R² Explained – Theme Park Definition

R² (R-squared, also called the coefficient of determination) measures how much of the variation in real wait times the model successfully captures. A value of 1.0 would mean the model perfectly predicts every queue; 0.0 means it explains nothing beyond a simple average. In practice, values above 0.7 indicate a strong model; values above 0.9 are excellent.

For wait time prediction, achieving high R² is challenging because queues are influenced by unpredictable factors — ride breakdowns, sudden weather changes, viral social media moments — that no model can foresee. park.fan's R² score reflects real-world performance across all tracked predictions, updated daily.