizzly. I'll never understand the utter hatred of this ride. It's forceless and uninteresting but it's smooth and not really offensive. People would really rather ride things like Predator, Hades 360, Mighty Canadian Minebuster, Wilde Beast and the countless other terrible wood coasters around the world (and a bunch of borderline kiddy coasters like Zach's Zoomer) than Grizzly? Really? I really need to know how anyone really thinks that Zach's Zoomer is objectively better than Grizzly. Help me understand.

And yes, Grizzly and Anaconda don't really belong on that bottom list. They're crap and useless, but they don't physically try to lower your IQ and motor function!!!

I chalk up the low rankings of those "fine but boring" coasters (Anaconda, Grizzly, Orca Ride) to people that don't rank them low because they're bad, but rather because they've ranked a lot of better coasters higher.

 

You guys gonna do stats like ranking B&M hypers, floorless, etc like we did last year?

Yes, absolutely. Stay tuned.

Edited May 1, 2019 by A.J.

[boldikus]

^

 

I just noticed how low Fury scored, that's a surprise.

[SixFlagsAstroworld]

Has Little Dipper at SFGAm gotten that bad? I never thought I'd see a kiddie coaster make it on the worst wooden coasters list

[cfc]

I prefer Twisted Timbers slightly over Steel Vengeance, because as much as I love the latter ride, it's almost "too much" (at least for me).

[Canobie Coaster]

Awesome to see the results! I'm glad the Six Flags America SLC got the credit it deserves as the worst SLC.

 

All 5 top wooden coaster spots were taken by non-traditional woodies and that doesn't shock me one bit.

 

As for Twisted Timbers, I really like it, but it's in the middle of the RMCs for me. I'd put Steel Vengeance, Twisted Colossus, Iron Rattler, Twisted Cyclone, and the woodies above it. But then again they're all awesome and I'd be happy riding any.

[hoppedup]

^

 

I just noticed how low Fury scored, that's a surprise.

 

I'm pretty sure it was #13 overall last time as well. Which is surprising considering it is in virtually every top 5 or 10 list I see here on TPR.

 

The fact that Twisted Timbers is the #3 steel coaster in the world is nuts to me as is the crazy high placement of Twisted Cyclone. Both rides are awesome (like really awesome), but I was still surprised at how those placed.

 

Maybe it's just fresh in my memory, but I'd put Twisted Cyclone just behind Iron Rattler as my 2nd favorite RMC. Twisted Timbers would be last on that list, after Steel Vengeance, Wicked Cyclone, and New Texas Giant. And yes, Twisted Timbers is still really awesome, but #3?

[JJLehto]

Awesome! Thanks again for the immense amount of work this requires.

 

Tough to argue with the top result

This also drives home I realllly need to get on Lightning Rod this year.

 

Agreed with Bill, the results are as expected and while I and many will have our own differences on exact placement within...those top 25s seem very sensible. Like ya said AJ there's prob hair width difference between a lot of em. A 30th ranked coaster for me may still be super fun that I love.

And I do agree, if a ride is forceless and boring I don't consider it bad...just meh. 5/10 (maybe 4 if its truly a waste) but for me a ride can only be bad when its detrimental. Not just boring and lame.

Superb work yet again yall.

[Garet]

Our original plan for this year was to group any set of "roller coaster clones" (that's three or more installations of the same layout) into a singular result. Due to the overwhelming response, that did not happen. However! We do have the capability to do so retroactively and we will - all of the framework is there for us to do so. For now, the results will be displayed much like they were last year, with every coaster given an individual entry except for Intamin's collection of Mega Lite coasters. Because of this, the poll results were late in being made official - from now on, the poll will be conducted earlier in the calendar year.

 

Is this part of why mega-lites are listed at 25 on your post but not counted as part of the results this year? They are asterisked on the main poll site. Same with Space Mountain and some other rides like the Batman rides, is it a case of all cloned rides being asterisked?

 

Also not sure I can see last years poll but I could have sworn the mega lites placed higher last year, is that a result of putting them together or did they just fall from grace because of new rides or more voters, etc?

 

What was the cut-off for riders for some of the rides? I saw Draken on the poll with a number which surprised me since including myself I think i've only seen 1 or 2 other forum members mention riding it.

[Hilltopper39]

The top spots aren't terribly surprising but I did find it kind of hilarious that Oscar's Wacky Taxi barley edged out The Beast and Thunderhead haha, The People have spoken!!

 

179. Oscars Wacky Taxi

180. The Beast

181. Thunderehead

 

I mean I haven't been on Wacky Taxi yet, it looks super fun but is a family wooden coaster really better than the Beast and Thunderhead? Who cares I guess since it's that far down the rankings but kind of funny.

[coasterbill]

I don't think it's that insane to put Oscar's Wacky Taxi ahead of the Beast. I didn't, but I totally get it.

[Canobie Coaster]

I put Oscar's way ahead of the Beast. Oscar's is great all times of the day and has way more airtime than a park like Sesame Place should have. The Beast is only great at night.

[boldikus]

I mean I haven't been on Wacky Taxi yet, it looks super fun but is a family wooden coaster really better than the Beast and Thunderhead? Who cares I guess since it's that far down the rankings but kind of funny.

 

Wacky Taxi has a ridiculous amount of airtime for a family coaster. I probably rank it entirely too high but I don't care, that coaster is awesome.

[Hilltopper39]

I put Oscar's way ahead of the Beast. Oscar's is great all times of the day and has way more airtime than a park like Sesame Place should have. The Beast is only great at night.

 

I kind of forgot how much some people dislike the Beast haha. Wacky Taxi looks like a ton of fun so hey thats all that matters.

[A.J.]

Is this part of why mega-lites are listed at 25 on your post but not counted as part of the results this year? They are asterisked on the main poll site. Same with Space Mountain and some other rides like the Batman rides, is it a case of all cloned rides being asterisked?

Correct. It isn't displaying 100% properly but we know how it should look internally.

 

Also not sure I can see last years poll but I could have sworn the mega lites placed higher last year, is that a result of putting them together or did they just fall from grace because of new rides or more voters, etc?

There were several brand-new coasters, as well as a bunch that did not qualify in 2017 due to low ridership but qualified this year. Also consider that on the combined poll, the Mega Lites were one entry out of eight that were all within one percentage point of each other in terms of rider preference.

 

What was the cut-off for riders for some of the rides? I saw Draken on the poll with a number which surprised me since including myself I think i've only seen 1 or 2 other forum members mention riding it.

The cutoff is twelve (12) riders for all coasters on the poll. Keep in mind that we had a heavier push on Theme Park Review's social media channels this year, so a lot of the votes are likely from people who don't frequent the forum.

[JG-77]

Glad to finally see the results! Seems like a solid list, but how is Skyrush higher than the megalites on the combined list, yet lower than the megalites on the steel list?

 

Edit: 500th post!!!!

Edited May 2, 2019 by JG-77

[A.J.]

Glad to finally see the results! Seems like a solid list, but how is Skyrush higher than the megalites on the combined list, yet lower than the megalites on the steel list?

I've been waiting for this question to come up.

 

The poll results are generated based on head-to-head comparisons, or, whether you prefer coaster A over coaster B. The wooden-only and steel-only polls are generated by stripping away all of the other coasters and THEN recalculating the results. This means that coasters' percentages of "wins" can be drastically different based on the fact that suddenly they aren't "competing" with as many other coasters.

 

This is happening with the wooden-only poll too. Voyage is the #6 wooden coaster BUT it's the #69 overall coaster. Boulder Dash is the #8 wooden coaster BUT it's the #33 overall coaster. Voyage is ranked higher on the wooden-only poll, but Boulder Dash is ranked higher on the overall poll!

[Canobie Coaster]

Out of curiosity, is there a way on the website to display all of the rankings on one page?

[boldikus]

Verbolten is #225 what the hell is wrong with you people?