Visitor Figures

The 100 most popular art museums in the world—who has recovered and who is still struggling?

Our exclusive Visitor Figures 2022 survey shows that numbers in Paris and Seoul were almost back to normal last year, while other major centres such as London struggled to hit pre-pandemic levels

Lee Cheshire and José da Silva. Research conducted by Alex Colville and Justin Kamp

Wide disparity in museum access among UK school pupils, new research reveals

The Art Fund also reveals a drop in teachers taking students to institutions since the pandemic

National Gallery London masterpieces show in Shanghai sets record for visitor numbers

Beating the most popular paid-for exhibition on home turf, it has been a big win for the museum—but ethical questions linger

The Met down 1.7 million visitors compared to pre-pandemic level—the biggest drop of any US art museum

The New York institution, usually the most popular art museum in the US, was overtaken in 2022 by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC

Covid-era booking systems may be putting off visitors to UK museums

Mixed messages and time slotted tickets could be deterring some people

Louvre retains its place as the most-visited art museum in the world

Paris institution tops our visitor figures survey yet again, while the city’s other museums do well too

M+ becomes one of the most-popular art museums in Asia, despite Covid closures

The new Hong Kong museum attracted more than 2 million people in its first full year

Revealed: the top 20 most popular art museums on social media in 2023

We look at how the 100 most-visited museums in our Visitor Figures survey performed online

Aimee Dawson. Research conducted by Chinma Johnson-Nwosu

Will China’s museums still come out on top despite harsh Covid rules?

For much of 2022, Chinese cities were either in lockdown or braced for one

Two years on, London museums are still missing visitors—what's happened?

For the capital’s museums, historically so reliant on international tourists, recovery from the pandemic has been slow

What has happened to visitor numbers at Russian museums since the start of the war?

As Russia leaves the world cultural stage following its invasion of Ukraine, we look at how its art institutions have reacted

World’s major museums resist TikTok surge—with a few notable exceptions

Our 2021 Visitor Figures survey shows that institutions are largely failing to adopt the world's most popular social media platform but those that do are reaping the rewards

French museums survived a drastic fall in tourism but may face uphill struggle as state support dries up

France’s status as a honeypot for tourists from Asia and the US has taken a huge hit, from which its cultural institutions are still reeling. Now the country’s museums hope that French and European visitors can restore their finances

Bouncing back: the US museums that have regained the visitors lost to Covid closures

While the pandemic has devastated the visitor numbers of many big-name museums, some medium-sized institutions are already thriving

How to get the next generation in India's youngest state to visit museums? Give schools money

The $17.4m scheme in Bihar has resulted in 33,000 young visitors to its main museum in Patna in a year

Visitor Figures 2021: the 100 most popular art museums in the world—but is Covid still taking its toll?

While attendance figures still have some way to go to reach pre-pandemic levels, fewer days of lockdown-related closures coupled with vaccine rollout programmes spelled good news for institutions around the world

Are UK museums deterring visitors with Covid booking system for permanent collections?

As restrictions ease, institutions are reconsidering the policy introduced during the pandemic as it could be putting off last-minute visitors

Running at 7%: Tate Modern's visitors slumped from 5.7 million at its peak to just 361,000 in 2020/21

Annual financial accounts show extent of fall in visitor numbers at national museums

Visitor figures: how many people are actually returning to London museums post-lockdown?

We asked English institutions to provide figures for the four-week period from 17 May to gauge current demand

While US museum attendance nosedived in 2020 amid pandemic, disparities in reopenings yielded a few surprises

Huntington Library in California and Crystal Bridges in Arkansas ascended to the top of our visitor figures list

Podcastspodcast

Has the drop in visitors changed museums forever?

Exhibitions editor José da Silva breaks down the results from our Visitor Figures 2020 survey and digital expert Chris Unitt explains how museums have pivoted to digital

British Museum hit hardest by 2020 lockdown among UK’s big museums

Major UK institutions lost 78% of their visitors due to the pandemic last year, our research reveals

Visitor Figures 2020: top 100 art museums revealed as attendance drops by 77% worldwide

The Art Newspaper's annual survey shows how the pandemic had a devastating impact on museums around the world—but there were some silver linings

Emily Sharpe and José da Silva. With additional reporting by Martin Bailey. Research conducted by Federico Florian and Victoria Stapley-Brown

Can museums really make digital visits pay?

As venues experiment with selling virtual exhibition tours, talks and workshops online, the key to success may be an emphasis on the expert, bespoke and exclusive

Curate-it-yourself: French museums take to social media to ask the public what they want to see in their galleries

Spurred on by the pandemic, several institutions are inviting art lovers to choose works for display

Who were the most Googled artists in 2020?

Search data from 84 countries last year shows that Leonardo, Van Gogh and Frida Kahlo were among the world's most popular artists

Instagram overtakes Twitter as most popular platform for museums during Covid-19 pandemic

Our global Visitor Figures survey reveals huge growth in followings online as physical doors shut to the public in 2020

The Musée du Louvre—the world’s most popular art museum—saw 72% drop in visitors last year

Despite kicking off 2020 with a record-breaking Leonardo exhibition, like many museums around the world, the Parisian institution was adversely affected by coronavirus lockdowns

The exceptional piece of calligraphy at the centre of one of 2019's most popular—and most controversial—exhibitions

Tokyo National Museum’s show on Chinese artist Yan Zhenqing ranks 15th in our latest visitor attendance survey despite contentious loan from Taipei museum

Manga beats Rembrandt and Captain Cook to be named the British Museum’s most popular show last year

The exhibition on the global phenomenon was the largest ever to be staged outside Japan