Virtual Museum & Online Exhibition Statistics You Need to Know in 2026

Key Virtual Museum Statistics

The numbers that define the state of virtual museums and online exhibitions in 2026, at a glance.

1. The world's 100 most-visited museums drew more than 200 million visits in 2025, still below the roughly 230 million recorded in 2019. (Source: The Art Newspaper Annual Visitor Figures Survey, 2026)
2. During the 2020 lockdown the Louvre drew 10.5 million virtual visitors in just 71 days, approaching the 14.1 million in-person visits it recorded across all of 2019. (Source: Forbes, 2020)
3. Only 13% of US art museum collections are on physical display, meaning the vast majority of art can only reach audiences through storage visits or digital channels. (Source: Ithaka S+R Art Museum Director Survey, 2025)
4. 47.6% of museums offer virtual tours or exhibits, according to a July 2024 survey of 242 museum professionals. (Source: MuseumNext, 2024)
5. Online art sales were an estimated $9.2 billion in 2025, about 15% of the $59.6 billion global art market. (Source: Art Basel & UBS Global Art Market Report, 2026)
6. 51% of high-net-worth collectors made at least one art purchase via Instagram in 2025, up from 43% in 2023. (Source: Art Basel & UBS Survey of Global Collecting, 2025)
7. The global virtual tour market was estimated at $11.06 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow at a 34.3% compound annual rate from 2025 to 2030. (Source: Grand View Research, 2024)
8. Immersive digital art museum teamLab Planets TOKYO drew 2,504,264 visitors in a single year, a Guinness World Record for the most visited museum dedicated to a single art group. (Source: Guinness World Records, 2024)

Museum Attendance in 2026

Physical attendance is recovering unevenly: flagship institutions are close to full strength while the broader sector still trails 2019.

1. The Musée du Louvre remained the world's most-visited museum, counting more than 9 million visitors in 2025 and gaining on the previous year. (Source: The Art Newspaper Annual Visitor Figures Survey, 2026)
2. The Metropolitan Museum of Art drew nearly 6 million visitors in 2025, up 4% on 2024, making it the most-visited museum in the United States. (Source: The Art Newspaper Annual Visitor Figures Survey, 2026)
3. 33% of US adults reported visiting a museum in the past year in 2025, slightly exceeding pre-pandemic norms of 25% to 31%. (Source: American Alliance of Museums / Wilkening Consulting, 2025)
4. US museums that have not recovered their pre-pandemic audiences are operating at a median of 81% of pre-pandemic attendance levels. (Source: American Alliance of Museums / Wilkening Consulting, 2025)
5. 14 of the world's 20 most-visited museums tracked by the TEA Global Experience Index are now located in China. (Source: TEA/ECA Global Experience Index, 2024)
6. 44% of UK museums saw overall visitor numbers increase in the past year, while about a fifth saw audiences decline, according to a survey of 329 museum directors. (Source: Art Fund Museum Directors Research, 2026)
7. 17.7% of US adults visited an art museum or gallery in 2022, down from 23.7% in 2017. (Source: National Endowment for the Arts, 2022 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts)
8. Attendance at art exhibits fell 8.6 percentage points among US adults between 2017 and 2022, the steepest decline of any visual arts activity measured. (Source: National Endowment for the Arts, 2022 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts)

Who Visits Museums

Museum audiences skew educated and family-driven, and the sector's challenge is reaching everyone else, which is where digital access matters most.

1. Parents and guardians of minor children are the life stage most likely to visit US museums, with 44% visiting in the past year, versus 26% of adults aged 60 or older. (Source: American Alliance of Museums / Wilkening Consulting, 2025)
2. Just under half (48%) of US adults attended at least one arts event in person in 2021-2022. (Source: National Endowment for the Arts, 2022)
3. The post-2017 decline in US attendance at art exhibits was steepest among adults aged 55 to 74, with many decreases exceeding 10 percentage points. (Source: National Endowment for the Arts, 2022 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts)

Museums Online: Digital Engagement

Digital is already the single largest way people experience art, even as it remains one of the smallest lines in museum budgets.

1. 11.1% of US adults used an electronic or digital device to view visual artworks such as paintings and sculpture in 2022, and 7.1% used a device to interact with an art exhibit at a venue. (Source: National Endowment for the Arts, 2022)
2. The Louvre's online collections database offers free access to entries for more than 500,000 works. (Source: Musée du Louvre Collections database, 2026)
3. Google Arts & Culture supports over 2,000 cultural institutions in over 80 countries, hosting more than 200,000 high-resolution artwork images and 7 million archival artifacts. (Source: Google Arts & Culture, 2026)
4. Google Arts & Culture offers over 1,800 Street View virtual museum tours and more than 3,000 expert-curated online exhibitions. (Source: Google Arts & Culture, 2026)
5. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Open Access program provides data on more than 470,000 artworks for unrestricted use under a CC0 license. (Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2026)
6. Digital experiences rank among the lowest investment priorities for US art museum directors: only 6% would direct a hypothetical 10% budget increase to digital experiences, and digital platforms account for about 1% of operating expenses. (Source: Ithaka S+R Art Museum Director Survey, 2025)

Virtual Museum Tours & 3D Spaces

Virtual tours went from pandemic stopgap to standing infrastructure, and the strongest evidence for what 3D spaces do to engagement comes from the industries that measure it hardest.

1. Among museums offering virtual tours, 73.4% provide them free of charge, 18% mix free and paid access, and just 8.6% charge exclusively. (Source: MuseumNext, 2024)
2. In a survey of 2,000 US property buyers and sellers, 92% of prospective buyers said they would be more likely to buy a home if the listing had an immersive 3D tour. (Source: Matterport, 2020)
3. Nearly 80% of US property buyers and sellers say they would switch to an agent who offers immersive 3D tours, and 55% of buyers would buy sight-unseen with a 3D tour. (Source: Matterport, 2020)
4. Research across 143,575 US listings found that properties with 3D tours closed at a 4-9% higher sale price and up to 31% faster. (Source: Matterport, 2020)
5. Homes on Zillow with 3D tours earned 81% more views and were saved by buyers 53% more often than listings without them. (Source: Zillow, 2022)

The Online Art Market

Online art sales boomed, corrected, and are settling into a structural role: smaller share of dollars, growing share of transactions, and the default channel for works under $50,000.

1. Online art sales fell to $9.2 billion in 2025, their lowest level since 2019, and their share of the total art market declined to 15%. (Source: Art Basel & UBS Global Art Market Report, 2026)
2. The volume of art market transactions grew 2% to an estimated 41.5 million in 2025, with growth concentrated at lower price levels. (Source: Art Basel & UBS Global Art Market Report, 2026)
3. Global art market sales declined 12% in 2024 to an estimated $57.5 billion, even as the number of transactions grew 3% to 40.5 million. (Source: Art Basel & UBS Art Market Report, 2025)
4. Online art sales reached $10.5 billion in 2024, down 11% year-on-year, while e-commerce held an 18% share of total art market sales. (Source: Art Basel & UBS Art Market Report, 2025)
5. Online art sales grew 7% in 2023 to $11.8 billion, accounting for 18% of the global art market. (Source: Art Basel & UBS Art Market Report, 2024)
6. Online sales made up 23% of art dealers' total sales in 2023, with dealers' own websites and channels accounting for 20% of sales, up from 12% in 2022. (Source: Art Basel & UBS Art Market Report, 2024)
7. More than 95% of transactions in online-only auctions in 2023 were for works priced under $50,000. (Source: Art Basel & UBS Art Market Report, 2024)
8. Online art and collectibles sales were estimated at $10.8 billion in 2022, roughly five times the size of the online market in 2012. (Source: Hiscox Online Art Trade Report, 2023)

How People Buy Art Online

Collectors normalized online buying during the pandemic and kept the habit, with social platforms turning into genuine sales channels.

1. Just under half (49%) of the buyers that art dealers sold to in 2025 were new buyers. (Source: Art Basel & UBS Global Art Market Report, 2026)
2. More than half of high-net-worth collectors surveyed in 2025 reported buying digital artworks, making digital art the third-highest category of fine art spending behind paintings and sculpture. (Source: Art Basel & UBS Survey of Global Collecting, 2025)
3. 61% of art collectors say they typically consider artworks priced under $5,000, the most-selected price range in Artsy's collector survey. (Source: Artsy Art Market Trends, 2025)
4. The biggest barriers to buying art online are insufficient information about the work (48%) and lack of a visible price (43%). (Source: Artsy Art Market Trends, 2025)
5. 78% of art buyers bought art online in 2022, down from the 2021 peak of 85% but far above the pre-pandemic level of 44% in 2019. (Source: Hiscox Online Art Trade Report, 2023)
6. More than half (51%) of art buyers said their confidence and interest in buying art online increased during the pandemic. (Source: Hiscox Online Art Trade Report, 2023)

Artists & Galleries Selling Online

For working artists and galleries, the internet is now the top source of new buyers, and transparency is what converts.

1. 43% of galleries plan to focus more on online sales, and 55% say they will create more online content such as social media videos and online-only shows. (Source: Artsy Art Market Trends, 2025)
2. Online marketplaces (42%) outrank art fairs (36%) as a source of new clients for galleries, and among large galleries online marketplaces rank first at 73%. (Source: Artsy Art Industry Trends, 2024)
3. 54% of large galleries identify online marketplaces and e-commerce as a growing source of artwork sales, ahead of art fairs at 38%. (Source: Artsy Art Industry Trends, 2024)
4. High-net-worth collectors are increasingly buying directly from artists, with studio visits rising to an average of seven per year in 2024 and eight planned for 2025. (Source: Art Basel & UBS Survey of Global Collecting, 2025)
5. Only 49% of independent artists earn a steady, stable income from their art, and the largest group spends 21 to 30 hours per week promoting their work online. (Source: Saatchi Art Artist Report, 2022)

3D, AR & Immersive Art Experiences

Where 3D and augmented reality are measured against flat images, they win on engagement and conversion, and immersive art has become a proven box-office draw.

1. Shoppers who viewed a product in AR on fashion brand Rebecca Minkoff's store were 65% more likely to make a purchase. (Source: Shopify, 2026)
2. Shoppers who viewed a product as a 3D model were 44% more likely to add it to their cart than those viewing flat images. (Source: Shopify, 2026)
3. More than 100 million consumers already shop with AR online and in stores. (Source: Snap Inc. / Deloitte, 2021)
4. Consumers are 41% more likely to consider companies that offer branded AR experiences, and 74% expect AR to become more important in their lives over the next five years. (Source: Deloitte Digital / Snap Inc., 2021)
5. Lighthouse Immersive sold roughly 7 million tickets to its Immersive Van Gogh exhibitions across 18 North American cities. (Source: The Art Newspaper, 2023)

Future Projections

Every analyst firm tracking the space projects double-digit annual growth for virtual, 3D, and immersive experience technology through 2030 and beyond.

1. The global virtual tour software market was valued at $492.2 million in 2025 and is projected to reach $1,373.5 million by 2034, at a CAGR of 11.9%. (Source: Fortune Business Insights, 2025)
2. The augmented reality and mixed reality market is estimated at $256.91 billion in 2025 and expected to reach $998.14 billion by 2030, a CAGR of 31.19%. (Source: Mordor Intelligence, 2025)
3. The global immersive entertainment market was valued at $144.17 billion in 2025 and is forecast to reach $496.52 billion by 2031, at a CAGR of 22.88%. (Source: Mordor Intelligence, 2025)
4. VR and AR have the potential to add $1.5 trillion to the global economy by 2030. (Source: PwC, Seeing Is Believing, 2020)

Sources: Grand View Research (2024); Fortune Business Insights (2025); Mordor Intelligence (2025).

Sources

Every stat above is sourced from one of the following organizations or publications:

• The Art Newspaper
• American Alliance of Museums
• Wilkening Consulting
• National Endowment for the Arts
• Themed Entertainment Association (TEA/ECA)
• Art Fund
• Ithaka S+R
• Musée du Louvre
• Google Arts & Culture
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Art Basel & UBS / Arts Economics
• Hiscox
• Artsy
• Saatchi Art
• Grand View Research
• Fortune Business Insights
• Mordor Intelligence
• PwC
• Matterport
• Zillow
• Shopify
• Snap Inc. / Deloitte
• MuseumNext
• Guinness World Records
• Forbes