China now runs the global museum game. The Themed Entertainment Association's 2025 Global Experience Index, now in its 20th year, put the top 20 museums at a combined 161.4 million visits — up 5.4 per cent on 2024 — and Beijing's Palace Museum (the Forbidden City) led the pack with 19 million, comfortably ahead of its neighbour the Summer Palace at 17.4 million.

The picture is heavily East Asian. China plus Taiwan accounted for 18 of the top 20 in the Asia-Pacific rankings, and 12 of the 20 worldwide slots, from the terracotta warriors site in Xi'an (nearly 11 million) to the Opium War Museum in Dongguan and the Sanxingdui Museum in Guanghan, both drawing close to seven and six million respectively. The Louvre, at just over nine million, remains the busiest museum outside China; New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, at roughly six million, was the only North American institution to make the cut.

There are a few interesting movers. Seoul's National Museum of Korea jumped 68 per cent to around 6.5 million visits, which the index credits partly to the global wave of interest in Korean culture and a hit merchandise programme. And in London, the National Gallery posted the standout growth of the entire list — up 29.5 per cent — following the reopening of its revamped Sainsbury Wing. The Natural History Museum pulled in 7.1 million visitors, with the British Museum at 6.4 million, giving the UK two entries on the global list.

Not every number went up. Washington's federal museums saw double-digit declines, a direct knock-on effect of the 43-day US government shutdown — a reminder that free-entry institutions relying on federal funding and staffing are unusually exposed to political gridlock.

For travellers, this list doubles as a crowd forecast. If you're planning the Palace Museum, book well ahead and consider the shoulder seasons; the Louvre and Versailles reward early-morning or late-entry tickets; and London's trio of heavyweights are all free to enter, so a weekday visit is your best defence against the queues. The rise of places like Shenzhen Nanshan and Chengdu Wuhou Shrine also signals that China's museum boom extends well beyond Beijing — worth factoring in if you're building a wider China itinerary around history and culture.

Full story via The Independent Travel.