It’s no secret that Melbourne is known for its flourishing street art scene. The city’s unofficial outdoor galleries are always evolving, from kaleidoscopic laneways in the centre of town to countless hidden nooks and crannies throughout the suburbs.
Hotspots like AC/DC Lane, Rankins Lane and the beloved Everfresh Fitzroy mural have long been providing the perfect Instagram photo backdrop for Melbourne’s tourists (and let's be honest, for lots of locals, too). Now, all the creativity of Melbourne's street art history has been quantified, with a new study from Betway officially naming Melbourne as the third best city for street art in the world.
The study analysed 132 cities from around the globe based on multiple metrics, including the number of murals, social media data, online engagement and search traffic. We always knew Melbourne’s street art scene was top-notch, but we’re pretty stoked that we’ve trumped some famously arty European cities including Berlin (fourth place) and Amsterdam (seventh place). Perhaps most importantly, we came in waaaaaaay above Sydney, who barely edged into the global top ten down in eighth place.
So, which cities beat us? According to the study, Paris is the top city for street art in the world, with London taking out second place. With such illustriously arty cities coming first and second, we really can’t complain about coming in third.
While we ranked third in the overall global rankings, we also managed to secure the top spot for one particular street art metric. The researchers clocked the highest number of murals in Melbourne out of all 132 cities included in the study, at a whopping 2,317 pieces of outdoor art. For comparison, that’s more than four times as many as in Paris, and five times as many as in London.
In case you’re curious, here’s the full list of the top ten cities for street art around the world:
- Paris
- London
- Melbourne
- Berlin
- Los Angeles
- New York City
- Amsterdam
- Sydney
- Montreal
- Lisbon
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