2020 TPR Coaster Poll Results!

[Kyle Coleman]

Always fills my heart with hometown pride that Las Vegas has the worst steel coaster in America. I rode it last week with the new trains and its still awful.

[bill_s]

I considered some criticism and then noticed ...

Best Parks by Top 25 Overall Coasters:

1. Cedar Point (3)

2. Kings Dominion (2)

3. Liseberg (2)

and all the others in order of their one coaster on the list

And tomorrow someone else will claim BGW>KD for coasters again.

[Hilltopper39]

17 hours ago, JJLehto said:

I am surprised by Lost Gravity. Always had the vibe that was a top tier, didn't expect 42. Same thing with Karnan at 31. I mean those are obviously good in the big picture just I expected higher or at the least not that they'd be below Orion. 

Guess that's what happens as you get near the top. Can beat 92, 93% of coasters and still be "only" in the 30s 40s I know I had the greatest pain sorting mine out and ofc I've not done many of these in the top 50. Goes to show how many more I really need to ride 

Yeah as much as I love to dig into the results of this poll I really kind off look at the results in tiers. The top like 30 or 40 or so are really elite level coasters. 50-125 or so are all really really good, then like 130-250 are all good coasters that I'd be more than happy to have at my home park. It's so hard to put together a definitive ranking of anything people evaluate subjectively. When Tennessee Tornado, a glass smooth arrow looping coaster in the woods with a great drop through tunnel on the side of a mountain is ranked 218 then ya know everything below that is pretty good. I mean the B&M Superman clone flyers would be the best coaster at hundreds of parks across the world but they're collectively ranked 261 whatever that means.

 

With that said thanks to everyone who puts this together every year, it is fun to see the results every year. I particularly like to see where new rides wind up in the list and how the top 20 or so shuffles around. Wasn't Medusa Steel coaster #1 overall a few years ago and now it's dropped to 11? 2020 was obviously a weird year but I wouldn't be surprised to see Velocicoaster, Iron Gwazi and Pantheon really shake up that 20 next year.

[A.J.]

While, yes, the rankings are important and make the headlines, I feel that it's the percentage preference that matters more.

Medusa Steel Coaster may have dropped to 11 this year but it is still within 1.5 percent of El Toro, the current #1. The top coasters in general are all insanely close to one another, and our poll is but one data point in the coaster-riding universe. It's why some people like to create their ballots in groups or batches. Like you said, the top X number of coasters are essentially on the same tier.

I would say that we don't end up in "questionable" coaster territory until well into the 300s.

[JJLehto]

Agreed to all Hilltopper. 

23 minutes ago, A.J. said:

While, yes, the rankings are important and make the headlines, I feel that it's the percentage preference that matters more.

Medusa Steel Coaster may have dropped to 11 this year but it is still within 1.5 percent of El Toro, the current #1. The top coasters in general are all insanely close to one another, and our poll is but one data point in the coaster-riding universe. It's why some people like to create their ballots in groups or batches. Like you said, the top X number of coasters are essentially on the same tier.

I would say that we don't end up in "questionable" coaster territory until well into the 300s.

Thanks for the confirmation! My stats prof who was always stressing to think in terms of "buckets" when looking at data is shaking his head at my failure lol  Yeah you nailed, it's the headline grabbing. We're so used to the "top 10/25" and the hype of it, easy to get caught up in the "this is better than that?" but yeah exactly any one person could claim any in the top idk 15 could be "the best in the world" and its not really wrong. Yeah I do think from here on batches is how I'm gunna think about it. Maybe have a personal top 10 but yeah so many coasters, so many differing opinions, its why I love it!  

Oh and yeah we can then of course use the specific rankings to try say how we were right about X being better than Y or why this park is the best and we were right the whole time 

[Hilltopper39]

1 hour ago, A.J. said:

While, yes, the rankings are important and make the headlines, I feel that it's the percentage preference that matters more.

Medusa Steel Coaster may have dropped to 11 this year but it is still within 1.5 percent of El Toro, the current #1. The top coasters in general are all insanely close to one another, and our poll is but one data point in the coaster-riding universe. It's why some people like to create their ballots in groups or batches. Like you said, the top X number of coasters are essentially on the same tier.

I would say that we don't end up in "questionable" coaster territory until well into the 300s.

I haven't looked very closely at the percentages but since you mentioned it I went to 50%, so coasters that are essentially win half of the matchups against other coasters, and that's around rank 340. 343 is an Intamin inverted coaster (Tornado at in Parque de Attracctiones in Madrid), 350 is Road Runner Express one of the better Mine Trains I've ever been on, and Loch Ness Monster 349, all pretty decent coasters all things considered. So yeah there's just a lot of good rides, and they don't really get "questionable" until well into the 300s.

[JG-77]

10 hours ago, DBru said:

Some lists I’d love to see:

-Ranking of Mine Train Coasters

Unfortunately, several of the mine trains (like HP's Trailblazer) weren't available for ranking, so the list will be incomplete.

[boldikus]

I say this as someone with an unhealthy lust for all things Arrow Mine Train, Trailblazer is absolute doo doo crap so who gives AF if its included. I'd love to see how they're ranked.

Other lists can we have some please:

B&M hypers
B&M inverts
Intamin accelerators
GCIs
top Six Flags coasters
top CF coasters

 

[Taylor Finn]

I am shocked that I haven’t been to Hershey since TPR New Hotness 2012, despite living 4 hours away. Really need to revisit Skyrush, among other things. I know I liked it but am always floored by its ranking.

[King of Ka]

Always love the list, it's fascinating to see how the rides I remember as being the "elite" rides from a decade+ ago when I got into coasters move around, with some holding on to top spots and others kind of falling off the radar.

As a heads up, I'm getting a 404 error when trying to see my rankings via my profile page. Let me know if the issue is on my end.

[A.J.]

Here come some top ten lists from the big three - B&M, Intamin, and Rocky Mountain Construction!

Top 10 B&M coasters in 2020

1. Fury 325 - Carowinds
2. Flying Dinosaur - Universal Studios Japan
3. Orion - Kings Island
4. Pyrenees - Parque Espana-Shima Spain Village
5. Shambhala - PortAventura Park
6. Nemesis - Alton Towers
7. Mako - SeaWorld Orlando
8. Katun - Mirabilandia
9. Montu - Busch Gardens Tampa
10. Leviathan - Canada's Wonderland

 

Top 10 Intamin coasters in 2020

1. El Toro - Six Flags Great Adventure
2. T Express - Everland
3. Expedition GeForce - Holiday Park
4. Skyrush - Hersheypark
5. Maverick - Cedar Point
6. Intimidator 305 - Kings Dominion
7. Taron - Phantasialand
8. Mega Lite coasters - Various parks
9. Balder - Liseberg
10. Goliath - Walibi Holland

 

Top 10 RMC coasters in 2020

1. Steel Vengeance - Cedar Point
2. Lightning Rod - Dollywood
3. Untamed - Walibi Holland
4. Outlaw Run - Silver Dollar City
5. Twisted Timbers - Kings Dominion
6. Wildfire - Kolmarden
7. Medusa Steel Coaster - Six Flags Mexico
8. Twisted Colossus - Six Flags Magic Mountain
9. Iron Rattler - Six Flags Fiesta Texas
10. RailBlazer - California's Great America

[Hilltopper39]

Interesting to see Orion so high after it seems like so many people compared it to just another B&M Hyper after it opened. Not that there's anything wrong with B&M Hypers (personally love them) but for Orion to beat out rides like Nemesis, Kumba, & Montu which have been highly regarded for a long time was a little surprising.

 

Also should be interesting to see where Orion lands on the poll next year with more riders, this may be a case where lower ridership from covid but still enough to qualify it for the poll might have skewed it's ranking a little bit.

[JJLehto]

Same thought! Did not expect Orion so high. Adds credence to my belief maybe not always best to listen to the enthusiasts as the loudest perhaps don't always reflect the community as a whole. Granted I say that as someone who has always been and still is an MForce fanboy who always had to shrug off the loud enthusiasts and their thoughts on it lol 
Hmmmmm could be some of the volatility though. Sorry if I missed this but is there a rider count anywhere? Like I thought past ones (maybe Im thinking of Mitch Hawker) had the # of riders? I get not including peoples ballots like MH did but may be cool to see the # of riders : D 

But hey glad Orion is getting some love. I mean I think it looks lackluster but guess we'll find out lol 

[SharkTums]

I will never understand the Fury love.  I've been on it plenty, in heat, in cool weather, in daytime and nighttime, I just don't get it!!!

 

I mean, it's a fun smooth fast ride, but compared to all the other B&M's out there I just, well, don't get it!

[DBru]

On 3/2/2021 at 11:39 AM, A.J. said:

Top 10 Intamin coasters in 2020

1. El Toro - Six Flags Great Adventure
2. T Express - Everland
3. Expedition GeForce - Holiday Park
4. Skyrush - Hersheypark
5. Maverick - Cedar Point
6. Intimidator 305 - Kings Dominion
7. Taron - Phantasialand
8. Mega Lite coasters - Various parks
9. Balder - Liseberg
10. Goliath - Walibi Holland

Just curious, how were these results generated? Because I see in the overall poll that Millennium Force and Superman ranked above Goliath, but here, those two are missing from the list. I'm guessing these results only take into account how the coasters by each manufacturer compared to each other?

Not sure how much work this would require, but it would be super cool if you added a "filter" feature on the CoasterPoll website so we could see rankings by manufacturer, park, country, ride type, etc.

[A.J.]

11 hours ago, DBru said:

Just curious, how were these results generated? Because I see in the overall poll that Millennium Force and Superman ranked above Goliath, but here, those two are missing from the list. I'm guessing these results only take into account how the coasters by each manufacturer compared to each other?

Not sure how much work this would require, but it would be super cool if you added a "filter" feature on the CoasterPoll website so we could see rankings by manufacturer, park, country, ride type, etc.

That's correct! All "filtered" results - be it all wood, all steel, all B&M, etc only take into consideration coasters that meet the filter. The Intamin coasters' placement on the overall poll is based on preferences between them and all other coasters - RMCs, B&Ms, Macks, etc. When you take those coasters away and compare them apples-to-apples, the results can be different. When you ask yourself what the best Intamin is, you don't compare Intamins to RMCs, you compare Intamins to Intamins.

We'll consider your request on the filtered results pages but that might end up being a next year thing!

 

And as for the question on riders, we do have a rider count but it's internal. Remember that any coaster with 12 riders or more qualifies to get a numbered / ranked result.

[Nrthwnd]

Hasn't been posted in a while, but Thank you A.J., Chase, and Robb for working so hard on this poll.

I know it means a lot to everyone, for how you've put this all together and made it so easy and workable.

 

[kidmanboy]

Flipping through and I didn’t see either of Indians Beach’s wood coasters. Any reason why they were left out?

[A.J.]

On 4/10/2021 at 8:40 AM, kidmanboy said:

Flipping through and I didn’t see either of Indians Beach’s wood coasters. Any reason why they were left out?

They're on there, they're just probably not as high in the rankings as you anticipated them to be!

Cornball Express placed at #207, Lost Coaster placed at #360, and Hoosier Hurricane placed at #366.

[kidmanboy]

13 hours ago, A.J. said:

They're on there, they're just probably not as high in the rankings as you anticipated them to be!

Cornball Express placed at #207, Lost Coaster placed at #360, and Hoosier Hurricane placed at #366.

They don’t show up in the wood coaster results.  

[A.J.]

Unfortunately, you are correct, they were left off of the wooden coaster results in error due to being part of a depreciated "hybrid" classification that we had used previously. While I regret the error and apologize, we will not be doing anything about it at this time because they are showing up correctly on the combined poll, which is the one that is aggregated by third parties. Their entries have been fixed and will show up correctly on next year's wooden poll where they belong.

Thanks for understanding.

[PKI Jizzman]

Trying to look at my own profile and lots of 404s. Help?

https://coasterpoll.com/u/zach-boothe5a58d32c77fae/rankings

[bert425]

^ hmm. . just checked my own profile, and it seems to be ok.  so doesn't *appear* to be a site wide thing.

 

hope the gurus can figure it out!

[CoasterGuy06]

So I was trying to look at mine earlier and kept getting 404 messages too, but when I changed my rankings from private to public I can see them now. Didn't realize private meant even from myself 

[A.J.]

This is correct, when your rankings are set to Private (or Public: no on your settings), the page comes up as a 404. Keep in mind that this only happens when we have voting closed, when voting opens back up again here in a month or so once the new season kicks off in earnest, you'll be able to see them regardless again.