List of most-visited museums

This article lists the forty-five most-visited museums in 2020, followed by other museums with more than two million annual visitors in 2019, but no reported 2020 figures. A museum is defined as a building or institution dedicated to the acquisition, care, research, and exhibition of numerous objects that represent the legacy of humankind and its environment.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the museums listed were closed during the year for long periods of time. For example, the Louvre, the top museum on the list, was closed for 150 days in 2020, and Louvre attendance for 2020 dropped by 72 percent from 2019. Attendance at the top one hundred art museums dropped by 77 percent in 2020.[8] Natural history and science museums had a comparable drop in attendance as a result of the COVID-19 virus, which caused long closures and a global drop in tourism. For example, attendance at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum fell by 72 percent in 2020; attendance at the Natural History Museum in London fell by 77 percent, and attendance at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington fell by 86.4 percent in 2020.[9]

Attendance at the top twenty museums of all categories in 2020 decreased by 78 percent across all regions.[10] in Europe, tourism was largely stopped, and museums were closed for an average of 112 extra days in 2020 due to the virus. Attendance at the top twenty museums in North America, where many museums were forced to close for two thirds of the year, fell by 81 percent in 2020, In the Asia-Pacific region, many museums were less dependent upon foreign visitors, and the museums generally closed for shorter periods, an average of 30 days. Still, in the Asia-Pacific region, attendance dropped by 72.4 percent from 2019.[11]