Kings Island
vs
Six Flags Great Adventure

Kings Island and Six Flags Great Adventure queue about the same on a typical day - 29 minutes against 30 minutes across 24 and 23 tracked rides. Pick on travel time or on which rides you actually want.

See both right now Compare other parks

01 · On a typical day

What you would normally queue.

Averages across recent weeks, so one broken ride or one wet Tuesday cannot decide it. This is the comparison to plan a trip on; the live figures below are the one to act on today.

Kings Island and Six Flags Great Adventure compared on their typical recorded queue times
Typically	Kings IslandUnited States	Six Flags Great AdventureUnited States
Average wait per ride	29 min (best of the two)	30 min
Rides with recorded waits	24 (best of the two)	23
Longest typical queue	Flight of Fear54 min	THE FLASH™: Vertical Velocity52 min
Shortest typical queue	The Racer (Red)12 min	Buccaneer11 min
Average ride uptime Share of opening hours a ride is running	86%	89% (best of the two)

Averaged across every ride at each park with recorded waits. A ride that never opened is left out, so a park is not flattered by counting a shut ride as a queue of zero.

02 · Right now

Both parks, this minute.

Live queue times at both parks. These fill in as soon as the page loads, and keep updating while you are here.

Kings Island and Six Flags Great Adventure compared on live queue times
Right now	Kings IslandUnited States	Six Flags Great AdventureUnited States
Average wait right now	-	-
Rides open	-	-
Opening hours today	-	-
Longest queue	-	-
Shortest queue	-	-

These keep refreshing while this page is open. A closed park posts no waits, so its rows read as dashes rather than zeroes.

Verdict, on a typical day Kings Island and Six Flags Great Adventure queue about the same on a typical day - 29 minutes against 30 minutes across 24 and 23 tracked rides. Pick on travel time or on which rides you actually want.

03 · Choosing

Which one is your day out.

Every line here is earned by one of the figures above - nothing is a generic sentence with a park name dropped into it.

Pick Kings Island if…

Queue length will not decide it: both parks average around 29 minutes a ride
You want more to do: 24 rides here have recorded wait data against 23 at Six Flags Great Adventure
Flight of Fear is on your list - it is Kings Island's longest typical queue at about 54 minutes, so it is the one to do first
You want Kings Island's own character - the rides, theming and atmosphere described below

Pick Six Flags Great Adventure if…

Queue length will not decide it: both parks average around 30 minutes a ride
You would rather not find rides shut: Six Flags Great Adventure's rides run 89% of opening hours against 86% at Kings Island
THE FLASH™: Vertical Velocity is on your list - it is Six Flags Great Adventure's longest typical queue at about 52 minutes, so it is the one to do first
You want Six Flags Great Adventure's own character - the rides, theming and atmosphere described below

04 · The parks

What each one is.

Kings Island

Kings Island is a huge theme park in Mason, Ohio, just north of Cincinnati. It's one of the Cedar Fair (now Six Flags) parks and runs a strong coaster line-up: The Beast (the world's longest wooden coaster, opened 1979), Diamondback, Mystic Timbers, Orion (a giga coaster), Banshee (the world's longest inverted coaster), and Racer. A full water park operates on the same site during summer.

The Ohio summer school break and Halloween Haunt event drive Kings Island's busiest periods, with weekend queue times on Orion and The Beast often exceeding 90 minutes. Weekdays in May, September and October are dramatically quieter. Check live wait times on arrival, and use our crowd calendar to pick a midweek visit if you want to ride everything in a day.

Kings Island live queue times

Six Flags Great Adventure

Six Flags Great Adventure sits in Jackson, New Jersey, and has long been one of Six Flags' flagship coaster parks. The line-up is exceptional: El Toro (one of the world's top-rated wooden coasters), Nitro, Jersey Devil Coaster, Superman: Ultimate Flight, Batman: The Ride, Skull Mountain, and Green Lantern stand-up. Kingda Ka was the park's signature ride until its closure; a Safari Off Road Adventure drive-through exhibit also operates on the property.

NJ and NYC school holidays, Fright Fest and US summer weekends drive huge crowds. Weekdays in May, September and October are dramatically calmer. Check live queue times for El Toro and Nitro on arrival - they build up fast - and use our crowd calendar to pick a midweek visit for shorter waits across the whole coaster line-up.

Six Flags Great Adventure live queue times

05 · Questions

Kings Island or Six Flags Great Adventure?

Which is better, Kings Island or Six Flags Great Adventure?

On queues there is nothing in it: both average about 29 minutes a ride on a typical day. Kings Island has 24 rides with recorded waits against 23 at Six Flags Great Adventure. Six Flags Great Adventure also runs its rides more reliably - 89% of opening hours against 86%. So pick on travel time, or on which park has the rides you actually want.

Which has shorter queues, Kings Island or Six Flags Great Adventure?

They are level. Kings Island averages 29 minutes a ride on a typical day and Six Flags Great Adventure averages 30 - close enough that the day you pick matters more than the park. See Kings Island best time to visit and Six Flags Great Adventure best time to visit to pick a quiet day.

Can I visit Kings Island and Six Flags Great Adventure in the same trip?

Yes - both parks are in United States, so a two-park trip is realistic over a long weekend. Split the days so you start at whichever opens earliest and drive to the other in the evening.

How many rides does each park have?

See the tables above for ride counts - or jump to Kings Island and Six Flags Great Adventure for the full ride lists.

Is Kings Island bigger than Six Flags Great Adventure?

By rides we track waits for, Kings Island is the bigger day out: 24 rides against 23. Acreage matters less than how many you can actually get on, which comes down to queues and opening hours.

Then pick
the quiet day.

Both parks have a crowd calendar with six weeks of forecast and the best day left to go.

Kings Island calendar Six Flags Great Adventure calendar Compare other parks