One average Eras show topped a whole year at America's three least-visited national parks. The Smokies topped the entire tour.

We lined up 2025 national park visits against the Eras Tour’s ticket counts — here’s what surprised us.

Illustrations are AI-generated; every number is set from NPS and Guinness data.

One Eras show. More than a whole year at America's 3 least-visited national parks combined. One average Eras Tour show: 68,242 average attendance, 2023–24; Kobuk Valley, Gates of the Arctic and Lake Clark combined: 42,487 recreation visits in 2025 (7,786; 14,923; 19,778 respectively).

Gates of the Arctic and Lake Clark include their preserves. Kobuk’s count fell sharply from 17,233 in 2024, mainly in the off-season, and we found no published NPS explanation. Using all three parks’ 2024 counts gives a combined 47,645, so the comparison still holds.

Add up 31 national parks. The Eras Tour still sold more. Entire Eras Tour: 10,168,008 tickets sold across 149 shows, 2023–24. The 31 least-visited national parks combined: 9,987,124 recreation visits in 2025, or 180,884 short.

North Cascades is managed with two neighboring recreation areas, whose visits are reported separately. Count that whole complex together and the number of parks that fall short becomes 30.

The Smokies beat the entire Eras Tour. Great Smoky Mountains National Park: 11.53M recreation visits in 2025; entire Eras Tour: 10.17M tickets sold in 2023–24. Difference: +1.36 million.

A park entry and a ticket sale are different measures, and neither tells us how many unique people attended. The Smokies figure excludes non-recreation through-traffic.

The Smokies outdrew Grand Canyon and Yellowstone combined. Great Smoky Mountains: 11.53M recreation visits; Grand Canyon 4.43M plus Yellowstone 4.76M equals 9.19M combined. All figures are 2025 recreation visits; difference +2.33 million.

The Dragon Bravo Fire closed Grand Canyon’s North Rim for the rest of the 2025 season, affecting that year’s comparison. The Smokies also led the combined parks in the earlier years checked, before that fire.

The tiny park logged 20× the visits of the giant one. Gateway Arch National Park, St. Louis: 91 acres and 2,209,028 recreation visits in 2025. Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska: 13.2 million acres and 108,840 recreation visits in 2025. Squares compare land area on the same scale.

Wrangell–St. Elias uses NPS estimates for off-season months; those monthly figures repeat the previous year’s values. Its visit count and acreage both include the preserve.

All 63 national parks

Ranked from fewest to most 2025 recreation visits. *Park and preserve counted together. “≈ Eras shows” uses the unrounded per-show ticket average.

Rank	Park	2025 visits	2024 visits	≈ Eras shows
1	Kobuk Valley National Park	7,786	17,233	0.1
2	Gates of the Arctic National Park & Preserve*	14,923	11,907	0.2
3	Lake Clark National Park & Preserve*	19,778	18,505	0.3
4	Isle Royale National Park	29,091	28,806	0.4
5	Katmai National Park & Preserve*	34,479	36,230	0.5
6	National Park of American Samoa	43,258	22,567	0.6
7	North Cascades National Park	46,925	16,485	0.7
8	Dry Tortugas National Park	89,355	84,873	1.3
9	Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve*	108,840	81,670	1.6
10	Great Basin National Park	161,210	152,068	2.4
11	Voyageurs National Park	206,326	199,030	3.0
12	Guadalupe Mountains National Park	206,423	226,134	3.0
13	Channel Islands National Park	227,186	262,581	3.3
14	Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park	250,086	335,862	3.7
15	Congaree National Park	287,833	242,049	4.2
16	Petrified Forest National Park	315,951	559,254	4.6
17	Pinnacles National Park	343,208	354,076	5.0
18	Carlsbad Caverns National Park	410,778	460,474	6.0
19	Kenai Fjords National Park	425,369	419,468	6.2
20	Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve*	432,498	437,661	6.3
21	Mesa Verde National Park	463,130	480,065	6.8
22	Virgin Islands National Park	471,074	423,029	6.9
23	Biscayne National Park	486,567	512,213	7.1
24	Lassen Volcanic National Park	504,777	357,651	7.4
25	Denali National Park & Preserve*	543,300	466,227	8.0
26	Big Bend National Park	568,104	561,458	8.3
27	Wind Cave National Park	606,258	489,399	8.9
28	Crater Lake National Park	632,242	504,942	9.3
29	White Sands National Park	659,742	702,236	9.7
30	Mammoth Cave National Park	660,734	747,042	9.7
31	Theodore Roosevelt National Park	729,893	732,951	10.7
32	Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve*	740,044	736,282	10.8
33	Everglades National Park	778,198	741,983	11.4
34	Kings Canyon National Park	779,791	699,389	11.4
35	Canyonlands National Park	796,057	818,492	11.7
36	Saguaro National Park	847,749	946,369	12.4
37	Haleakala National Park	853,711	732,477	12.5
38	Badlands National Park	1,139,361	1,094,245	16.7
39	Redwood National Park	1,202,480	622,883	17.6
40	Death Valley National Park	1,320,134	1,440,484	19.3
41	Sequoia National Park	1,378,337	1,309,573	20.2
42	Capitol Reef National Park	1,388,476	1,422,490	20.3
43	Arches National Park	1,511,740	1,466,528	22.2
44	Mount Rainier National Park	1,635,342	1,620,006	24.0
45	Shenandoah National Park	1,682,152	1,720,211	24.6
46	Hawaii Volcanoes National Park	1,877,854	1,433,593	27.5
47	New River Gorge National Park & Preserve*	1,958,440	1,811,937	28.7
48	Bryce Canyon National Park	1,967,367	2,498,075	28.8
49	Gateway Arch National Park	2,209,028	2,563,052	32.4
50	Hot Springs National Park	2,494,611	2,461,812	36.6
51	Indiana Dunes National Park	2,629,497	2,705,209	38.5
52	Joshua Tree National Park	2,932,644	2,991,874	43.0
53	Cuyahoga Valley National Park	3,025,325	2,912,454	44.3
54	Glacier National Park	3,136,557	3,208,755	46.0
55	Olympic National Park	3,584,187	3,717,267	52.5
56	Grand Teton National Park	3,800,648	3,628,222	55.7
57	Acadia National Park	4,079,318	3,961,661	59.8
58	Rocky Mountain National Park	4,171,431	4,154,349	61.1
59	Yosemite National Park	4,278,413	4,121,807	62.7
60	Grand Canyon National Park	4,430,653	4,919,163	64.9
61	Yellowstone National Park	4,762,988	4,744,353	69.8
62	Zion National Park	4,984,525	4,946,592	73.0
63	Great Smoky Mountains National Park	11,527,939	12,191,834	168.9

Methodology and sources

Data pulled October 30, 2026. We summed the twelve monthly NPS recreation-visit counts for each national park, combining park-and-preserve units as reported by NPS. The comparisons use 63 national parks, ranked by their 2025 totals. These are entry counts, not measures of popularity or unique people.

The tour average is 10,168,008 tickets divided by 149 shows. Calculations use the unrounded result; graphics show 68,242. Values marked M are rounded to millions. The tour ran from March 17, 2023, to December 8, 2024.

IRMA REST URL pattern (replace the unit code and year): https://irmaservices.nps.gov/v3/rest/stats/visitation?unitCodes=GRSM&startMonth=1&startYear=2025&endMonth=12&endYear=2025.

All 63 national parks

Methodology and sources

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