I think trying to rank any place as “greatest in the world” is kind of a fraught exercise, so I tried to scope the idea a bit more tightly.

If you want something that tries to be a bit more objective (although I’d stress that trying to rank something like “greatest city” objectively is probably not possible), check out the Wikipedia entry for global city rankings[0].

New York City trades places with London, and once with Tokyo, but otherwise is not terribly contested.

Obviously I’m biased because I live here (and stayed here through the worst of COVID), so take what I’m saying with a grain of salt.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Global_city&mobil...