The 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup is now at the halfway mark and officials in Vancouver are breaking the host city down by the numbers.
Vancouver has been the epicentre for celebrations in Vancouver, with the pedestrianized Granville Street, BC Place for the games, Science World decked out as the Trionda, the FIFA Fan Festival at the PNE grounds and TSN’s outdoor broadcast and viewing party at Jack Poole Plaza.
There are also viewing parties throughout the Metro Vancouver area, namely at the Shipyards in North Vancouver.
With all the excitement, government and other officials are highlighting World Cup by the numbers in Metro Vancouver.
FIFA Fan Festival
The FIFA Fan Festival at the PNE grounds, which houses the new Freedom Mobile Arch amphitheatre for a covered viewing area, has a secondary screen and stage, plus games and food trucks throughout the area.
The fan festival opened on the first day of World Cup, hosting Mexico and South Africa fans for the first match of the tournament.
Since then, more than 300,000 people have gone through the festival, said Jessie Adcock, Vancouver host committee lead and chief delivery officer. That’s despite it being closed Mondays and Tuesdays. It’s also closed June 29 through July 1.
She said the festival was at capacity for the Canada-South Africa – the first knockout match in the World Cup – which saw Canada beat South Africa 1-0 to move on to the Round of 16 for the first time.
“We got through the whole day at capacity without a single safety incident. On peak days, we’re seeing jerseys turn over two, three, four times a day, and the excitement is real,” Adcock said.
BC Place
BC Place operator, BC Pavilion Corporation (commonly known as PavCo), says each of the first five games have been “sold out” with almost 52,000 people per match.
There are still two more matches: A Round of 32 match on July 2 and a Round of 16 match on July 7. Thursday’s game will be Switzerland vs. Algeria.
“We have seen Canada’s first World Cup victory. We have welcomed some of the biggest stars in global football, and in every match we have seen fans bring incredible energy and passion into BC Place,” said Rehana Din, president and CEO of PavCo.
Din added that in the first five matches, there were more than 17,000 hot dogs consumed and more than 15,000 orders of chicken strips.
YVR
Since early June, more than 1.8 million passengers have travelled through YVR, said Andy Margolis, vice-president operations, and chief operating officer, for Vancouver International Airport. It’s roughly 85,000 passengers daily.
A week ahead of the opening of World Cup, YVR said it was anticipating 2.7 million passengers between June 8 and July 12. It would be a 10-per-cent increase of the same period in 2025.
TransLink
TransLink’s senior media manager Anita Bathe highlighted the several days of record-breaking transit use so far during World Cup, “whether it’s watching a match downtown, heading to the FIFA Fan Festival, the Shipyards, travelling from YVR, or connecting to restaurants, hotels, and neighborhoods and events across Metro Vancouver.”
The Wednesday, June 24 match between Canada and Switzerland at BC Place marked a six-year high for TransLink. There were nearly 1.4 million boardings that day – the highest system-wide daily ridership since March 2020.
Prior to that, the 1.36 million boardings on the day of Canada-Qatar match was the highest daily ridership since early 2020.
The first Vancouver match, Australia vs. Türkiye on June 13, was the busiest Saturday since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Bathe said the Sunday game between Canada and South Africa – despite being played in Los Angeles – was a “perfect example” that while Canada wasn’t playing in Vancouver, people still came out in huge numbers to support them.
“The FIFA Fan Festival and Shipyard both reached capacity, and transit played a major role in getting people there. Sea bus sailings were up 33 per cent Sunday, with many people travelling between downtown and the North Shore for the Shipyard viewing party, and to just catch that atmosphere on Granville Street.”
She added that around 9,000 people took transit to the FIFA Fan Festival at the PNE.
“That’s more than four times what we would normally see in that area.”