This may be old news. I've searched everywhere for an answer to the fact that Top Sites do not show up on the start page for Safari 14. I just updated my 1025 MacBook Pro to Big Sur and was disappointed (apparently along with many) at the downgrade of that feature.

Here's what I did. I went to one of my other Macs that was still using Safari 13 (if you still have a back up of your previous OS install you can probably find it there also). I went to the folder users>Library>Safari. There I found the file TopSites.plist. I copied that file and pasted it into the Safari folder on the Big Sur Mac. When I started Safari back up, there it was right under Favorites on the StartUp page listed as Top Sites. That isn't even an option to select for viewing, but it has worked so far.

Maybe most of you knew that, but it was new to me and thought I'd share if anyone else had missed it.

Mine just downloaded from cloud no setup .

Should have added that mine was on a fresh M1 Mac Mini. The Top Sites did not download to it from iCloud. However, when I did the upgrade to Big Sur on my 2015 MacBook Pro, they did pop up (I upgraded over the top of Mojave).

My Macair M1 asked if Wanted to download from cloud about the 3rd thing.