Are megas becoming less popular?

Hyper, mega, giga. Hyper came about with Magnum and since then, every designer comes up with it's own name. Even inversions that are identical are called different things by different designers. It's all about marketing. Raging Bull was call the worlds first hyper twister yet the out and back B&M aren't called hyper they are called mega's. It's about trying to seem original and making people think they are riding something that is different from what they've ridden before.

I think the interest in giant coasters has lessened because bigger is not better. The most reputable wooden coasters in recent years are not record breakers, they are better designed to be both more thrilling and more comfortable. The same is ringing true for the steelies. No park wants to use up a huge chunk of geography for one ride that may be large and fast but not very original or exciting.

[nutznboltz]

I honestly think the "giant" coasters are done. they started out with the "hyper" coaster "Magnum XL-200" and topped out with the "strata" coaster "Kingda Ka"

I personally think that coasters are heading the direction of coasters like "maverick" and "Rita" I like to call them "speed" coasters. Parks are also leaning towards smaller compact coasters as well like Evel Knievel, and terrain coasters like Prowler, exciting coasters with a nice thrill rating, that everyone can enjoy.

Bigger is not always better, it just seems like it at the time!

does Wicked Twister count as a Mega? ik its a launcher but it does go over 200 ft...

no, it dosen't

Also consider why some parks are only retheming older rides? The debate continues cause the highest and fastest used to be the best rides for the general community since we all can remember. I agree with most of the posts here but to put it in better terms; Theme Parks around the world are finally turning in to Theme Parks as it was originally meant to be.

[nutznboltz]

it should be theme parks are turning BACK into "theme" parks. as an older member here,(age) I was around for the amusement park era of the 70's, when parks were packed, themed areas everywhere, even the park employees had themed costumes to wear for their specific store/department/area of the park they worked in.

that's what it was all about. then as time progressed we saw another the decline of "themed" areas, and another coaster war, this time it was for the biggest, fastest, giant steel coaster, they went 200 300 400 ft tall, but what happened to all the families? the younger generations took the parks over, thrill ride after thrill rides got built, the more extreme the better, but less and less for the family to ride together.

now the parks are realizing that the family dollar, (mom/dad 4 kids) was better than the teens, it brought in more money. so now rather than building the giant mega/hyper/giga/strata coasters its smaller cost efficient ones. that everyone can ride. that's how I see it at least

I see what your getting at but the coasters being built today aren't any less intense than what were being built not too long ago. As the industry evolves they are realizing that there are certain tricks they can use to get your adrenaline pumping without a 300 foot tall tower.

Also with the new coaster designs, they allow certain thrill that we didn't have awhile ago.

Yeah major coasters ARE still being built. You guys talk about Kingda Ka like it was decades ago it was only 4 years ago. 2 Megas have been built in the last year within a few states of each other. I think they're just finding newer innovations. We will always see big huge rides.