7-Apr-17 – If Millennium Park seems crowded, it’s because it gets more visitors than Walt Disney World or Disneyland or even Grand Central Terminal.

According to the mayor’s office, during the last six months of 2016, 12.9 million people visited Millennium Park. Projecting that to a full year, the 25.8 million people visiting the 24-acre urban park would make it the fifth most popular attraction in the United States, just behind the Las Vegas Strip, according to a ranking published on March 6 by Travel+Leisure magazine.

Officially, Millennium Park is now the top attraction in the Midwest. Attendance figures, says the mayor’s office, are comparable to Central Park in New York and the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

“Millennium Park has become part of the cultural fabric of Chicago,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday, “bringing children and families together from all parts of the city to experience world class culture for free.”

Mark Kelly, Commissioner of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, called Millennium Park, which opened in 2004, “Chicago’s town square.”

Attendance was measured by electronic sensors at three main entrances to Millennium Park and at Cloud Gate, the sculpture by Anish Kapoor. Previous attendance estimates, done another way, were closer to five million visitors annually.

Navy Pier, which used to be the most popular attraction in Chicago, set an attendance record with 9.3 million visitors last year. Maggie Daley Park had an estimated 3 million visitors. Citywide, 54.1 million people visited in 2016, close to Emanuel’s goal of 55 million visitors per year by 2020.