Roller coaster A roller coaster is a type of list of amusement rides, amusement ride employing a form of elevated Railway track, railroad track that carries passengers on a roller coaster train, train through tight turns, steep slopes, and other elements, usua ...

s are

amusement ride Amusement rides, sometimes called carnival rides, are mechanical devices or structures that move people to create fun and enjoyment. Rides are often perceived by many as being scary or more dangerous than they actually are. This could be due to ...

s developed for

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, and events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often fea ...

s and modern theme parks. Early iterations during the 16th and 17th centuries, which were popular in Russia, were wooden sleds that took riders down large slides made from ice. The first roller coasters that attached a train to a wooden track appeared in France in the early 1800s. Although

wooden roller coaster A wooden roller coaster is a type of roller coaster classified by its wooden track, which consists of running rails made of flat steel strips mounted on laminated wood. The support structure is also typically made of wood, but may also be ...

s are still being produced,

steel roller coaster A steel roller coaster is a type of roller coaster classified by its steel Railway track, track, which consists of long steel tubes that are run in pairs, supported by larger steel columns or beams. Trains running along the track typically rely ...

s, introduced in the mid-20th-century, became more common and can be found on every continent except

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

. Amusement parks often compete to build the tallest, fastest, and longest rides to attract thrill seekers and boost park attendance. Ranked by height, speed, length, and number of inversions, roller coasters often became the focal point for competing parks. Computer-simulated models led to innovations that produced more intense thrills while improving quality and durability. The debut of

Magnum XL-200 Magnum XL-200, colloquially known as simply Magnum, is a steel roller coaster built by Arrow Dynamics at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. When it opened in 1989, it was the tallest, fastest, and steepest complete-circuit roller coaster in the wo ...

in 1989 at

Cedar Point Cedar Point is a amusement park located on a Lake Erie peninsula in Sandusky, Ohio, United States, owned and operated by Six Flags. It opened in 1870 and is considered the second-oldest operating amusement park in the US behind Lake Compounc ...

introduced the first complete-circuit roller coaster to exceed , marking a pivot point in the industry. The new era, sometimes referred to as the Coaster Wars, saw increasing competition as parks sought to be the latest to break world records, with some only lasting a year or less. The pace of competition eventually slowed, however. Former record holder

Kingda Ka Kingda Ka was a hydraulically-launched steel roller coaster located at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, United States. Manufactured by Intamin and designed by Werner Stengel, Kingda Ka opened as the in the world on May 21, 200 ...

, the previous tallest coaster in the world at , held onto its record from 2005 until its closure in 2024. Other notable coasters include Formula Rossa, the world's fastest, which reaches a top speed of ,

Steel Dragon 2000 is a steel roller coaster located at Nagashima Spa Land amusement park in Mie Prefecture, Japan. Built by D. H. Morgan Manufacturing, Steel Dragon 2000 opened to the public on 1 August 2000. Its name derives from Chinese astrology and zodiac ...

, the world's longest, measuring , and

The Smiler The Smiler is a steel roller coaster located at Alton Towers in Staffordshire, United Kingdom. The Infinity Coaster model from Gerstlauer set a world record for most Roller coaster inversion, inversions on a roller coaster when it opened in 201 ...

which features fourteen inversions.

Key

Height rankings

Tallest steel roller coasters

Longest steel roller coaster drops

Tallest wooden roller coasters

Longest wooden roller coaster drops

Gallery

Speed rankings

Fastest steel roller coasters

Fastest wooden roller coasters

Gallery

Length rankings

Longest steel roller coasters

Longest wooden roller coasters

Gallery

Inversion rankings

This listing contains all types of

roller coaster inversion A roller coaster inversion is a roller coaster element in which the track turns riders upside-down and then returns them to an upright position. Early forms of inversions were circular in nature and date back to 1848 on the Centrifugal railway in ...

Steel roller coasters

Wooden roller coasters

Gallery

Drop angle rankings

Steel roller coasters

Wooden roller coasters

Notes

References

External links

Roller coaster census
at the

Roller Coaster DataBase Roller Coaster DataBase (RCDB) is a roller coaster and amusement park database begun in 1996 by Duane Marden. It has grown to feature statistics and pictures of over 12,000 roller coasters from around the world. Publications that have mentioned ...

Top 100 roller coasters
on CoasterBuzz {{DEFAULTSORT:Roller Coaster Rankings, List Of * Amusement rides lists Lists of buildings and structures