A stampede

at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom? Why, yes — of tourists. Compared to the year previous, 1.7 million more park guests crashed the theme park’s gates.

With the opening of its Avatarthemed land, Disney’s Animal Kingdom saw a 15 percent attendance boom last year — about 1.7 million more people — walking through the turnstiles in 2017 than in 2016, according to a report released Thursday that tracks attendance at the world’s biggest amusement parks.

SeaWorld Orlando slipped out of the Top 25 most-visited theme parks in the world while Universal continued to gain more attendance — especially at its Hollywood park, which jumped 12 percent.

After a flat 2016, the industry is surging as the Top 25 amusement parks in the world saw 244 million visitors, up about 5 percent from last year, the report said.

Theme parks operators are not known for publicly releasing attendance figures for their properties, but the Themed Entertainment Association and the global management firm AECOM produce an annual study on attendance that gives more insight into the industry.

“The industry resumed its historic pace of growth in 2017,” said John Robinett, senior vice president of Americas at AECOM. “Major theme park operators had an outstanding year with significant overall growth, led largely by properties in China.”

Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom retained the title of the most visited theme park in the world, the report said. Nearly 20.5 million people visited in 2017, up less than 1 percent from 2016. In 2016, the attendance had dipped slightly from 2015.

In second place was Disneyland in California — which saw about 18.3 million visitors, up about 2 percent.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom total attendance was 12.5 million, making it the world’s sixth most-visited park and surpassing Epcot’s attendance of 12.2 million.

Overall, Walt Disney parks grew about 7 percent, drawing 150 million people worldwide.

The only Disney park to see a decline was Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios, which dipped 0.5 percent to 10.7 million visitors. One longtime attraction, The Great Movie Ride, closed last year at the park and much of the park is under construction as Disney builds two new lands for Toy Story and Star Wars.

At Universal Orlando Resort, both theme parks’ attendance jumped about 2 percent, which ranked Universal Studios No. 10 (about 10.2 million) and Islands of Adventure No. 14 (about 9.5 million) among the world’s most-visited parks.

Universal’s Volcano Bay, which opened in 2017, was the sixth largest water park in the world with 1.5 million visitors.

Orlando was a “mega-destination” that represented one-third of all North American attendance at theme parks, the report said.

“Disney is leveraging the power of compelling intellectual property with Pandora — and new Star Wars lands on the horizon — as did Universal with the Harry Potter attractions, and both set a leading example for the industry,” said Brian Sands, a TEA vice president in a statement.