Top thematic show: "The Amazon: Cycles of Modernity" at the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro received around 7,928 visitors per day (374,876 total) Photo: CCBB Rio

Top Impressionist & Modern show: "De Kooning: a Retrospective" at the Museum of Modern Art, New York received around 6,218 visitors per day (696,362 total) Photo: courtesy John Wronn/Museum of Modern Art

Top "big ticket" shows: Our “Big Ticket” category covers shows that do not adhere to the traditional exhibition format, such as festivals and biennials, or where admission includes entrance to other attractions, such as the grounds of Versailles. Tate Modern led this category with its Unilever series of commissions in the Turbine Hall. Tino Sehgal’s participatory work received around 17,124 visitors per day (1,661,003 total) and Tacita Dean’s had around 12,273 per day (1,841,011 total). Meanwhile, the opening exhibition in the new Tate Tanks space “Art in Action” (above, Aldo Tambellini, Retracing Black, 2012) received around 16,668 visitors per day (2,050,197 total)

Top contemporary art show: "David Hockney RA: a Bigger Picture" at the Royal Academy of Arts, London received around 7,512 visitors per day (600,989 total). Above: The Road Across the Wolds, 1997 Photo: Steve Oliver © David Hockne

Top medieval art show: "Golden Flashes" at the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence received around 6,672 visitors per day (789,241 total) Photo: © Teresa Llordés, MdT

Top Old Master show: "Masterpieces from the Mauritshuis" at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum received around 10,573 visitors per day (758,266 total) Above: Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a pearl earring, around 1665 Photo: The Hague, Mauritshuis

Top decorative arts shows: "The Gallery of the Tapestries" at the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence received around 6,330 visitors per day (425,915 total), while "Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (above) had around 3,837 per day (339,838 total) Photo: courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Top 19th-century art shows: "Nineteenth-century Italian Painting" at the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg received around 7,747 visitors per day (425,000 total), while "Beauty, Morals and Voluptuousness" at the Musée d’Orsay, Paris (above, John William Waterhouse, Saint Cecilia, 1895) had around 4,017 per day (422,954 total) Photo: The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Montreal

Top architecture and design show: "Santiago Calatrava: the Quest for Movement" at the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (above, Eye), received around 5,217 visitors per day (430,000 total) Photo: Santiago Calatrava, LLC

Top antiquities shows: "Golden Age of the Rui State" at the Shanghai Museum received around 6,108 visitors per day (586,372 total) while "Pergamon: Panorama of the Ancient Metropolis" at the Pergamonmuseum, Berlin (above) had around 4,098 per day (1,500,000 total) Photo: Tom Schulze Leipzig-Germany

Top Asian art show: "Colourful Realm: Ito Jakuchu (1716-1800)" at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC received around 7,611 visitors per day (235,931 total) Photo: Rob Shelley, © National Gallery of Art, Washington

Top photography shows: "Little Black Jacket" at the Saatchi Gallery, London (which is free to enter) received around 6,716 visitors per day (161,176 total), while "Cindy Sherman" at the Museum of Modern Art, New York had around 5,660 per day (605,586 total).