Exclusive | The world's 100 most visited art museums in 2025: new venues a big hit with visitors

The Art Newspaper’s annual survey of museum attendance reported that more than 200 million visits were made to the world’s 100 most visited art museums in 2025, compared with 230 million in 2019 and 54 million in 2020, indicating continued recovery from the Covid-19 collapse. The report notes that new museums have drawn strong crowds in regions including the Middle East and East Asia, and even in established museum hubs such as London and New York, while some formerly dominant institutions still lag behind pre-pandemic levels. London’s National Gallery recorded nearly 4.2 million visitors in 2025—about 30% higher than the previous year after the Sainsbury Wing reopened in May, but still about 30% below its 2019 level, with monthly figures averaging 15% down on 2019 after reopening. The National Portrait Gallery returned to pre-Covid levels with 1.5 million visitors, and the new V&A East Storehouse averaged nearly 60,000 visitors per month and reportedly hit its annual target within five months; Madrid’s Prado also surpassed 3.5 million visitors for the first time.

Read the full article at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events