Bovington Tank Museum becomes unlikely YouTube hit with more views than the Louvre

Who needs the Louvre in Paris or The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City when you've got Bovington Tank Museum?

That's the opinion that YouTube have at least after the quaint military museum in Dorset became an unlikely hit on the video site, racking up more than 100 million views, more the the two aforementioned art institutes.

The museum, simply known as 'The Tank Museum' currently has more than 500,000 subscribers to its YouTube channel.

At the time of writing the channel has more than 400 videos with some of the most popular being short documentaries on the history of such tanks as 'The War Horse' and 'King Tiger' which both have more than 2 million views each.

As per the New York Times, the channel is the first ever museum to achieve more than 550,000 subscribers on YouTube and the first to have more than 100 million views.

The museum was founded in 1923 but much of its success in the digital age has come via viewers in the United States and Canada who have become entranced by series on the channel such as top 5 lists and 'Tank Chat.'

Top 5 Tanks | Chris Copson | The Tank Museumwww.youtube.com

One of the stars of the channel is the museum's education officer and full-time presenter Chris Copson who told the BBC that he would never have dreamed "in a million years" that he would become an online celebrity and says that he has even been recognised in the street.

Nik Wyness, the museum’s head of marketing, admitted to NY Times that the YouTube phenomenon has helped the museum financially and generated a third of their revenue last year, which helped boost merchandise sales on their online store.

It's not just YouTube where things are thriving for the Tank Museum. Their TikTok account is also growing with an impressive 320,000 followers so far.

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