Illinois’ coaster scene is concentrated almost entirely in one place: Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, a park that has stacked wooden classics, steel inversions, and a brand-new dive coaster into a single lineup over nearly 50 years. The best of the bunch is Goliath, a wood/steel hybrid whose drop and reversing turns still outclass everything else in the state.
This ranking judges each ride on how it actually feels to ride — airtime, pacing, smoothness, and how it holds up against the rest of the lineup — rather than just height or speed. Below you’ll find the full order, a side-by-side comparison table, honest advice on which park fits which kind of group, and a road-trip plan for building Illinois into a bigger Midwest coaster run.
Stats at a Glance
- Top Pick: Goliath — Six Flags Great America
- Tallest: Raging Bull, 202 ft (62 m)
- Fastest: Maxx Force, 78 mph (126 km/h)
- Best Park for Coasters: Six Flags Great America
- Best Time to Go: May or September, on weekdays
The Ranking: Best Roller Coasters in Illinois
Every ride on this list is at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, ranked from the park’s defining ride down to its gentlest thrill coaster.
1. Goliath — Six Flags Great America
Goliath is a wood/steel hybrid coaster built by Rocky Mountain Construction, standing 165 ft (50 m) tall with a top speed of 72 mph (116 km/h). It opened in 2014, and its defining element is the 180-ft first drop taken at an 85-degree angle, sending the train into a dim tunnel before a twisting reversal back toward the station.
The ride is intense but surprisingly smooth for a wood-topped coaster, with airtime concentrated in that opening drop and the reversing turns that follow rather than spread across a long layout. It suits most adult riders who want a strong, fast hit without the rattle of an older wooden coaster, and it ranks first for that balance of intensity and consistency across more than a decade of operation.
2. Raging Bull — Six Flags Great America
Raging Bull is a Bolliger & Mabillard hyper coaster, steel, 202 ft (62 m) tall with a top speed of 73 mph (117 km/h), opened in 1999. Its defining element is a 208-ft first drop at 65 degrees into an underground tunnel, followed by twisting camelback hills rather than the straight airtime hops typical of most B&M hypers.
It rides longer and more sustained than Goliath, with twisting turns standing in for big floater airtime, and it has stayed smooth for over 25 years. It’s a good fit for riders who want a long, continuous thrill rather than a short sharp one, and it ranks second for sheer uniqueness — B&M never built another hyper-twister after this one.
3. Wrath of Rakshasa — Six Flags Great America
Wrath of Rakshasa is a Bolliger & Mabillard dive coaster, steel, 180 ft (55 m) tall with a top speed of 67 mph (108 km/h), opened in 2025. Its defining element is a cliffhanger hold at a 96-degree beyond-vertical angle before a 171-ft drop, followed by five inversions.
The suspended hold at the top is the highlight, a genuine stomach-drop pause before the fall, and the ride stays smooth through its looping back half. It works well for riders who like a single dramatic moment more than a sustained sequence of hills, and it ranks third because that one moment, while strong, carries more of the ride than the drops and twists on Goliath or Raging Bull.
4. X-Flight — Six Flags Great America
X-Flight is a Bolliger & Mabillard wing coaster, steel, 120 ft (37 m) tall with a top speed of 55 mph (88 km/h), opened in 2012. Its defining element is a keyhole pass through a faux air-traffic-control tower, with riders seated on wings mounted to the sides of the train rather than underneath it, across five inversions.
Because nothing is directly above or below the seats, the ride feels unusually open, and the typical B&M smoothness makes the inversions easy to handle even for riders newer to looping coasters. It ranks here for that visual thrill and comfort, just below the park’s bigger drops in raw intensity.
5. Batman: The Ride — Six Flags Great America
Batman: The Ride is a Bolliger & Mabillard inverted coaster, steel, 100 ft (30 m) tall with a top speed of 50 mph (80 km/h), opened in 1992 as the world’s first inverted coaster. Its defining element is a tight sequence of five inversions — two vertical loops, a zero-g roll, and two corkscrews — with legs dangling free the entire ride.
The compact layout packs real g-force into a short footprint, and more than three decades on, it’s still remarkably smooth. It’s a solid entry point for riders working up to inversions, and it ranks mid-list on the strength of its history and ride quality despite modest height and speed.
6. Maxx Force — Six Flags Great America
Maxx Force is an S&S compressed-air launch coaster, steel, 175 ft (53 m) tall with a top speed of 78 mph (126 km/h), opened in 2019. Its defining element is the launch itself: 0 to 78 mph in 1.8 seconds, immediately followed by a double-inversion top hat and zero-g stall.
The launch is genuinely violent, and the ride is over in well under a minute, with intensity packed into a few seconds rather than spread across a longer layout. The abrupt transitions make it a love-it-or-hate-it ride for a lot of riders, and that polarizing reputation, more than the strong top speed, is why it sits in the middle of this ranking rather than near the top.
7. American Eagle — Six Flags Great America
American Eagle is a dual-tracked wooden coaster designed by Intamin, 127 ft (39 m) tall with a top speed of 66 mph (106 km/h), opened in 1981. Its defining element is the 147-ft first drop; the two tracks ran as a true side-by-side race when the ride opened, but for most of the 2016 season onward the park has alternated which track operates rather than dispatching both trains together.
The ride shows its age with real rattle and roughness, especially in the back half, and most visits in 2026 will mean riding one of the two tracks solo rather than racing a second train. For the park’s 50th anniversary, Six Flags brought back genuine side-by-side dispatches for a limited window from June 20 through August 9, 2026, and that competitive energy is a reason to plan a visit in that window if racing matters to you — otherwise it’s best enjoyed as a rough, historic wooden coaster, which is why it sits mid-pack here.
8. Superman: Ultimate Flight — Six Flags Great America
Superman: Ultimate Flight is a Bolliger & Mabillard flying coaster, steel, 106 ft (32 m) tall with a top speed of 51 mph (82 km/h), opened in 2003. Its defining element is the riding position itself — face-down the entire ride, including through a 78-ft pretzel loop.
Lying face-down changes how every drop and turn registers, which makes the ride feel more unusual than its modest stats suggest, though the actual intensity stays moderate throughout. It’s a good fit for riders curious about the novelty of the position rather than those chasing speed, and it ranks here for that trade-off between a unique feel and a fairly short, gentle layout.
9. The Flash: Vertical Velocity — Six Flags Great America
The Flash: Vertical Velocity is an Intamin launched inverted shuttle coaster, steel, 186 ft (57 m) tall with a top speed of 70 mph (113 km/h), opened in 2001. Its defining element is a linear-induction launch from 0 to 70 mph in about four seconds that sends the train up two near-vertical spikes, first forward and then backward.
The launch delivers a real jolt and each spike produces a brief moment of weightlessness at the top, but the whole experience is built around that one sensation rather than a varied layout. It’s a quick, repeatable thrill between bigger rides, and it ranks here as a strong one-trick coaster rather than a complete ride.
10. Viper — Six Flags Great America
Viper is a wooden twister coaster built as a near mirror image of Coney Island’s 1927 Cyclone, 100 ft (30 m) tall with a top speed of 50 mph (80 km/h), opened in 1995. Its defining element is a tightly packed, low-to-the-ground layout with an 80-ft first drop and constant sharp direction changes rather than big airtime hills.
It’s rough in the way older wooden twisters tend to be, with sudden jolts replacing smooth drops, which makes it more of a nostalgia ride for wood-coaster fans than a crowd-pleaser. That roughness, measured against the smoother steel rides ranked above it, is why it lands in the bottom half of this list.
11. The Joker — Six Flags Great America
The Joker is an S&S 4D free-spin coaster, steel, 120 ft (37 m) tall with a top speed of 38 mph (61 km/h), opened in 2017. Its defining element is a set of individually mounted wing seats that spin freely and independently of the train’s forward motion over each hill.
Because the spin is random, no two rides play out the same way, and the disorientation of an unpredictable flip matters more here than outright speed. It’s a fun change of pace for repeat riders, but the modest top speed and short layout put it below the park’s bigger coasters on this list.
12. Demon — Six Flags Great America
Demon is an Arrow Dynamics steel looping coaster, 102 ft (31 m) tall with a top speed of 50 mph (80 km/h). It opened in 1976 and was reworked into its current form in 1980, when two hills were replaced with back-to-back vertical loops entered through a dim tunnel, bringing the total to four inversions.
It rides exactly like a 1970s-era Arrow looper: clunky transitions, real head-banging through the loops, and little in the way of smoothness. Enthusiasts value it for its history as one of the earliest multi-inversion coasters, but that dated ride quality is why it sits near the bottom of this ranking.
13. Whizzer — Six Flags Great America
Whizzer is a Schwarzkopf Speedracer coaster, steel, 70 ft (21 m) tall with a top speed of 45 mph (72 km/h), opened in 1976. It’s the last Speedracer model still running anywhere, and its defining element is a continuous figure-eight layout of banked turns with no real drops or inversions.
The ride is mild and flowing, built around speed through banked curves rather than airtime or inversions, which makes it a good first real coaster for younger riders or a breather between bigger ones. It ranks last among this list’s thrill coasters simply because it’s built for a gentler kind of ride than everything above it.
Quick Comparison
All of the numbers below match the figures used in each ride’s write-up above.
| Rank | Coaster | Park | Type | Height | Top Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Goliath | Six Flags Great America | Wood/steel hybrid coaster | 165 ft (50 m) | 72 mph (116 km/h) |
| 2 | Raging Bull | Six Flags Great America | Steel hyper coaster | 202 ft (62 m) | 73 mph (117 km/h) |
| 3 | Wrath of Rakshasa | Six Flags Great America | Steel dive coaster | 180 ft (55 m) | 67 mph (108 km/h) |
| 4 | X-Flight | Six Flags Great America | Steel wing coaster | 120 ft (37 m) | 55 mph (88 km/h) |
| 5 | Batman: The Ride | Six Flags Great America | Steel inverted coaster | 100 ft (30 m) | 50 mph (80 km/h) |
| 6 | Maxx Force | Six Flags Great America | Steel launch coaster | 175 ft (53 m) | 78 mph (126 km/h) |
| 7 | American Eagle | Six Flags Great America | Wooden dual-tracked coaster | 127 ft (39 m) | 66 mph (106 km/h) |
| 8 | Superman: Ultimate Flight | Six Flags Great America | Steel flying coaster | 106 ft (32 m) | 51 mph (82 km/h) |
| 9 | The Flash: Vertical Velocity | Six Flags Great America | Steel launched shuttle coaster | 186 ft (57 m) | 70 mph (113 km/h) |
| 10 | Viper | Six Flags Great America | Wooden coaster | 100 ft (30 m) | 50 mph (80 km/h) |
| 11 | The Joker | Six Flags Great America | Steel 4D free-spin coaster | 120 ft (37 m) | 38 mph (61 km/h) |
| 12 | Demon | Six Flags Great America | Steel looping coaster | 102 ft (31 m) | 50 mph (80 km/h) |
| 13 | Whizzer | Six Flags Great America | Steel family coaster | 70 ft (21 m) | 45 mph (72 km/h) |
Which Illinois Park Should You Pick?
For serious riders, there’s really one answer: Six Flags Great America in Gurnee. It’s where Goliath, Raging Bull, Wrath of Rakshasa, and the rest of this list all live, so the question isn’t which park but which day — go on a weekday and prioritize Goliath and Wrath of Rakshasa early before their lines build.
For families with younger kids who aren’t ready for inversions or launches, Six Flags Great America’s Bugs Bunny World and County Fair areas cover gentler rides, and Whizzer and the kiddie coasters there are easy entry points. Families who want to skip big coasters entirely sometimes head instead to a smaller park like Santa’s Village in East Dundee, which leans toward young-kid rides and animal encounters rather than thrill coasters.
For a mixed group, Six Flags Great America is still the best single-day answer, since it’s the one Illinois park that genuinely has something for both ends of the group — tame family rides a short walk from the dive coaster. Plan a full day, split up for the big coasters, and regroup for flat rides and shows in between.
Planning an Illinois Coaster Road Trip
Because Six Flags Great America is effectively the state’s one major coaster stop, it fits naturally into a Chicago-area visit — Gurnee sits under an hour north of downtown Chicago and about the same distance south of Milwaukee. Riders building a bigger Midwest coaster trip often use it as a starting point and continue on to Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio (about 5 to 6 hours southeast) or Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana (about 5 to 6 hours south), rather than trying to string together multiple stops inside Illinois itself.
The park runs a full daily schedule in summer and a lighter weekend-only schedule in spring and fall, so May and September weekdays offer the best mix of good weather and short lines, while June through early August draws the heaviest crowds. One reliable money-saver in 2026 is buying tickets online in advance rather than at the gate, since Six Flags consistently prices advance online tickets below walk-up gate pricing.
Explore more: Roller Coasters guide.
Best Roller Coasters in Illinois FAQs
What is the best roller coaster in Illinois?
Goliath at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee. It’s a wood/steel hybrid coaster with a 180-ft first drop and a reversing turn that make it the most complete ride in the state.
What is the tallest roller coaster in Illinois?
Raging Bull at Six Flags Great America, at 202 ft (62 m) tall, is the tallest roller coaster in Illinois.
Which park in Illinois has the most roller coasters?
Six Flags Great America in Gurnee has the largest and most varied roller coaster lineup in the state, spanning wooden classics, inverted and flying coasters, launch coasters, and a dive coaster.
When is the best time to visit Illinois theme parks?
May and September, on weekdays, give the best combination of mild weather and shorter lines. Summer weekends draw the biggest crowds, especially in July.
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Photo: Jeremy Thompson from United States of America / CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.