Knotts Berry Farm
vs
Six Flags Great America

Knotts Berry Farm and Six Flags Great America queue about the same on a typical day - 24 minutes against 24 minutes across 16 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.

Knotts Berry Farm and Six Flags Great America compared on their typical recorded queue times
Typically	Knotts Berry FarmUnited States	Six Flags Great AmericaUnited States
Average wait per ride	24 min	24 min
Rides with recorded waits	16	23 (best of the two)
Longest typical queue	GhostRider64 min	Wrath of Rakshasa48 min
Shortest typical queue	Los Voladores7 min	Rue Le Dodge6 min
Average ride uptime Share of opening hours a ride is running	90% (best of the two)	75%

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.

Knotts Berry Farm and Six Flags Great America compared on live queue times
Right now	Knotts Berry FarmUnited States	Six Flags Great AmericaUnited 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 Knotts Berry Farm and Six Flags Great America queue about the same on a typical day - 24 minutes against 24 minutes across 16 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 Knotts Berry Farm if…

Queue length will not decide it: both parks average around 24 minutes a ride
You would rather not find rides shut: Knotts Berry Farm's rides run 90% of opening hours against 75% at Six Flags Great America
GhostRider is on your list - it is Knotts Berry Farm's longest typical queue at about 64 minutes, so it is the one to do first
You want Knotts Berry Farm's own character - the rides, theming and atmosphere described below

Pick Six Flags Great America if…

Queue length will not decide it: both parks average around 24 minutes a ride
You want more to do: 23 rides here have recorded wait data against 16 at Knotts Berry Farm
Wrath of Rakshasa is on your list - it is Six Flags Great America's longest typical queue at about 48 minutes, so it is the one to do first
You want Six Flags Great America's own character - the rides, theming and atmosphere described below

04 · The parks

What each one is.

Knotts Berry Farm

Knott's Berry Farm sits in Buena Park, Orange County, California, with a long history dating back to Walter Knott's original berry farm and boysenberry jam stand from the 1920s. It's now a full theme park famous for its coaster line-up: HangTime, Silver Bullet, Xcelerator (a hydraulic launch coaster), GhostRider (a large wooden coaster), and the classic Timber Mountain Log Ride.

Southern California locals keep Knott's busy all year round, but peak crowds align with US school holidays, the extremely popular Scary Farm Halloween event, and Knott's Merry Farm at Christmas. Check live wait times for Xcelerator and HangTime on arrival, and use our crowd calendar to pick a weekday outside local school breaks for shorter queues.

Knotts Berry Farm live queue times

Six Flags Great America

Six Flags Great America sits in Gurnee, Illinois, between Chicago and Milwaukee. The coaster line-up includes Maxx Force (with one of the world's fastest inversions), X Flight wing coaster, Goliath (a Rocky Mountain Construction wooden coaster), Raging Bull, American Eagle duelling wooden coaster, and Batman: The Ride. A Hurricane Harbor water park is included during summer.

Illinois and Wisconsin school holidays, Chicago-area weekend visits, and the popular Fright Fest event drive Six Flags Great America's busiest periods. Weekdays in May, June, September and October are dramatically quieter. Check live wait times for Maxx Force and Goliath on arrival, and use our crowd calendar to pick a lower-crowd midweek date for shorter queues.

Six Flags Great America live queue times

05 · Questions

Knotts Berry Farm or Six Flags Great America?

Which is better, Knotts Berry Farm or Six Flags Great America?

On queues there is nothing in it: both average about 24 minutes a ride on a typical day. Knotts Berry Farm has 16 rides with recorded waits against 23 at Six Flags Great America. Knotts Berry Farm also runs its rides more reliably - 90% of opening hours against 75%. So pick on travel time, or on which park has the rides you actually want.

Which has shorter queues, Knotts Berry Farm or Six Flags Great America?

They are level. Knotts Berry Farm averages 24 minutes a ride on a typical day and Six Flags Great America averages 24 - close enough that the day you pick matters more than the park. See Knotts Berry Farm best time to visit and Six Flags Great America best time to visit to pick a quiet day.

Can I visit Knotts Berry Farm and Six Flags Great America 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 Knotts Berry Farm and Six Flags Great America for the full ride lists.

Is Knotts Berry Farm bigger than Six Flags Great America?

By rides we track waits for, Six Flags Great America is the bigger day out: 23 rides against 16. 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.

Knotts Berry Farm calendar Six Flags Great America calendar Compare other parks