This list ranks the 25 largest aquariums in the world by total water volume — the standard measure for comparing them — covering facilities open to the public as of August 2026, with every figure checked against current sources. Where totals effectively tie, the aquarium with the larger single exhibit tank ranks first.
The top of this list has completely turned over since 2020: two mega-projects opened within months of each other in 2023 and instantly dwarfed everything built before them.
The Ranking
| # | Aquarium | location | water | opened |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chimelong Spaceship | Zhuhai, China | 75.4M L | 2023 |
| 2 | SeaWorld Abu Dhabi | Yas Island, UAE | 58M L | 2023 |
| 3 | Chimelong Ocean Kingdom | Zhuhai, China | 48.8M L | 2014 |
| 4 | Singapore Oceanarium | Sentosa, Singapore | 45.2M L | 2012 |
| 5 | Georgia Aquarium | Atlanta, USA | 41.6M L | 2005 |
| 6 | L’Oceanogràfic | Valencia, Spain | 41.6M L | 2003 |
| 7 | Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium | Nagoya, Japan | 27M L | 1992 |
| 8 | Moskvarium | Moscow, Russia | 25M L | 2015 |
| 9 | Primorsky Oceanarium | Vladivostok, Russia | 25M L | 2016 |
| 10 | National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium | Hengchun, Taiwan | 24.1M L | 2000 |
| 11 | The Seas with Nemo & Friends | EPCOT, Florida, USA | 21.6M L | 1986 |
| 12 | Aqua Planet Jeju | Jeju Island, South Korea | 20M L | 2012 |
| 13 | Atlanterhavsparken | Ålesund, Norway | 19M L | 1998 |
| 14 | Shedd Aquarium | Chicago, USA | 18.9M L | 1930 |
| 15 | Nausicaá | Boulogne-sur-Mer, France | 17M L | 1991 |
| 16 | uShaka Marine World | Durban, South Africa | 17M L | 2004 |
| 17 | Afrykarium | Wrocław, Poland | ~15M L | 2014 |
| 18 | Cube Oceanarium | Chengdu, China | 11M L | 2015 |
| 19 | Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo | Dubai, UAE | 10.5M L | 2008 |
| 20 | Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan | Osaka, Japan | 10M L | 1990 |
| 21 | Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium | Okinawa, Japan | 9.8M L | 2002 |
| 22 | Monterey Bay Aquarium | Monterey, USA | 8.7M L | 1984 |
| 23 | Poema del Mar | Gran Canaria, Spain | 7.5M L | 2017 |
| 24 | Antalya Aquarium | Antalya, Turkey | 7.5M L | 2012 |
| 25 | Oceanário de Lisboa | Lisbon, Portugal | 7M L | 1998 |
China and the Gulf Rewrote the Record Books
Chimelong Spaceship in Zhuhai — a spaceship-shaped megastructure — holds the Guinness record as the world’s largest aquarium at 75.4 million liters, including the largest single tank on Earth. SeaWorld Abu Dhabi opened the same year claiming 58 million liters and the world’s largest multi-species tank. The record lineage tells the story of aquarium ambition: Georgia Aquarium (2005) → Singapore (2012) → Chimelong Ocean Kingdom (2014) → Chimelong Spaceship (2023).
Names the Old Lists Get Wrong
Singapore’s famous S.E.A. Aquarium closed in April 2025 and reopened three months later, tripled in size, as the Singapore Oceanarium. Berlin’s AquaDom — the giant hotel-lobby cylinder — burst and was destroyed in December 2022. And Georgia Aquarium, still called “the world’s largest” in countless articles, now ranks fifth — though it remains the largest in the Western Hemisphere. Europe’s champion is Valencia’s L’Oceanogràfic, in a statistical dead heat with Atlanta.
Near Misses
Just past the cutoff: Copenhagen’s Den Blå Planet and İstanbul Akvaryum tie Lisbon’s 7 million liters but lose the single-tank tiebreak, along with National Aquarium Denmark, Ripley’s Toronto, and Lausanne’s Aquatis — the largest freshwater aquarium in Europe.
FAQ
What is the largest aquarium in the world?
Chimelong Spaceship in Zhuhai, China — 75.4 million liters of water, Guinness-certified as the world’s largest since it opened in September 2023. It also contains the largest single aquarium tank on Earth.
What is the largest aquarium in the United States?
Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, at 41.6 million liters — the largest in the Western Hemisphere, and home to whale sharks in its 23.8-million-liter Ocean Voyager tank.
What happened to the AquaDom in Berlin?
The 16-meter hotel-lobby cylinder — once the world’s largest freestanding cylindrical aquarium — burst in December 2022, spilling a million liters. It was never rebuilt.
Photo: Zac Wolf via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5)