Last week, The Art Newspaper revealed their annual list of the World’s 100 Most Visited Art Museums for 2025. This list collects figures from art museums around the world to learn which places have the most guests in the year. Over 200 million visits were made to the top 100 museums, and one place in Melbourne was the most visited art museum in Australia. With 3 million attendees across its two locations, the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) took the lead as the most popular art museum in the country.
NGV among the World’s 100 Most Visited Art Museums for 2025
The situation in Australia was described as ‘slightly complex’, with major institutions like the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) and the NGV split into two buildings.
Looking at the combined figures, NGV was the most popular spot, with a total of 3,061,799 visitors in 2025. NGV International received 2,495,189 people, while The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia had 566,610. When putting together the rankings, NGV International appeared 25th on the global list, sandwiched between teamLab Planets TOKYO and Shanghai Museum on People’s Square.
The Yayoi Kusama exhibition received a record-breaking 570,537 art enthusiasts, making it the most popular ticketed exhibition in NGV’s history. Over 24% of its visitors came from interstate or overseas, and the exhibition also attracted notable names like Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Troye Sivan and Charles Leclerc.
Meanwhile in Sydney, AGNSW received 2.4 million attendees, and was ranked 28th on the list. Brisbane’s QAGOMA had just under 1.2 million visitors, Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art Australia had 820,000 people and Canberra’s the National Gallery of Australia had 749,000 visitors.
Here are the top 10 most visited museums around the world
- Musée du Louvre – Paris – 9,046,000
- Vatican Museums – Vatican City – 6,933,822
- National Museum of Korea – Seoul – 6,507483
- British Museum – London – 6,440,120
- Metropolitan Museum of Art – New York – 5,984,091
- State Russian Museum – St Petersburg – 5,087,276
- Museo Nacional de Antropología – Mexico City – 5,048,893
- Shanghai Museum East – Shanghai – 4,593,216
- Tate Modern – London – 4,514,266
- National Gallery – London – 4,147,544
To make this worldwide survey, the team at The Art Newspaper contacts every art museum that they are aware of, and institutions are asked to report their visitor numbers. These numbers are usually the same as what is reported to the government, or in their annual report. They look at numbers across the full calendar year (from January to December), and venues are asked to specify how they’ve collected their numbers e.g. via ticket sales.
To read more about the list, click here.
Feeling inspired? Head to NGV International to see the Westwood | Kawakubo exhibition before it goes on April 19, or start planning your trip to see the dazzling Cartier exhibition in June.