This is a list of the most-visited museums in the United States in 2023 and 2022. It is based upon the statistics of the Smithsonian Institution Newsroom (January 2024) and the annual survey of museum attendance by the Art Newspaper published in March 2023 and 2024.
Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York City National Museum of Natural History , Washington D.C. National Gallery of Art , East Building, Washington DCMuseum of Modern Art , New York City National Museum of American History , Washington D.C. The figures in this survey show the diminishing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic , which had caused all of the museums on the list to be closed for long periods of time, and which greatly reduced tourism to the United States. Attendance at the museums listed in the TEA-AECOM Museum Index published in 2023 showed an increase of 70 percent over 2022 levels, but was still only 60 percent of pre-COVID attendance.[ 1]
Rank
Museum
Location
Visitors
Year
(1)
Metropolitan Museum of Art New York City 5,364,000
2023[ 1]
(2)
American Museum of Natural History New York City 5,000,000
2023[ 2]
(3)
National Museum of Natural History Washington, D.C. 4,400,000
2023[ 3]
(4)
National Gallery of Art Washington, D.C. 3,829,812
2023[ 1]
(5)
National Air and Space Museum (with Udvar-Hazy Center )Washington, D.C. 3,100,000
2023[ 4]
(6)
Museum of Modern Art New York City 2,839,509
2023[ 1]
(7)
National 9/11 Museum New York City 2,265,000
2023[ 1]
(8)
National Museum of American History Washington, D.C. 2,100,000
2023[ 5]
(9)
Houston Museum of Natural Science Houston 1,800,000
2023[ 1]
(10)
California Science Center Los Angeles 1,700,000
2023 [ 1]
(11)
National Museum of African American History and Culture Washington, D.C. 1,600,000
2023[ 6]
(12)
Griffin Museum of Science and Industry Chicago 1,476,000
2023[ 1]
(13)
Art Institute of Chicago Chicago 1,300,000
2023[ 7]
(14)
Getty Center Los Angeles 1,251,134
2023[ 1]
(15)
National Portrait Gallery Washington, D.C. 1,166,129
2023[ 1]
(16)
Denver Museum of Nature and Science Denver 1,151,000
2022[ 1]
(17)
Museum of Science Boston 1,123,000
2022[ 1]
(18)
Smithsonian American Art Museum (with Renwick Gallery )Washington, D.C. 1,100,000
2023 [ 8]
(19)
Huntington Library San Marino, California 1,041,881
2022[ 9]
(20)
Field Museum of Natural History Chicago 1,018,002
2022 [ 10] [ 1]
(21)
De Young Museum San Francisco 999,645
2023[ 1]
(22)
Houston Museum of Fine Arts Houston 999,514
2023[ 1]
(23)
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco 966,000
2022[ 11]
(24)
Museum of Fine Arts Boston 952,290
2023[ 1]
(25)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art Los Angeles 902,237
2023[ 1]
(26)
The Broad Los Angeles 895,949
2023[ 1]
(27)
Solomon Guggenheim Museum New York City 861,374
2023[ 1]
(28)
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Bentonville, Arkansas
784,971
2023[ 1]
(29)
Whitney Museum of American Art New York City 768,000
2023[ 1]
(30)
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park
Grand Rapids, Michigan
760,667
2023[ 1]
(31)
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Washington, D.C. 714,684
2023[ 12]
(32)
National Museum of the American Indian Washington, D.C. 701,021
2023[ 1]
(33)
Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland
685,336
2023[ 1]
(34)
Denver Art Museum Denver 656,342
2022[ 13]
(35)
Minneapolis Institute of Art Minneapolis 591,069
2022[ 14]
(36)
The Museum of Flight Seattle 445,538
2023 [ 15]
(37)
Pacific Science Center Seattle 410,000
2022[ 16]
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x "The 100 most popular art museums in the world—blockbusters, bots and bounce-backs" . The Art Newspaper - International art news and events . 2024-03-26. Retrieved 2024-03-26 .^ Smithsonian Institution Newsdesk, retrieved July 9, 2023
^ Smithsonian Institution Newsdesk, retrieved July 9, 2023
^ Smithsonian Institution NewsDesk, retrieved January 10, 2024
^ Smithsonian Institution Newsdesk, retrieved January 10, 2024
^ Smithsonian Institution Newsdesk, retrieved January 10, 2024
^ New York Times, March 21, 2024
^ Smithsonian Institution Newsdesk, retrieved January 10, 2024
^ "Art Newspaper" March 28, 2023
^ TEA-AECOM Museum Index, published June, 2023
^ TEA-AECOM Museum Index, published June 23, 2023
^ Smithsonian Institution Newsdesk, retrieved July 9, 2023
^ "The Art Newspaper, March 28,2023
^ Minneapolis Star-Tribune, December 30, 2022
^ The Museum of Flight. "The Museum of Flight Annual Report 2024" . ^ Pacific Science Center Annual Report, 2023
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