‘Passes sold out in a flash’ | National Gallery of Art in DC is the most popular museum for first time since 2008

WASHINGTON — The National Gallery of Art (NGA) was ranked the most popular art museum in the United States in 2022, according to The Art Newspaper’s "visitor figures" survey. The annual survey reviews attendance of art museums around the world to help create their top 100 list. 

For the first time since 2008, the National Gallery of Art came out on top in country, nudging the New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s main building to second place. The National Gallery recorded 3.3 million visitors, compared to the Met's 3.2 million visitors. 

The last time that the NGA came out above the Met was in 2008, when the D.C. museum had almost five million visitors, compared to the New York City Museum with 4.8 million visitors.

The Musée du Louvre in Paris was ranked the most popular museum in the world, with more than 7.7 million views, followed by the Vatican Museums and the British Museum. The top 10 art museums accounted for nearly 40 million visits, according to the survey. 

The second most popular art museum in the U.S. was also in D.C. The National Museum of African American History and Culture saw just under 1.1 million visitors in 2022. The third and fourth most-visited art museums in the District share the same building: the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The two museums had around 954,000 visitors in 2022, down 44% from 2019.

The National Gallery of Art gained significant traction on social media with the launch of its "National Gallery Nights" after-hours program, drawing thousands of participants from the D.C. region at each event. The events typically sell out quickly after registration opens.