The Powerhouse Museum saw a 12 per cent leap in visitors this year, contradicting Deputy Premier Troy Grant's claim the museum must be moved west because fewer Sydneysiders are using it.
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Attendance figures for the Powerhouse outstripped the Australian Museum, which saw visitor numbers fall 4.7 per cent.
As a culture war raged over the Baird government's plan to sell the Powerhouse Museum site to property developers and shift its collection to Parramatta, an extra 46,595 people visited the Powerhouse.
One- quarter of the 428,177 visitors were children.
Mr Grant argued last week that patronage at the museum was in rapid decline.
But the annual report lodged in the NSW Parliament a day later showed strong attendance, boosted during school holidays by The Circus Factory exhibition. The exhibition displayed international circus costumes and historical arcade games.
"It is unhelpful when ministers ignore facts and try to pit Sydneysiders against each other. The Powerhouse is performing well where it is, and western Sydney and the inner city both need cultural assets," said Alex Greenwich, the independent MP for Sydney.
"Keeping the Powerhouse Museum's base in the creative and innovation hub of Ultimo, with an annexed collection in western Sydney, is what's needed to ensure most Sydney residents and visitors can see this collection of 400,000 science, technology, design and decorative artefacts."
The growth in visitors came despite the government's closure of a footbridge between the museum and Darling Harbour.
A quarter of museum visitors are now using a new entrance on The Goods Line pathway, linking pedestrians to Central railway station.
The sale of the Powerhouse was recommended by Infrastructure NSW, a government advisory board comprised of property and construction executives, who identified the museum's site on the edge of Darling Harbour as "very valuable".
But the proposal has drawn criticism and will be debated in the NSW Parliament next year after Mr Greenwich lodged a 10,000-signature petition.
"The increase in visitor numbers to the Powerhouse Museum is further evidence of a thriving cultural and digital creative precinct here in Ultimo," said UTS vice-chancellor Attila Brungs.
Professor Brungs said precinct was undergoing social regeneration after a $1.2 billion upgrade to the UTS campus, the opening of the Goods Line and Central Park, and a 252 per cent jump in digital economy workers.
"UTS supports the development of cultural assets in Western Sydney, but UTS and precinct partners have been urging government to ensure that, if the site is sold, there is an ongoing link with the Powerhouse [Museum] … Selling it merely for high rise residential would be devastating to the start-up and SME innovation hub surrounding the Powerhouse."
Powerhouse director Rose Hiscock resigned this month.
A culture war has raged over whether the Powerhouse needs to move to Paramatta to give western Sydney its own cultural institution.
The Australian Museum reported one in five visitors are from western or south-western Sydney. Forty-five per cent were from the city, northern, eastern and southern suburbs combined.
The Powerhouse didn't provide a breakdown, but reported 60 per cent of visitors are from metropolitan Sydney.
Visitors numbers at both museums were boosted by 28,000 by the Baird government granting free admission to children from the last weekend of the financial year.
