Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Orlando and Hollywood is one of the most iconic Halloween events in the country. Every year, thousands flock to the events for its movie-quality haunted Houses and scare zones, making it one of the Parks’ biggest events.
As popular as the intense horror experiences are, thousands of guests fill the walkways with the wandering scare actors and cast members, making for some close quarters. As September is halfway through, an increase in crowds is predicted towards the height of the spooky season.
Halloween Horror Nights: Tearing at the Seams
2023’s Halloween Horror Nights is absolutely packed with gory goodness, as the event brings the worlds of Stranger Things, The Exorcist, Chucky, and The Last of Us to life, along with other original haunts. Naturally, this is going to bring in an enormous amount of guests dying to be scared.
The horrifying event is undoubtedly one of the biggest events on Universal’s calendar, as it’s certainly grown in popularity as the event evolved. However, crowd attendance for the event has grown as well. One HHN attendee shared their thoughts in a recent post on X.
@KaleyD217 writes,
PSA: Halloween Horror Nights is ALWAYS busy now. There are no slow days. Keep this in mind when planning your visit(s). Signed, someone who has attended nearly every night of the event. #HHN32
If you’ve seen any footage on social media platforms like YouTube or TikTok, Horror Nights has the streets of Universal Studios overflowing with guests and scareactors alike. Now that it seems like the event has the park pushing its capacity, guests are getting apprehensive about going.
If the chainsaw-slinging ghouls didn’t dissuade potential visitors, the packed parks definitely might. After their post, the post received several replies confirming just how packed the event has become.
@NerdingAround replies with how exponentially crowded the event has become,
“Went 5 years in row sans the Covid year. Each year has gotten increasingly worse in terms of vast volumes of people making it almost intolerable. Peak year was when they had Stranger Things, Ghostbuster, Killer Klowns.”
And Other guests, like @FastestKidAlive, write how the Express Passes might also be a prominent factor in the overcrowding problem. The user states,
“Honestly, I think they need to cap Express. I’ve seen that line get SOOO backed up on multiple nights and then regular line follows and gets back up. It’s the worst I’ve ever seen it. There was a night I saw a 20 Express to 5 regular line ratio…”
Related: David Harbour Will Scare You at Halloween Horror Nights
Universal’s Horror Nights is easily a hot-ticket event requiring a separate ticket to enter. Perhaps it’s time for them to take a page from Disney’s playbook and make it an after-hours event to cap off on crowds? It would definitely be a more manageable option.
Has Horror Nights become so crowded it’s scary? Tell Inside the Magic what you think in the comments below!