Attendance across national museum network reaches record 14.7 million

A view of the National Museum of Korea (NMK)
A view of the National Museum of Korea (NMK)

The National Museum of Korea drew more than 6.5 million visitors in 2025, marking the highest annual visitors amid Korean cultural heritage's unprecedented popularity, buoyed by content such as “KPop Demon Hunters.”

When combined with visitor numbers from NMK's 13 affiliated national museums across the country, total attendance reached 14.7 million, the largest figure according to the state museum’s recent data.

Among the most visited exhibitions at affiliated museums is “Silla Gold Crowns: Power and Prestige” at Gyeongju National Museum, which opened Oct. 28. The exhibition drew attention for bringing together six gold crowns from the ancient Silla Kingdom (57 BC-AD 935) in commemoration of the 2025 APEC summit. The exhibition alone drew nearly 2 million visitors.

Based on the 2024 global museum attendance survey released by The Art Newspaper and cited by NMK, the museum ranks alongside the world’s leading museums. This includes the Louvre Museum, which had 8.73 million visitors, and the Vatican Museums with 6.83 million visitors.

NMK’s merchandise and heritage-inspired design products also reached new annual sales highs to surpass 40 billion won, reflecting the growing popularity of Korean cultural heritage from home and abroad.

“In 2026, we will continue to enhance the quality of our exhibitions and services to live up to the public’s trust,” said Yoo Hong-jun, director of the state museum.

The state museum is currently showing two special exhibitions: “The Great Admiral Yi Sun-sin,” centered on records left by Yi Sun-sin during the Imjin War, such as his hand-written diary “Nanjung Ilgi,” as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection exhibition “From Impressionism to Early Modernism: Collectors of Light — From The Metropolitan Museum of Art.”


yunapark@heraldcorp.com