As we close the books on the year 2023, so too has @Pokemaniac been beckoned back to the Top 10 thread to peruse and aggregate reported rankings across all members who have shared their tiering throughout the year. All-in, 62 CFers participated - one of our largest turnouts ever! And so without further ado, on behalf of @Pokemaniac, @Hixee, and the rest of the CF Team - we present the Top 10 Roller Coasters of CoasterForce!
Methodology
One of the most visited threads in the General Discussions section of the forums is the "Top 10-ish" thread, where people rank their ten (or more) most favourite coasters. We have combed through the thread and collected all the Top 10 lists posted over the past year - from 1 November 2022 to the end of December 2023. Only the top 10 coasters posted by each user are counted, even if some users post their entire Top 20 or Top 30 list. We only count the most recently posted list by each user, since some like to adjust their top 10 list multiple times throughout the season. As such, this list shows which coasters are considered a favourite among the most users, and how highly they rank. But without further adieu, we can compare details on CF's top 25!
The Top 25
Key Thoughts/Takeaways
As usual, we have a few graphs to break down further CF's top roller coasters, which you can view in the full spreadsheet link at the end of the post. Here is a map of the average roller coaster ranking vs. the number of rides. The higher a roller coaster is charted towards the upper left, the higher it is in the ranking. I have also added a trend line to add further clarity:
As was the case last year, charting out the roller coaster average rankings by the number of rides shows a high correlation with their ranking. Steel Vengeance still takes a definitive runaway victory each way we slice the chart!
You may notice several roller coasters that have different average rankings vs. average rankings/rides. If we ranked roller coasters based on average rank alone, it would be a different result. Overall, we still prefer to consider the number of rides to help ensure the rankings are reflective of the entire community vs. a few select members. This shows further skewing this year especially, as everyone's travels were greatly disrupted, limiting access and travel to new roller coasters.
Year-Over-Year Trends
For year-over-year, I highlighted a few key observations above. Some other good takeaways:
Sample Size is Everything
Again, this heavily relies on sample size and how folks responded with their top 10 rankings. If you feel like a roller coaster got cheated and didn't participate this year, make it a point to drop your top 10 into the thread so we can count it towards next year's count!
We also updated the alternate rankings as we did last year, showing variations to how roller coaster rankings can be measured, such as logging results (to consider strong outliers) and removing top and bottom-most votes for each respective roller coaster (also as a control for outlier votes).
Comparing to Other Polls
We appreciate @coasterbot continuing to provide new annual rankings (https://coasterbot.com/votecoasters), which we added as a final comparison. I also went ahead and added in a Top 25 rankings conducted by our friends over at Buzzed Bars, which shows an interesting comparative skew of top coaster response. Overall, the rankings are relatively close to one another, with a number of unique outliers. Is CF onto something breaking with Taron?
Check Out the Full Rankings!
You can peruse all the data and tables here:
docs.google.com
Methodology
One of the most visited threads in the General Discussions section of the forums is the "Top 10-ish" thread, where people rank their ten (or more) most favourite coasters. We have combed through the thread and collected all the Top 10 lists posted over the past year - from 1 November 2022 to the end of December 2023. Only the top 10 coasters posted by each user are counted, even if some users post their entire Top 20 or Top 30 list. We only count the most recently posted list by each user, since some like to adjust their top 10 list multiple times throughout the season. As such, this list shows which coasters are considered a favourite among the most users, and how highly they rank. But without further adieu, we can compare details on CF's top 25!
The Top 25
| Rank | Roller Coaster | Average Ranking | Average Ranking/Frequency | Number of #1 Rankings | Number of Rides |
| 1 | Steel Vengeance | 2.43 | 0.09 | 17 | 28 |
| 2 | Taron | 3.70 | 0.14 | 5 | 27 |
| 3 | Zadra | 3.73 | 0.17 | 5 | 22 |
| 4 | Velocicoaster | 3.86 | 0.18 | 3 | 21 |
| 5 | Iron Gwazi | 4.05 | 0.20 | 4 | 20 |
| 6 | Voyage | 3.65 | 0.21 | 5 | 17 |
| 7 | Skyrush | 4.95 | 0.26 | 1 | 19 |
| 8 | Ride to Happiness | 3.79 | 0.27 | 3 | 14 |
| 9 | Helix | 3.62 | 0.28 | 4 | 13 |
| 10 | Shambhala | 5.13 | 0.32 | 1 | 16 |
| 11 | Fury 325 | 5.31 | 0.33 | 1 | 16 |
| 12 | Untamed | 5.00 | 0.33 | 2 | 15 |
| 13 | Lightning Rod | 5.40 | 0.36 | 1 | 15 |
| 14 | Kondaa | 5.25 | 0.44 | 2 | 12 |
| 15 | Maverick | 5.50 | 0.46 | 0 | 12 |
| 16 | Intimidator 305 | 4.70 | 0.47 | 2 | 10 |
| 17 | El Toro | 5.82 | 0.53 | 1 | 11 |
| 18 | Mako | 4.75 | 0.59 | 1 | 8 |
| 19 | ArieForce One | 5.00 | 0.63 | 0 | 8 |
| 20 | Nemesis | 5.78 | 0.64 | 0 | 9 |
| 21 | Wildfire | 6.50 | 0.65 | 1 | 10 |
| 22 | Millennium Force | 5.88 | 0.73 | 0 | 8 |
| 23 | F.L.Y. | 6.13 | 0.77 | 0 | 8 |
| 24 | Twisted Colossus | 4.00 | 0.80 | 1 | 5 |
| 24 | Kärnan | 4.00 | 0.80 | 2 | 5 |
Key Thoughts/Takeaways
- Rise of the Intamin Multilaunch? - Zadra has continued an ongoing march up the rankings over the last few years, begging the question of whether it would only be a matter of time before it breaks the #1 slot held by Steel Vengeance. Then enter... Taron? Yes, by a matter of hundredths of a point, Taron eeked out a dead-heat finish with Zadra that put it the smallest slivers ahead in the rankings. While it isn't exactly clear "what" the reason for Taron's resurgence in the polls is... if you'll entertain a theory... you will notice Velocicoaster has also been working its way up the rankings, now cracking the top 5. In a "what's old is new" phenomenon, Taron could be experiencing new-found favor as European members remember they have their own phenomenal Intamin multi-launch on their side of the pond!
- RMC Nipping at the Heels - Another general trend we've continued to track is Iron Gwazi, which some portend would even eclipse Steel Vengeance on rankings. It nearly halved its distance from the #1 slot, jumping up from #9 to #5 as more CFers had the chance to ride. Will it garner enough love to jump Zadra over the coming years? It is also worth mentioning ArieForce One's debut at #19 in the rankings, a number that most likely will ramp up with more riders in the new year. (For reference, Storm Chaser - a similar, short-style RMC, peaked in #12 slot in 2020)
- Where's the New For 2023 Coasters? - Overall, we saw a very weak showing of new-for-2023 coasters this year. ArieForce One led overall (#19), with serious digging involved to salvage Toutatis (#37) and Wildcat's Revenge (#44) in the rundown. Other new-hits like Batman Gotham City laid a big goose egg, clearly indicative of CFers being not well traveled people.
These lower rankings are most likely indicative of lower rider counts, albeit our methodology still only considers coasters within CF Top 10s, meaning middling-teen rankings coughWildcat'sRevengecough do not count in our aggregation. Overall, we'll continue to track these coasters, especially to see what more ridership will do for their rankings. - Mack and Gravity Group Keeping Things Varied - Ride to Happiness and Helix remain in the mix, joined by Voyage (of Gravity Group) as the non-Intamin-nor-RMC coasters in the Top 10 rankings. We have seen a collective slide of these guys, crowded out by an ever-growing number of RMC and Intamin hits.
- What Do You Guys Know That I Don't? - We saw a continued churn of popular hits, with some roller coasters on a previous surge (Phantom's Revenge was on a previous hot streak surging up to #23), only to fall completely out this year. Of particular note are Eejanaika (jumping 61 slots) and Nemesis Inferno (Jumping 52 slots) in the biggest increase year-over-year.
As usual, we have a few graphs to break down further CF's top roller coasters, which you can view in the full spreadsheet link at the end of the post. Here is a map of the average roller coaster ranking vs. the number of rides. The higher a roller coaster is charted towards the upper left, the higher it is in the ranking. I have also added a trend line to add further clarity:
As was the case last year, charting out the roller coaster average rankings by the number of rides shows a high correlation with their ranking. Steel Vengeance still takes a definitive runaway victory each way we slice the chart!
You may notice several roller coasters that have different average rankings vs. average rankings/rides. If we ranked roller coasters based on average rank alone, it would be a different result. Overall, we still prefer to consider the number of rides to help ensure the rankings are reflective of the entire community vs. a few select members. This shows further skewing this year especially, as everyone's travels were greatly disrupted, limiting access and travel to new roller coasters.
Year-Over-Year Trends
For year-over-year, I highlighted a few key observations above. Some other good takeaways:
- Zadra was just blocked out by Taron this year - it's a genuine two-horse race between Intamin and RMC these days.
- New for 2023 coasters had some of the worst showing in the six years we've done these polls. Is it a fatal flaw or a sign of coasters being underrated? Or are this year's new coasters just located further off the beaten track than usual, causing fewer CFers to ride them?
- Lightning Rod closed out at #13, still a far cry from its top 5 finishes of yore. Will the new lift hill system improve response?
- Overall, a lot of jockeying for position in the teens; is partly reliant on polling response and turnout.
| Roller Coaster | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | Change From Previous Year | Average Ranking |
| Steel Vengeance | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1.0 |
| Taron | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2.8 |
| Zadra | - | 16 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 3 | -1 | 5.8 |
| Velocicoaster | - | - | - | 20 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 10.7 |
| Iron Gwazi | - | - | - | - | 9 | 5 | 4 | 7.0 |
| Voyage | 8 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 6 | -3 | 5.7 |
| Skyrush | 4 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 7 | -2 | 5.3 |
| Ride to Happiness | - | - | - | 15 | 6 | 8 | -2 | 9.7 |
| Helix | 7 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 9 | -2 | 6.3 |
| Shambhala | 14 | 17 | 8 | 13 | 15 | 10 | 5 | 12.8 |
| Fury 325 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 17 | 11 | 11 | 0 | 11.5 |
| Untamed | - | 8 | 9 | 9 | 14 | 12 | 2 | 10.4 |
| Lightning Rod | 2 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 13 | -3 | 5.8 |
| Kondaa | - | - | - | 21 | 28 | 14 | 14 | 21.0 |
| Maverick | 4 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 13 | 15 | -2 | 10.8 |
| Intimidator 305 | 25 | 15 | 35 | 21 | 12 | 16 | -4 | 20.7 |
| El Toro | 10 | 7 | 12 | 8 | 16 | 17 | -1 | 11.7 |
| Mako | 29 | 31 | 23 | 34 | 31 | 18 | 13 | 27.7 |
| ArieForce One | - | - | - | - | - | 19 | - | 19.0 |
| Nemesis | 13 | 12 | 14 | 12 | 22 | 20 | 2 | 15.5 |
| Wildfire | 21 | 10 | 21 | 30 | 20 | 21 | -1 | 20.5 |
| Millennium Force | 16 | 24 | 48 | 36 | 19 | 22 | -3 | 27.5 |
| F.L.Y. | - | - | 62 | 52 | 35 | 23 | 12 | 43.0 |
| Twisted Colossus | 4 | 21 | 27 | - | 26 | 24 | 2 | 20.4 |
| Kärnan | 19 | 26 | 59 | - | - | 24 | - | 32.0 |
Sample Size is Everything
Again, this heavily relies on sample size and how folks responded with their top 10 rankings. If you feel like a roller coaster got cheated and didn't participate this year, make it a point to drop your top 10 into the thread so we can count it towards next year's count!
We also updated the alternate rankings as we did last year, showing variations to how roller coaster rankings can be measured, such as logging results (to consider strong outliers) and removing top and bottom-most votes for each respective roller coaster (also as a control for outlier votes).
Comparing to Other Polls
We appreciate @coasterbot continuing to provide new annual rankings (https://coasterbot.com/votecoasters), which we added as a final comparison. I also went ahead and added in a Top 25 rankings conducted by our friends over at Buzzed Bars, which shows an interesting comparative skew of top coaster response. Overall, the rankings are relatively close to one another, with a number of unique outliers. Is CF onto something breaking with Taron?
| Roller Coaster | CF Rank | CoasterBot Rank | Buzzed Bars Rank |
| Steel Vengeance | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Taron | 2 | 22 | 19 |
| Zadra | 3 | 5 | 4 |
| Velocicoaster | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| Iron Gwazi | 5 | 4 | 2 |
| Voyage | 6 | 9 | 5 |
| Skyrush | 7 | 25 | 8 |
| Ride to Happiness | 8 | 3 | 13 |
| Helix | 9 | #N/A | #N/A |
| Shambhala | 10 | #N/A | #N/A |
| Fury 325 | 11 | 7 | 6 |
| Untamed | 12 | 12 | #N/A |
| Lightning Rod | 13 | 19 | 14 |
| Kondaa | 14 | 23 | #N/A |
| Maverick | 15 | 18 | 10 |
| Intimidator 305 | 16 | 17 | 11 |
| El Toro | 17 | 15 | 12 |
| Mako | 18 | #N/A | #N/A |
| ArieForce One | 19 | 14 | 7 |
| Nemesis | 20 | #N/A | #N/A |
| Wildfire | 21 | 21 | #N/A |
| Millennium Force | 22 | #N/A | 22 |
| F.L.Y. | 23 | #N/A | #N/A |
| Twisted Colossus | 24 | #N/A | #N/A |
| Kärnan | 24 | #N/A | #N/A |
| Eejanaika | #N/A | 6 | #N/A |
| Hakugei | #N/A | 8 | #N/A |
| DC Rivals Hypercoaster | #N/A | 10 | #N/A |
| Taiga | #N/A | 11 | #N/A |
| Batman Gotham City Escape | #N/A | 13 | #N/A |
| Toutatis | #N/A | 16 | #N/A |
| T Express | #N/A | 20 | #N/A |
| Wildcat's Revenge | #N/A | 24 | 9 |
| X2 | #N/A | #N/A | 15 |
| Time Traveler | #N/A | #N/A | 16 |
| Hyperion | #N/A | #N/A | 17 |
| Twisted Timbers | #N/A | #N/A | 18 |
| Pantheon | #N/A | #N/A | 20 |
| Iron Rattler | #N/A | #N/A | 21 |
| Magnum XL-200 | #N/A | #N/A | 23 |
| Thunderhead | #N/A | #N/A | 24 |
| Outlaw Run | #N/A | #N/A | 25 |
Check Out the Full Rankings!
You can peruse all the data and tables here:
. I'd have gone back already if money wasn't finite and there was so much else to do closer to home.