Key Notes
- Beijing’s Palace Museum led the ranking with 19 million visits, followed by the Summer Palace and Xi’an’s Terracotta Army site.
- China accounts for 12 of the top 20 institutions, while the Louvre is the most visited outside China.
- The 2025 attendance study includes historic palaces and curated heritage sites as well as conventional museums.
Beijing’s Palace Museum led the world’s most-visited museums in 2025 with 19 million visits, according to the latest https://www.teaconnect.org/tea-global-experience-indextm Global Experience Index. The former imperial palace complex in the Forbidden City finished ahead of Beijing’s Summer Palace and the museum encompassing Xi’an’s Terracotta Army site.
The Louvre placed fourth, with 9.046 million visits, making it the highest-ranked institution outside China. For travellers building a trip around culture, the list offers a wider view of museum-going than a tour of Europe’s best-known art collections.
A Global Ranking With a Broader Definition of Museums
The 2025 edition covers a calendar year of attendance, rather than the past twelve months from today. It was released in October 2026, so its figures describe visits in 2025.
https://www.teaconnect.org/tea-global-experience-indextm’s release explains that the museum category includes historic palaces and sites with curated collections. That brings places such as the Summer Palace and Versailles into the comparison alongside art, history and science museums.
The distinction matters when comparing this ranking with an art-museum league table. It measures attendance within https://www.teaconnect.org/tea-global-experience-indextm’s selected category, rather than artistic importance, collection size or the quality of an individual visit.
The World’s 20 Most-Visited Museums in 2025
The attendance figures in the ranking are:
- Palace Museum, Beijing, China — 19,000,000 visits
- Summer Palace, Beijing, China — 17,381,000 visits
- Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum, Xi’an, China — 10,970,000 visits
- Musée du Louvre, Paris, France — 9,046,000 visits
- Palace of Versailles, Versailles, France — 8,400,000 visits
- Shenzhen Nanshan District Museum, Shenzhen, China — 7,455,000 visits
- Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom — 7,117,000 visits
- Vatican Museums, Vatican City — 6,934,000 visits
- Opium War Museum, Dongguan, China — 6,929,000 visits
- National Museum of China, Beijing, China — 6,900,000 visits
- Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul, South Korea — 6,887,000 visits
- National Museum of Korea, Seoul, South Korea — 6,507,000 visits
- British Museum, London, United Kingdom — 6,440,000 visits
- Prince Kung’s Mansion Museum, Beijing, China — 6,120,000 visits
- Sanxingdui Museum, Guanghan, China — 6,080,000 visits
- Chengdu Wuhou Shrine Museum, Chengdu, China — 6,030,000 visits
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States — 5,984,000 visits
- Nanjing Museum, Nanjing, China — 5,860,000 visits
- Shenyang Palace Museum, Shenyang, China — 5,852,000 visits
- China Science and Technology Museum, Beijing, China — 5,530,000 visits
China Leads, While Europe Retains Major Cultural Draws
Chinese institutions occupy 12 of the 20 places, including the entire top three. Beijing alone accounts for five entries, from the Palace Museum and Summer Palace to the National Museum of China, Prince Kung’s Mansion Museum and China Science and Technology Museum.
France and the United Kingdom each have two entries. Versailles joins the Louvre in France’s pair, while London’s Natural History Museum and British Museum represent different kinds of collection within the same city. South Korea also has two, both in Seoul. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the only North American institution in the top 20.
Across the same group of leading institutions, https://www.teaconnect.org/tea-global-experience-indextm reports 161.4 million visits in 2025, up 5.4% from 153.2 million in 2024. Sixteen of the top 20 recorded growth.
What to Know Before Planning a Visit
For the Palace Museum, begin with its official visitor guide. The museum says it does not sell tickets on the day of a visit and asks overseas visitors to provide passport details when reserving online. Its usual Monday closure has holiday exceptions, so check the calendar before fixing the rest of a Beijing itinerary.
For Paris, the Louvre’s visit page recommends a time-slot booking, including for visitors entitled to free entry. It also provides opening hours and information on room closures, which can matter more to a particular trip than the museum’s place in a global ranking.
We have also explored the growing interest in history-led travel. A museum or palace can provide the focus for a whole day, with nearby neighbourhoods, gardens and places to eat shaping the rest of the itinerary.
The five-image gallery brings together the Palace Museum, Xi’an’s Terracotta Army site, the Louvre, Versailles and London’s Natural History Museum. Use it for inspiration, then check each institution’s official booking rules and choose the collections you most want to see.
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