# What was the greatest World's Fair in history?

> Some of these left a tower or a dome behind; others left a demolition bill. A century and a half of countries showing off.

*By YPB Team · Published August 20, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-was-the-greatest-worlds-fair-in-history*

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## Current results (2 votes)

1. **World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893** — 100% (2 votes · score 1000/1000)
   The White City, the first Ferris wheel, and the template for American civic architecture.
2. **Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis 1904** — 0% (0 votes · score 733/1000)
   A fair so large it swallowed the Olympic Games held alongside it.
3. **Expo 2020, Dubai** — 0% (0 votes · score 622/1000)
   Delayed a year by the pandemic, then staged as the region's largest event.
4. **Expo 70, Osaka** — 0% (0 votes · score 551/1000)
   Japan's arrival as a design superpower, with the Tower of the Sun at its centre.
5. **Exposition Universelle, Paris 1900** — 0% (0 votes · score 466/1000)
   Fifty million visitors, the first Metro line and the Grand Palais, all opening at once.
6. **Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco 1915** — 0% (0 votes · score 466/1000)
   The city's announcement that it had rebuilt itself after the 1906 earthquake.
7. **New York World's Fair 1964** — 0% (0 votes · score 466/1000)
   The Unisphere, It's a Small World, and a generation's first look at the computer age.
8. **Expo 92, Seville** — 0% (0 votes · score 466/1000)
   Spain's coming-out party, sharing 1992 with the Barcelona Olympics.
9. **Expo 2010, Shanghai** — 0% (0 votes · score 466/1000)
   The most visited world's fair ever held, with more than 70 million admissions.
10. **New York World's Fair 1939** — 0% (0 votes · score 363/1000)
   The World of Tomorrow, the Trylon and Perisphere, and television's public debut.
11. **Century 21 Exposition, Seattle 1962** — 0% (0 votes · score 363/1000)
   Left the Space Needle and the monorail standing over the city.
12. **Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs, Paris 1925** — 0% (0 votes · score 363/1000)
   The fair that gave art deco both its look and its name.
13. **The Great Exhibition, London 1851** — 0% (0 votes · score 233/1000)
   The first of them all, staged inside Paxton's Crystal Palace and funded so well it built South Kensington's museums.
14. **Exposition Universelle, Paris 1889** — 0% (0 votes · score 233/1000)
   The centenary of the revolution, and the fair that left the Eiffel Tower behind as its entrance arch.
15. **Century of Progress, Chicago 1933** — 0% (0 votes · score 233/1000)
   A depression-era fair that turned modernism into popular entertainment.
16. **Expo 58, Brussels** — 0% (0 votes · score 233/1000)
   The first post-war fair, crowned by the Atomium and the space race in miniature.
17. **Expo 67, Montreal** — 0% (0 votes · score 233/1000)
   Buckminster Fuller's biosphere and Habitat 67, the most admired fair of the modern era.
18. **Exposition Internationale, Paris 1937** — 0% (0 votes · score 233/1000)
   Remembered for the German and Soviet pavilions glaring at each other, and for Picasso's Guernica.

Tags: architecture, events, design