While 2025 may have been a slightly slower year for roller coasters, 2026 is shaping up to be a massive year for new rides, with several new theme parks set to open, each featuring a collection of high-end and family thrill rides.
Let's break down a list of the best of what we can expect to see!
26) Transformers: Prepare For Battle - SEVEN (Saudi Arabia)
The main reason that I’ve ranked this one here is that I’m not entirely certain that the attraction will be ready to open in 2026.
SEVEN made big headlines at IAAPA in 2023 with the announcement that it would be building several indoor attraction locations throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, but also because it had signed a deal with S&S Worldwide to bring the world’s first S&S Axis roller coaster to life at one location, and that it would have a Transformers theme.
The S&S Axis roller coaster is a unique new creation in which the cars can use either a lift hill or a launch system (or both), and the cars can spin 360º on their axis, offering the possibility of nearly endless barrel-roll-style inversions.
SEVEN says it plans to build three such coasters, with the first opening at the Riyadh/Al Hamra location.
A construction progress video shown in spring 2025 claimed that the site was 42% complete at that time, and even offered footage of the first sections of track for the Transformers coaster that had been installed.
At the time, SEVEN had hoped for a late 2025 opening, but with no further updates, we can only hope the site will be ready to open sometime in 2026.
25) Montezooma’s Revenge/Montezooma: The Forbidden Fortress - Knott’s Berry Farm (USA)
Image credit Jeremy Thompson, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
This is another one I’m not sure about, but I have very high hopes for it.
In the midst of the pandemic, Knott’s closed its classic Schwarzkopf shuttle coaster, Montezooma’s Revenge, with the intention to reopen it in 2023 after a major update that would upgrade the flywheel launch system into a new magnetic launch, able to randomly fire the track off in both forward and backwards directions, to keep things unpredictable.
New theming, a new train, and plans to fully enclose the station were also announced, but the project quickly went off the rails and became silent a few months after major track sections were removed and scrapped.
While the project was feared to be cancelled for a time, things finally started moving forward again in 2025, with all-new track pieces arriving on site and work beginning on rebuilding the coaster at long last.
Hopefully, 2026 will be the year that Montezooma returns as the last such ride of its kind in North America.
24) Kyûbi Unchained - Parc Spirou (France)
This themed Zamperla launched family coaster will serve as the anchor attraction to a whole land themed to the Japanese anime/manga universe of Naruto.
The themed ride will cover a good-sized space and feature a launch, a booster section, and both forward and backwards action, along with a spike track.
23) Barracuda Strike - SeaWorld San Antonio (USA)
United Parks and B&M return to collaborate on a new family inverted coaster.
This will be the third such coaster for the pair in as many years, serving as a follow-up to the opening of Phoenix Rising in 2024 at Busch Gardens Tampa and Big Bad Wolf: The Wolf’s Revenge at Busch Gardens Williamsburg in 2025.
Named after the fearsome attack fish, Barracuda Strike will be similar in size and scope to Phoenix Rising and bring the number of coasters in the Texas SeaWorld park up to seven.
22) Galacticoaster - Legoland California and Legoland Florida (USA)
Two identical new indoor space-themed family coasters from ART Engineering will open in North America this year, just a week apart, with the Florida version opening on 27 February and the California version to follow on 6 March.
Before riding, guests will attempt to custom-build a spaceship to stop an incoming asteroid. Upon boarding the coaster, they’ll see their coaster design built around their central ride pod through video screens before launching into space to save the world.
21) Quantum Accelerator - Six Flags New England (USA)
Originally built for the 2025 season, this Intamin launched straddle coaster was fully built and then delayed for unknown reasons just days before the grand opening.
It is now expected to open with the park (hopefully) in April 2026.
20) Flying Fox - Kentucky Kingdom (USA)
Vekoma has partnered with Herschend Family Entertainment to open a new, themed family suspended coaster at the park in 2026.
This is expected to be similar in size and scope to the Dragonflyer that Vekoma built for Herschend’s Dollywood theme park in 2019, which served to anchor that park’s Wildwood Grove family area.
19) Hot Wheels Twin Mill Racer - Mattel Adventure Park (USA)
After years of delays, the new Mattel Adventure Park in Arizona is finally expected to open in 2026 and will feature two roller coasters themed to the company’s Hot Wheels toy car line.
Twin Mill Racer is the larger of the two, a Chance Rides Hyper GTX coaster with three inversions that I think will take people by surprise.
18) Delia’s Adventure - BON Luxury Theme Park (Mexico)
© BON Luxury Theme Park
Slated to open in late 2026, the new BON Luxury Theme Park, located within the Vidanta World resort, will be home to several impressive new roller coasters.
Delia’s Adventure will be one of the most unique, however, as it is a new example of the Mack Rides powered inverted coaster ride system, which was first created for the unique Arthur dark ride/coaster attraction at Europa-Park in 2014.
Since then, only two other such rides have been built worldwide, including the How To Train Your Dragon-themed Dragon Gliders at Motongate in Dubai in 2017, and the Jurassic Park-themed Jurassic Flyers at Universal Studios Beijing in 2021.
As a powered coaster, it can not only stop, start, speed up, and slow down as needed, but the cars also feature a controlled spinning motion to enhance the action and point riders toward show scenes along the way.
17) Dønnervind - Freizeitpark Plohn (Germany)
This will be a new custom-designed water coaster attraction from Mack Rides, opening at the park in 2026, and will also feature Mack Rides' first LIM launch on a water ride.
Unlike other themed flume rides that prefer some altitude, this creation will feature two launches that will propel the riders into a series of twists, turns and airtime hills along the way, including a fun head-on “High Five” element that guests will get to experience in both directions near the start and finish of the ride experience.
16) Drakon - Paultons Parks (UK)
Paultons Park has really been raising its game as of late, building many new themed rides and lands.
The arrival of Drakon comes from Gerstlauer, which has created a custom layout Euro-Fighter roller coaster for the park that will serve as an anchor to the brand new Valgard - Realm of Vikings themed land, along with Raven (a retheme of the existing Cobra, a Gerstlauer Bobsled) and the new Wild Swing ride from ART Engineering.
15) Adrena-Line - Six Flags Qiddiya City (Saudi Arabia)
A new Vekoma family suspended coaster is just one of several new roller coasters that have opened at the Six Flags Qiddiya City theme park.
While listed as a family-level attraction, the videos of it in action seem to show it running with a fast, aggressive streak, which is only befitting of the Six Flags brand.
14) Speed of Light - BON Luxury Theme Park (Mexico)
© BON Luxury Theme Park
This is another Vekoma family suspended coaster, and while smaller than Adrena-Line, the experience here is supposed to be enhanced by traveling through a landscape of jungle and building ruins, which will be plussed even further by after-dark rides that will bring the landscape to light with a unique light package.
Speed of Light will serve as an anchor attraction to an Empire of Light-themed land within the park.
13) Zephyr - Ange Michel (France)
Look for a new Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter roller coaster to arrive at the park, featuring a vertical lift hill and drop, and a layout similar to Iron Shark and Tantrum in the USA.
This will mark a true milestone for the small park in Normandy, which currently is home to only three small-scale roller coasters (two family coasters and a small spinning Zamperla mouse coaster).
This will be Ange Michel’s first true thrill coaster with inversions.
12) 100% Wolf - Plopsaland Deutschland (Germany)
© Plopsaland Deutschland
Along with a new name and identity, the park formerly known as Germany’s Holiday Park will reopen for the 2026 season as Plopsaland Deuschland and feature 100% Wolf, a new family coaster themed around the IP of a Studio 100 property.
11) Palindrome - COTALAND (USA)
Get ready to soar on 𝗣𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗗𝗥𝗢𝗠𝗘, a one-of-a-kind Gerstlauer Infinity roller coaster coming later this year. Follow along on this channel for breaking news, ride construction updates and more! pic.twitter.com/VdhgpIpIhw
— COTALAND (@visitCOTALAND) July 5, 2022
The 2026 opening of the new COTALAND theme park in Austin, Texas, on the site of the city’s Circuit of the Americas race track, has been a long-in-the-making project.
This was the first of several major attractions announced for the park several years ago and is a unique Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster with a shuttle-style (forward/backwards) layout that will travel up and over one of the roads leading into the property.
10) Ashara: Goddess of Fire - BON Luxury Theme Park (Mexico)
© BON Luxury Theme Park
Another big coaster slated to open in late 2026 will be one of Vekoma’s new switchback coasters, featuring a unique turntable/lift element that can change the direction of the ride onto alternate tracks as it travels through a highly themed landscape and into themed show elements.
The first Vekoma switchback coaster opened one year ago as Jungle Rush at Australia’s Dreamworld park.
9) Colossus - Six Flags Qiddiya City (Saudi Arabia)
A classic wooden roller coaster from Great Coasters International (GCI) is part of the new Six Flags Qiddiya City theme park experience.
The track is said to be a hybrid of traditional wooden track styles with sections of GCI’s new Titan Track mixed together, and uses the new Infinity Flyer train design.
8) Circuit Breaker - COTALAND (USA)
The premier roller coaster of the new COTALAND theme park, when it opens in 2026, will be Circuit Breaker, the second Vekoma Tilt Coaster to open in North America.
The ride made headlines when it opened briefly for preview rides for the race track’s Christmas holiday lights event in December, but it won’t open again until the rest of the park is ready in 2026.
Circuit Breaker had hoped to be the first such ride in the nation, but delays to the park project pushed it into second place behind Cedar Point, which opened Siren’s Curse in the summer of 2025.
7) Giant Revolution - Lotte World Adventure Busan (South Korea)
The world’s very first Zamperla Double Heart coaster is now set to debut in Korea in 2026, offering a compact swing-launch coaster design that will stand 50 meters tall, with twisting vertical drops and two inversions along the way.
High thrills are contained within a very small footprint!
6) Spitfire - Six Flags Qiddiya City (Saudi Arabia)
A brand new LSM launched coaster design from Intamin that is expected to feature a swing-launch experience, using a large rear spike track, before shooting off the train at 78.9mph into the world’s largest top hat inversion, standing 239.5 feet tall.
This ride at Six Flags Qiddiya City will set the world record for the world's highest roller coaster inversion.
5) Tormenta Rampaging Run - Six Flags over Texas (USA)
Meet the world’s first giga dive coaster! This B&M creation will stand 309 feet tall and offer a 95º beyond vertical first drop of 285 feet, where riders will reach a top speed of 87mph by the time they reach the bottom.
Add in a twisted layout featuring four unique inversions along 4199 feet of track as well as placement at the very front of the park, creating a whole new arrival experience that just says “Welcome to Six Flags”.
4) Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift - Universal Studios Hollywood (USA)
An incredible new coaster design for Universal, with highly themed sports car-themed ride vehicles designed to fit in with the Fast & Furious film franchise.
In addition to being a unique multi-launch roller coaster experience, the individual ride cars are able to execute controlled spin maneuvers in order to give the riders the feel of drifting through the turns as well as the inversions.
3) Tecuani Beast - BON Luxury Theme Park (Mexico)
While the new BON Luxury Theme Park will feature several impressive rides when it opens in late 2026, the highlight ride of the entire park will be the Tecunani Beast, an extreme double-launch roller coaster from Vekoma that will feature six impressive inversions while traveling through a highly themed, lush jungle landscape.
2) Iron Rattler - Six Flags Qiddiya City (Saudi Arabia)
Iron Rattler will take the record for the tallest and largest Vekoma tilt coaster in the world, featuring a height of 208 feet that will tilt riders into the vertical position before dropping them from the large themed tower into an underground chasm at 73.3mph, and into a 4,068-foot course and through 5 inversions before you come to a stop.
1) Falcons Flight - Six Flags Qiddiya City (Saudi Arabia)
This is the big one… a ride that sounded so insane when it was first mentioned, many didn’t believe we would ever see it. They were wrong because Six Flags Qiddiya City has built it!
Falcons Flight is a massive undertaking of extreme engineering from Intamin that will go down in the record books, featuring stats that break nearly every record in the book.
A launch and a lift hill… a top speed of 155.3 mph, a drop of 519 feet, track rising up to the top of a cliff 639.8 feet in the air, and an overall track length reported as 13,943.6 feet that will take riders on a tour of almost the entire park before they are finished.
That is assuming they can still see anything through the tears in their eyes!
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