Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the Cubs had a massive fan turnout during the World Series parade on Friday. Approximately five million people showed up for the celebration, which now ranks as the seventh-highest attendance figure in all of human history.
According to FOX 32 News’ Nic Flosi, the largest gathering in history was recorded in 2013, when approximately 30 million people visited the Allahabad Kumbh Mela in India. Other notable events that drew over five million people: Iraq’s Arba’een pilgrimages in 2015 and 2014 (26 and 22 million, respectively), C.N. Annadurai’s funeral in 1969 (15 million), Ayatollah Khomeini’s funeral in 1989 (10 million), the 2015 papal gathering to see Pope Francis (6 million), and World Youth Day in 1995 (5 million).
Other sporting celebrations don’t even come close. These are the estimated attendance figures for the last five World Series parades:
- 2015, Kansas City Royals: 800,000
- 2014, San Francisco Giants: 1 million
- 2013, Boston Red Sox: 2 million
- 2012, San Francisco Giants: 1 million
- 2011, St. Louis Cardinals*: 100,000+
*Close estimates could not be found, but news outlets put crowd numbers in the “hundreds of thousands.”
Oh, and in case you were wondering about the White Sox’ victory parade back in 2005? Approximately 1.75 million fans showed up, eclipsed in 2013 and 2015 by the two million that celebrated with the Chicago Blackhawks following each of their two most recent Stanley Cup championships.
