List of galaxies with richest globular cluster systems

This is a list of galaxies with richest known globular cluster systems. As of 2019, the galaxy NGC 6166 has the richest globular cluster system, with 39 000 globular clusters.^[1] Other galaxies with rich globular cluster systems are NGC 4874, NGC 4889, NGC 3311 and Messier 87. For comparison, the Milky Way has a poor globular cluster system, with only 150-180 globular clusters.

Galaxy	Image	Number of globular clusters	Notes
NGC 6166		39 000 ± 2000[1]	Richest known globular cluster system
NGC 4874		18 700 ± 2260[2]	Richest globular cluster system in Coma cluster
NGC 3311		16 500 ± 2000[3]	Richest globular cluster system in southern part of the sky and in Hydra cluster
Messier 87		12 000 ± 800[4]	Richest globular cluster system in Virgo Supercluster and richest in Messier Catalog. Also richest within 100 million light-years. Data from 2006 survey
NGC 4889		11 000 ± 1340[5]	Largest galaxy in this list (diameter is about 1050 000 light-years)
IC 4051		6700 ± 530[5]	Richest globular cluster system in IC catalog
NGC 1395		6000 ± 1100	Richest globular cluster system in Eridanus Cluster, divided into two populations (red and blue)
NGC 1399		6000 ± 600	Richest globular cluster system in Fornax Cluster, most clusters are given
Messier 49		5900
Messier 60		5100[6]
Messier 86		3800	Richest globular cluster system in Markarian's Chain
NGC 6861		3000 ± 300[7]
NGC 1600		2850
Messier 59		2200
Messier 89		2000	Data from 2006 survey
Messier 84		1775 ± 150
Sombrero Galaxy		1600 ± 400	Richest globular cluster system around named galaxy
Centaurus A		1450 ± 160[8]
NGC 4278		1378+32 −194
NGC 4926		1300 ± 300[5]
Maffei 1		1100	Closest galaxy in this list (distance is about 11 000 000 light-years)

NGC 6166, galaxy with richest known globular cluster system