Busiest subway stations in the world: Shinjuku, Times Square, Jamsil, Waterloo and Châtelet compared

Ask which is the busiest subway station in the world and the answer is a station you can type in HelloSubway: Shinjuku in Tokyo. Ask the same question about New York, Seoul, London or Paris and you get four different kinds of crown, because each city counts its crowds differently. Here is the busiest station in each city, with the figures we could check. Where we could not check one, we say so.

Shinjuku, Tokyo: about 3.5 million a day

Guinness World Records lists Shinjuku as the busiest railway station in the world, including subways, with an average of 2,704,703 passengers a day in 2022, a figure still about 20 percent below its pre-pandemic level. A 2017 count reported by nippon.com put the daily total at 3,530,594 across the five operators that share the building: JR East, Keio, Odakyu, Toei and Tokyo Metro. JR East alone has 16 platforms. Read the Shinjuku exits guide before you go.

Times Square, New York: 57.7 million a year

The Times Square-42nd Street complex is the busiest in the New York subway, with 57,743,486 riders in 2024, nearly double Grand Central-42nd Street in second place, according to MTA data. That is about 158,000 people on an average day, which sounds small next to Shinjuku. Part of the gap is counting: the MTA counts one entry per swipe at the turnstile, while the Tokyo figure covers every passenger through five operators, transfers included. Read the New York number as people entering the system. See the Times Square exits guide.

Jamsil, Seoul: 156,177 a day

For years the busiest station in Seoul was Gangnam. In 2024 the top three were Jamsil with 156,177 daily users, Hongik University with 150,369 and Gangnam with 149,757, and Jamsil kept first place for a second year in a row. Reports on the ranking tie Jamsil's rise to the Line 8 extension past Amsa to Byeollae, which brought riders from Guri and Namyangju into the station. Gangnam, now third, sits on the Line 2 loop. We have exits guides for Gangnam, Hongik University and Jamsil.

King's Cross St Pancras and Waterloo, London: two stations, one crown

London has two stations that take turns at the top. Waterloo was the busiest Underground station in 2024 with 74.14 million entries and exits. In 2025 King's Cross St Pancras took it back with 72.51 million, down from 73.89 million the year before, while Waterloo fell to 69.77 million. Tottenham Court Road, Victoria and Liverpool Street follow, each between 59 and 60 million. The Underground counts both entries and exits, so each trip is counted twice, which is why London's totals look large next to New York's. See the Waterloo exits guide.

Châtelet-Les Halles, Paris: the biggest, not the busiest

Châtelet-Les Halles is called the largest underground station in the world. It opened in 1977, joins five Métro lines and three RER lines, handles about 750,000 travellers on a weekday (493,000 of them on the RER) and has platforms up to 800 metres apart, which is why a change here feels like a walk. Which Paris station is busiest by Métro entries alone depends on the source: some name Gare du Nord, others put Saint-Lazare near the top at around 45 million a year. We could not find one official ranking to confirm, so we name none. See the Châtelet exits guide.

Singapore: the whole network in one Tokyo station

We found no per-station ranking for the Singapore MRT that we could verify. What we can say is the network total: about 3.49 million trips a day in 2025. That is almost the same number as Shinjuku alone in the 2017 count (3.53 million). The two figures come from different years and count different things, so take it as a comparison of scale, not a ranking.

What it would take to type Shinjuku for everyone

Shinjuku is eight letters. If each of the 3,530,594 daily passengers typed the name once, that is 28,244,752 keystrokes. At 300 characters per minute, one fast typist would need about 94,000 minutes, or 65 days of non-stop typing, to do a single day of Shinjuku. Try the Marunouchi Line, or work out your own speed in how typing speed is measured.

Common questions

What is the busiest subway station in the world?

Shinjuku Station in Tokyo. Guinness World Records lists it as the busiest railway station including subways, with 2,704,703 passengers a day in 2022, and a 2017 count put it above 3.5 million.

What is the busiest subway station in New York?

Times Square-42nd Street, with 57,743,486 riders in 2024 according to the MTA, nearly double Grand Central-42nd Street.

What is the busiest subway station in Seoul?

Jamsil, with 156,177 daily users in 2024, ahead of Hongik University (150,369) and Gangnam (149,757).

What is the busiest Tube station in London?

King's Cross St Pancras in 2025, with 72.51 million entries and exits. Waterloo held the title in 2024 with 74.14 million.