In 1903 Bean partnered with a local businessman called John Outhwaite and bought thirty acres of land known as the Watson Estate. They had been to Coney Island and seen what an amusement park at scale could be. By 1923 they had reclaimed land from the seafront to give them the present forty-two-acre site. The same year Bean brought in John A. Miller, one of the great American coaster engineers, to design the Big Dipper - an out-and-back wooden roller coaster that still runs. Bean died of pneumonia in 1929, having spent thirty-three years building the place. His daughter Lillian-Doris had married a London businessman named Leonard Thompson the year before. Lillian-Doris inherited the business and Leonard came north to run it. The Thompson dynasty has been at Pleasure Beach ever since.

Between 1933 and 1935 the architect Charles Paige designed three wooden coasters that defined the park's identity. The 1933 Roller Coaster, the 1934 Fun House, and the 1935 Grand National - the last being a wooden Möbius loop coaster, where two trains race on what looks like two tracks but is actually a single continuous loop in the shape of a figure eight. Only two such coasters still operate in the world. Joseph Emberton was hired to remake the buildings in Art Deco; his Casino Building from 1938 is still the entrance pavilion. The park stayed open all through the Second World War despite slashed investments. In 1958 the Wild Mouse opened, the first new ride after the war. Then in 1994 came The Big One: at 235 feet above sea level, the tallest roller coaster in the world at opening. It held the UK height record for thirty years.

Geoffrey Thompson took over from his father Leonard in 1976 and ran the park for nearly three decades. He oversaw Steeplechase, Avalanche, Revolution - the first inverting steel coaster in Europe - and the Norse-themed dark ride Valhalla in 2000, repeatedly voted Best Water Ride in the World at the industry's Golden Ticket Awards. On 12 June 2004 Geoffrey suffered a fatal heart attack at the park while attending the wedding reception of his daughter Amanda. His mother Doris died nine days later, on the day of his funeral. Amanda Thompson took over the business. She has overseen the addition of Nickelodeon Land, a ten-million-pound children's area opened in 2011, and the £16.25 million Mack Rides multi-launch coaster Icon in 2018. In February 2024 the park rebranded as Pleasure Beach Resort. A month later Thorpe Park's Hyperia ended the Big One's UK height record.

The Casino Building - which has nothing to do with gambling and everything to do with Italian dance halls, casino in the old sense - has been Pleasure Beach's front door since 1938. Inside, the Hot Ice Show has been running since 1936, an extravagant seasonal ice spectacle now produced by Amanda Thompson with choreography by Oula Jaaskelainen. The Sir Hiram Maxim's Captive Flying Machine, dating from 1904, is the oldest amusement ride in Europe still in service. Some 21 people were injured in August 2000 when two Big One trains collided due to brake failure; the ride was reopened after investigation, and remains the second tallest coaster in the UK. The park has had losses too. Eleven-year-old Christopher Sharrat died in July 2000 after falling from Space Invader - he had unfastened his seatbelt, possibly in panic. The ride was eventually removed.

Pleasure Beach is the most-visited free attraction in the UK. Four generations of one family have shaped its character: Bean, the failed New York adman; Leonard and Doris Thompson, who steadied it through depression and war; Geoffrey, who modernised it; and Amanda, who is still in charge. The Killers filmed the music video for Here with Me across Blackpool in 2012, including Pleasure Beach and the Tower Ballroom. Coronation Street has shot scenes here. Simply Red's 1995 video for Fairground was made here. RollerCoaster Tycoon: Loopy Landscapes included a Pleasure Beach scenario in 2000, and a generation of kids learned what a Möbius loop coaster was from a video game built around this exact park. The roar of the Big One drops, the smell of fried doughnuts off the promenade, the wooden lattice of the Grand National against a grey northern sky - this is a particular kind of British seaside delight, kept alive by one family on the same sand dune Bean bought back in 1903.