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Summary: Background: Acne vulgaris is widespread across the world. Mapping the latest magnitudes and temporal trends of acne vulgaris provides the essential foundation for targeted public policies at the national, regional and global levels. Objectives: In compliance with the framework of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019, this study aimed to summarize the incidence, prevalence, DALYs and the corresponding secular trends of acne vulgaris by sex and age group in 204 countries from 1990 to 2019. Methods: The average annual percentage change was calculated to depict the temporal trends in age‐standardized rates (ASRs) of acne vulgaris burden by region, sex and age. Results: Globally, it was estimated that there were 117·4 million [95% uncertainty interval (UI) 103·0–133.7] incident cases of acne vulgaris, 231·2 million (95% UI 208·2–255·5) prevalent cases and 5·0 (95% UI 3·0–7·9) million DALYs, with an increase of approximately 48% compared with 1990. Moreover, the overall ASRs of acne vulgaris increased by approximately 0·55% annually over the past three decades. We observed large disparities in ASRs of acne vulgaris with changing trends in sex, location and age. The ASR of acne vulgaris among women was around 1·3 times that of men, but the sex difference was narrowed because of the pronounced increase among men. The ASRs of acne vulgaris were higher in high‐income regions, but the increasing trend was more pronounced in other regions. Conclusions: The burden rate of acne vulgaris continues to increase in almost all countries. Understanding the specific characteristics of acne vulgaris burden is essential to formulate more effective and targeted interventions for controlling acne burden. Whatis already known about this topic?Acne vulgaris is a common skin condition affecting around 9·4% of the global population.However, there is a sparsity of studies that have taken a truly global, regional and national approach. Whatdoes this study add?Following the Global Burden of Disease Study framework, this study summarizes the global magnitudes of acne vulgaris burden along with the temporal trend.A pronounced acne vulgaris burden rate was observed in Western Europe, high‐income Asia Pacific and East Asia.The burden rate of acne vulgaris continued to increase in almost all countries, except for the USA, Poland, Germany and New Zealand. Linked Comment:L. Naldi. Br J Dermatol 2022; 186:605. Plain language summary available online [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]