The World's Top 100 Roller Coasters - Golden Cog Awards 2019
The Golden Cog Awards are back and bigger than ever in 2019!
For the past 2 years we’ve run ‘The Golden Cog Awards’ - a community roller coaster poll which aims to accurately identify your top roller coasters! It all started back in 2017 when we identified the UK’s top 10 roller coasters. Then in 2018 the poll expand and with your help we discovered Europe’s top 25 roller coasters.
This year we took it one step further…
…a huge poll designed to find the top 100 coasters WORLDWIDE!
Sounds awesome, right? But what sets us aside from the countless other polls that aim to find the same thing? Well, The Golden Cog Awards are different. We use an intricate ride-by-ride ranking system which reduces bias (we’re looking at you North America) and gives each roller coaster an equal chance to reach number 1! We’re confident in the methodology we use for the Golden Cog Awards - and so are you guys based on the reactions to our two previous polls!
After the success of last years awards, we expanded our poll from the best 25 roller coasters within Europe, to the Top 100 in the world! Unlike previous years the voting wasn’t limited to a selection of specific roller coasters, instead all major roller coasters across the globe could be included. This meant many more people could participate this year. All of the lists collected were then analysed to create a final list of the Top 100 Coasters in the World!
But how does the poll work?
The methodology used for the Golden Cog Awards is crucial to the accuracy and integrity of the poll. Voters were only permitted to rank rides they had actually experienced. This way the lists themselves would be as truthful and accurate as possible. Over 900 individuals entered their rankings into the poll, which resulted in close to 16,000 rides being ranked within the lists. This is a huge increase in the diversity and inclusiveness of the poll over last year!
The methodology used for the Golden Cog Awards is based on Mitch Hawker’s highly regarded roller coaster polls, meaning the overall ranking is not calculated using a simple point based system (as seen within other extremely biased polls). Instead, the final results are calculated by directly comparing the rank of two specific roller coasters across all of the poll’s submitted lists.
An Example:
To explain this system in more detail, let’s look at four randomly generated lists:
List 1
El Toro
Skyrush
Twisted Timbers
Fury 325
Maverick
List 2
Maverick
Twisted Timbers
Fury 325
El Toro
List 3
Twisted Timbers
Maverick
El Toro
Skyrush
List 4
Skyrush
Twisted Timbers
Maverick
El Toro
Fury 325
For example, if we look at Maverick - it would be set up against all the other rides listed within the poll to see if it ranked higher or lower than a specific ride more times. For each of these one-on-one battles, Maverick would be rewarded either a win, a loss, or a draw. The individual matches only occur in lists that have both rides ranked.
First, Maverick is paired up against El Toro. For every list where Maverick is ranked above El Toro, Maverick will be assigned a point and vice versa:
Maverick (3) - (1) El Toro
If Maverick is paired up against all mentioned roller coasters in the list, the results would be as follows:
Maverick (3) - (1) El Toro
Maverick (1) - (2) Skyrush
Maverick (1) - (3) Twisted Timbers
Maverick (2) - (1) Fury 325
Based on these results, Maverick would be assigned 2 wins and 2 loses, resulting in a win rate of 50%. This method continues for all roller coasters, providing a win rate for each. The win rates are then used to rank the rides: the coaster with the highest win rate will be ranked as number 1, while the lowest win rate will close the list.
By doing this, it reduces the natural high ridership bias that occurs with the use of point based systems. Using our methodology, even roller coasters with fewer riders can still rank as highly as others.
The Results
Without further ado, let’s take a look at the results:
Steel Vengeance - Cedar Point, USA
El Toro - Six Flags Great Adventure, USA
Lightning Rod - Dollywood, USA
Zadra - Energylandia, Poland
Fury 325 - Carowinds, USA
Intimidator 305 - Kings Dominion, USA
Maverick - Cedar Point, USA
The Voyage - Holiday World, USA
DC Rivals Hypercoaster - Warner Bros. Movie World, Australia
Untamed - Walibi Holland, Netherlands
Wildfire - Kolmården, Sweden
Twisted Timbers - Kings Dominion, USA
Expedition GeForce - Holiday Park, Germany
Twisted Colossus - Six Flags Magic Mountain, USA
Der Schwur des Kärnan - Hansa Park, Germany
Taron - Phantasialand, Germany
Millennium Force - Cedar Point, USA
Skyrush - Hersheypark, USA
X2 - Six Flags Magic Mountain, USA
Shambhala - PortAventura, Spain
Outlaw Run - Silver Dollar City, USA
Helix - Liseberg, Sweden
Eejanaika - Fuji Q Highland, Japan
Goliath - Walibi Holland, Netherlands
Piraten - Djurs Sommerland, Denmark
Wicked Cyclone - Six Flags New England, USA
Phantom’s Revenge - Kennywood, USA
Mystic Timbers - Kings Island, USA
Storm Chaser - Kentucky Kingdom, USA
Top Thrill Dragster - Cedar Point, USA
Balder - Liseberg, Sweden
Phoenix - Knoebels, USA
Troy - Toverland, Netherlands
Mako - Seaworld Orlando, USA
Ghostrider - Knott’s Berry Farm, USA
Colossos - Heide Park, Germany
Iron Rattler - Six Flags Fiesta Texas, USA
Taiga - Linnanmäki, Finland
Montu - Busch Gardens Tampa, USA
Icon - Blackpool Pleasure Beach, England
Fēnix - Toverland, Netherlands
Karacho - Erlebnispark Tripsdrill, Germany
Nemesis - Alton Towers, England
Superman: The Ride - Six Flags New England, USA
Fluch von Novgorod - Hansa Park, Germany
Diamondback - Kings Island, USA
Copperhead Strike - Carowinds, USA
T Express - Everland, South Korea
Wodan - Europa Park, Germany
Lech Coaster - Legandia, Poland
Railblazer - California’s Great America, USA
Tatsu - Six Flags Magic Mountain, USA
Kumba - Busch Gardens Tampa, USA
Lost Gravity - Walibi Holland, Netherlands
Hyperion - Energylandia, Poland
The Smiler - Alton Towers, England
Silver Star - Europa Park, Germany
Nitro - Six Flags Great Adventure, USA
Wicker Man - Alton Towers, England
Black Mamba - Phantasialand, Germany
Red Force - Ferrari Land, Spain
Formula Rossa - Ferrari World, United Arab Emirates
Goliath - Six Flags Great America, USA
Lightning Run - Kentucky Kingdom, USA
Goliath - Six Flags Over Georgia, USA
Twisted Cyclone - Six Flags Over Georgia, USA
Leviathan - Canada’s Wonderland, Canada
Ravine Flyer II - Waldameer, USA
Olympia Looping - Travelling
Storm Runner - Hersheypark, USA
The Incredible Hulk - Islands of Adventure, USA
Banshee - Kings Island, USA
Kingda Ka - Six Flags Great Adventure, USA
Blue Fire - Europa Park, Germany
Baron 1898 - Efteling, Netherlands
Wonder Woman: Golden Lasso Coaster - Six Flags Fiesta Texas, USA
Magnum XL-200 - Cedar Point, USA
Gold Striker - California’s Great America, USA
Joris en de Draak Water - Efteling, Netherlands
Manta - Seaworld Orlando, USA
Raptor - Gardaland, Italy
Intimidator - Carowinds, USA
The Swarm - Thorpe Park, England
Behemoth - Canada’s Wonderland, Canada
Renegade - Valleyfair, USA
Thunderhead - Dollywood, USA
Valkyria - Liseberg, Sweden
iSpeed - Mirabilandia, Italy
SheiKra - Busch Gardens Tampa, USA
Riddler’s Revenge - Six Flags Magic Mountain, USA
New Texas Giant - Six Flags Over Texas, USA
Thunderbird - Holiday World, USA
Time Traveler - Silver Dollar City, USA
Alpengeist - Busch Gardens Williamsburg, USA
Star Trek: Operation Enterprise - Movie Park Germany, Germany
Flug Der Dämonen - Heide Park, Germany
Cheetah Hunt - Busch Gardens Tampa, USA
Anubis: The Ride - Plopsaland De Panne, Belgium
Katun - Mirabilandia, Italy
Monster - Adventureland, USA
What an awesome list of coasters!
There are a lot of awesome roller coasters from across the world included in this list. We have rides from Germany, USA, The Netherlands, UK, Australia, Canada, Japan, Sweden and many more! We’re pretty pleased with the results - a lot of the most highly regarded rides ranked well within the poll. We also hope that some of your favourite rides did well this year too!
But no poll is without it’s challenges…
As with any form of innovation, we encountered some challenges along the way. The main challenge we faced this year was calculating scores for roller coasters with low ridership. These were; Dinoconda at Dinosaur Park, Flying Aces at Ferrari World, and Hakugei at Nagashima Spaland. Since they only had a small number of riders, their overall rankings were either drastically increased or decreased. Due to the low accuracy of these scores they were removed from the final list altogether. For completeness, below is where they would have placed if they had remained in the list.
27. Dinoconda - Dinosaur Park, China
60. Hakugei - Nagashima Spaland, Japan
71. Flying Aces - Ferrari World, United Arab Emirates
Another problem we faced was distinguishing between rides of the same name. This was easily solved for most rides, but we struggled to pick apart lists with Medusa: Steel Coaster and Medusa at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. In the end the system couldn’t provide a representative score for either ride, leading to them being removed from the poll entirely.
But with challenges comes progress, and we’ve learnt a lot this year. We apologise if any of your favourite coasters were affected by these issues. For future polls we aim to make the submission process more simplified and the scoring process more sophisticated. Ultimately, our goal is to have our poll be inclusive for all roller coaster enthusiasts with the hope to express the opinions of as many people as possible. By making the form easier to enter, with less formatting requirements, we think we can make next years poll ever better!
Thoughts
Despite the difficulties faced, we believe the list as it stands is a list of some of the best roller coasters around. Many of the most famous and well regarded rides in the world placed very highly, and with the removal of bias some other, lesser spoken about rides placed high as well.
Ultimately, the poll was successful. We’ve managed to expand our poll drastically compared with last year while maintaining a sophisticated system to calculate the results. We think it’s quite a fair list of the world’s best roller coasters - rankings like this can’t be found in many other biased polls. But no matter what the overall rankings are, it’s important to remember that everyone likes different things, and each of our own personal rankings could be very different to those above. Compare how close your lists are to the ones above with your friends, and even comment your thoughts on the poll down below!
The Golden Cog Awards will return in 2020 bigger and better than ever!
Thanks for taking part everyone!
- The Coaster Bot Team
