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# Met Museum Announces Highest Attendance Numbers Since 2019
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/met-museum-announces-highest-attendance-numbers-since-2019/
- Published: 2025-07-22T20:29:14.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:11:42.000Z
- Description: Two exhibitions alone accounted for more than half a million visitors in the last year.
- Author: Maya Pontone
- Tags: News, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-large, #Import 2025-11-24 09:41 (2025)

Amid [rollbacks in federal arts funding](https://hyperallergic.com/hit-by-federal-grant-losses-nyc-culture-orgs-ask-for-more-city-funding/) and [sweeping layoffs](https://hyperallergic.com/guggenheim-museum-to-lay-off-20-workers/) at [cultural institutions](https://hyperallergic.com/after-pressure-city-saves-jobs-at-brooklyn-museum/) across the United States, visitor attendance appears to remain on a steady incline at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Manhattan museum [announced](https://www.metmuseum.org/press-releases/fy25-pressrelease?ref=hyperallergic.com) yesterday, July 21, that more than 5.7 million attendees visited its two locations — The Met Fifth Ave and The Cloisters — during the 2025 fiscal year, which ended on June 30\. While the visitor rates do not surpass The Met’s 2019 attendance record of over 7 million guests, the data indicates a 5% increase in turnout from last year, when the institution welcomed 5.5 million people.

The figures also included a new peak in single-day attendance at the museum since 2017, courtesy of the [public reopening of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing](https://hyperallergic.com/kwoma-living-artwork-goes-on-display-at-the-met/) on May 31\. The sole event brought in 33,700 people, according to an attendance report. The museum also cited ongoing shows, like [*Sargent and Paris*](https://hyperallergic.com/the-tender-specificity-of-john-singer-sargent/) and [*Superfine: Tailoring Black Style*](https://hyperallergic.com/the-self-fashioning-of-the-black-dandy-superfine-metropolitan-museum/), for its strong turnout; the two exhibitions each brought in more than 427,000 and 291,000 guests, respectively.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2025/07/met-new-galleruy.jpg)

The reopening of The Met's Rockefeller Wing (photo Maya Pontone/*Hyperallergic*)

The newly released statistics show that The Met is continuing to bounce back from dips in attendance attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, the museum was the [first institution in New York City](https://hyperallergic.com/547457/metropolitan-museum-closes-covid-19/) to close to the public indefinitely to prevent the spread of the virus. The museum has since [raised admission prices by $5](https://hyperallergic.com/744245/met-museum-raises-admission-fee/) for out-of-state adults, although its "pay-what-you-wish" policy has remained in place for New York state residents and tri-state region students.

According to the institution, attendance from New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey represented a 109% recovery rate since the pandemic. Local attendance accounted for 62% of all visitors, whereas domestic out-of-state attendees made up just under a quarter. 

International attendance, however, continued to lag at the museum. A Met spokesperson told *Hyperallergic* that global visitors accounted for 15% of its total attendance for the past fiscal year. This is slightly lower than last year, when foreign guests [accounted for 16% of its total visitorship](https://hyperallergic.com/937144/met-museum-attracted-5-5m-visitors-last-year-in-pandemic-rebound/), about half of what it was before the pandemic.