Museum attendance has rebounded strongly in recent years, with 2024 figures highlighting a notable shift in the global ranking. According to the annual report published late 2025 by the Themed Entertainment Association, Chinese institutions now by far dominate the list of the world’s most visited museums, reflecting a sharp recovery following the end of strict Covid-19 restrictions.
As our chart shows, Beijing’s Palace Museum tops the ranking with 17 million visitors, followed by several other Chinese museums, including the Chengdu Wuhou Shrine Museum (14.6 million) and the Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s Mausoleum Site Museum in Xi’an (11.6 million), primarily known for its Terracotta Army. In total, six of the ten most visited museums worldwide are now located in China, underscoring the scale of the country’s domestic tourism rebound, with several institutions posting double-digit growth compared to 2023, including the Palace Museum (+17 percent) and the Opium War Museum in Dongguan (+33 percent).
Outside China, the Louvre in Paris remains the most visited museum, attracting 8.7 million visitors in 2024, still below its pre-pandemic peak (more than 10 million in 2018). London’s British Museum and Natural History Museum round out the top 3 in Europe, with 6.5 million and 6.3 million visitors, respectively. Unlike the Louvre, where visitor numbers have declined slightly (-1.4 percent), both UK-based museums have seen a notable increase in attendance in 2024 (+11 percent approximately).
