The Fifteen Most Thrilling Roller Coasters in the World

Road trips, drinks with tiny umbrellas in them, baseball games, weekend beach vacations, BBQs, camping, and picnics are some of the most exciting things people are going to do this summer. For the rest of us who need a little more adrenaline in our lives, we skip all the boring cliché summertime events and map a road trip to a theme park that features one of the world’s scariest and most thrilling roller coasters.

Roller coasters have been around longer than you think. Since 1794, the idea of a ride that sent you through a trip that produced negative-G’s has been around and perfected time over time. Today, we wanted to take a look at the most thrilling, or scariest, of roller coasters in the world, just in case you are looking for something else to do this summer. Buckle up!

15. Intimidator 305

• Theme Park: Kings Dominion
• Location: Doswell, VA
• Type: Steel Giga Coaster
• G-Force: 5
• Top Speed: 90 mph
• Biggest Drop: 300 feet

What do you expect from a roller coaster that is designed after the late NASCAR legend, Dale Earnhardt Sr.? Of course this thing is going to be one of the most thrilling roller coasters in the world, have you ever been inside a NASCAR going 200 mph?

14. Banshee

• Theme Park: Kings Island
• Location: Mason, OH
• Type: Steel Inverted Coaster
• Inversions: 7
• Top Speed: 68 mph
• Track Length: 4,124 feet

An inverted roller coaster means that the riders will be sitting down as their feet dangle below the open air. It is the opposite of a roller coaster in that you’re secured into the track above, not below. The Banshee is the longest inverted coaster in the world.

13. Sky Scream

• Theme Park: Holiday Park
• Location: Habloch, Germany
• Type: Steel Launched Coaster
• Inversions: 1
• Top Speed: 62 mph

Not many of the rides on this list have such a scary theme but the Sky Scream at Holiday Park in Germany features a horror theme designed to create a ride through an industrial complex you might see in an old scary movie.

12. Ultra Twister

• Theme Park: Nagashima Spa Land
• Location: Mie Prefecture, Japan
• Type: Steel Pipeline Coaster
• Inversions: 3
• Top Speed: 44 mph
• Max Vertical Angle: 90 degrees

The Ultra Twister doesn’t last very long but it gives you the chance to experience being lifted straight into the sky before blasting you through a tunnel that twists you completely around. Then, when you think it is over, it sends you backwards.

11. Goliath

• Theme Park: Six Flags Great America
• Location: Gurnee, IL
• Type: Wooden Custom Topper Coaster
• Inversions: 2
• Top Speed: 72 mph
• Biggest Drop: 180 feet

As of now, Goliath is the owner of the world’s steepest and longest drop for a wooden roller coaster while also being the fastest too. There is a ride coming out this year in Dollywood that is supposed to beat these records.

10. Hades 360

• Theme Park: Mount Olympus Water & Theme Park
• Location: Wisconsin Dells, WI
• Type: Wooden
• G-Force: 3.5
• Top Speed: 70 mph
• Length: 4,746 feet

They said you couldn’t do the things the Hades 360 does because it is a wooden roller coaster. Like, the 360 degree roll or the 65 degree drop and that nasty 90 degree banked turn. There are many reasons to ride this bad boy this year, the main is because wooden roller coasters are not supposed to do these things safely. Yet this one figured it out.

9. The Smiler

• Theme Park: Alton Towers
• Location: Staffordshire, United Kingdom
• Type: Steel Infinity Coaster
• G-Force: 4.5
• Inversions: 14
• Top Speed: 52.8 mph

The Smiler has been open since 2013 and has already had several safety incidents, including one where a cart ran into another test cart on the same track injuring 5 people. The number of incidents only makes the case for this one being dangerous and scary at the same time.

8. Full Throttle

• Theme Park: Six Flags Magic Mountain
• Location: Valencia, CA
• Type: Steel Launched
• Inversions: 2
• Top Speed: 70 mph

The vertical loop on Full Throttle is 160 feet high, a world record, and at the very apex of the loop, it almost feels as if the ride is about to stop as it slows down just enough to make your brain go into panic mode.

7. Top Thrill Dragster

• Theme Park: Cedar Point
• Location: Sandusky, Ohio
• Type: Steel Accelerator Coaster
• Top Speed: 120 mph
• Biggest Drop: 400 feet
• Max Vertical Angle: 90 degrees

The Top Thrill Dragster is such a popular track that it has been duplicated and is now used in another park on the other side of the world.

6. Formula Rossa

• Theme Park: Ferrari World
• Location: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
• Type: Steel Launched Coaster
• G-Force: 4.8
• Top Speed: 149 mph
• Acceleration: 0-149 mph in 4 seconds

Until people realize that going fast is fun, they will not appreciate just how much fun the Formula Rossa ride is when it reachs the top speed of 149 mph. That is not only fast, it is stupid fast.

5. Superman The Ride

• Theme Park: Six Flags New England
• Location: Agawam, Massachusetts
• Type: Steel Floorless Coaster
• G-Force: 3.6
• Top Speed: 77 mph
• Biggest Drop: 221 feet

As of this month, one of the world’s top rated roller coasters, year after year, has added a virtual reality experience that is going to change how we ride roller coasters. Not only are you going to experience one of the best coasters in the world, you will be able to feel like you’re flying and fighting Lex Luthor at the same time.

4. The Gravity Max

• Theme Park: Lihpao Land
• Location: Houli District, Taichung, Taiwan
• Type of Roller Coaster:
• G-Force: 3.5
• Top Speed: 56 mph
• Max Verical Angle: 90 degrees

The track has to connect right before the drop because it is lifted 90 degrees into the sky. There is nothing about that part of this ride that seems safe. What if it doesn’t connect right? What if the brakes don’t hold the cart on while it is moving? The level of danger is the highest of any rides on this list simply because of this first part of the ride.

3. El Toro

• Theme Park: Six Flags Great Adventure
• Location: Jackson, New Jersey
• Type: Wooden Coaster
• G-Force: 4.4
• Top Speed: 70 mph
• Biggest Drop: 176 feet

As with a lot of the rides on our list, the El Toro owns a ton of records including being the second fastest speed, third-tallest lift, second longest drop, and fourth-steepest drop.It was also named Mitch Hawker’s Best Wood-Tracked Roller Coaster from 2010-2013, four consecutive years.

2. Takabisha

• Theme Park: Fuji-Q Highland Park
• Location: Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi
• Type: Steel Euro-Fighter
• Inversions: 7
• Top Speed: 62 mph
• Acceleration: 0 – 62 mph in 2 seconds
• Max Vertical Angle: 121 degrees

The Timber Drop at Fraispertuis City in Jeanmenil, France owned the record for the world’s steepest roller coaster for 15 days before the Takabisha opened back in 2011. It beat the previous record by a total of 8.1 degrees when the 121 degree angle was unveiled.

1. Kingda Ka

• Theme Park: Six Flags Great Adventure
• Location: Jackson, New Jersey
• Type: Steel Accelerator Coaster
• G-Force: 5
• Top Speed: 128 mph
• Max Vertical Angle: 90 degrees
• Acceleration: 0 – 128 mph in 3.5 seconds
• Biggest Drop: 418 feet

For comparisons, the Kingda Ka is a bigger, badder version of the Top Thrill Dragster. It has the similar look and feel only this one goes faster and the drop is about 18 feet higher giving you a higher G-Force than anything you will ever ride in your life.