World Cup matches shatter VTA's transit records, outpacing Super Bowl LX

SAN JOSE, Calif. - As the 2026 World Cup prepares for its grand finale, Bay Area public transit planners are analyzing data from the six matches held at Levi’s Stadium, looking to apply lessons from record-breaking ridership to the future of special event mass transit.

VTA's top special event ridership days

By the numbers:

The six World Cup matches now represent the top six special event ridership days of all time for the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA). The soccer matches attracted more public transit riders to the Santa Clara stadium than two Super Bowls and even Taylor Swift's concerts.

An evening match between Paraguay and Australia claimed the spot for the biggest single ridership day of all time to and from Levi's Stadium. On that day, the VTA light rail system handled nearly 42,000 passengers—nearly triple the 15,000 riders drawn during an average 49ers game.

"We used about 98% of our resources," said VTA spokesperson Stacey Hendler Ross. "We did lots of research about what fans were doing in other cities and other countries. We worked with the Bay Area Host Committee and with FIFA to make sure that we knew what our audience was going to want."

Planners anticipated the high demand by accounting for cultural differences in transit usage.

"We know that people outside of the United States ride public transportation much more readily than they do in the United States," Hendler Ross said. "And so we planned for that."

The other matches also saw massive turnouts. A match between Jordan and Austria drew more than 40,000 riders. Meanwhile, the Round of 32 match between Team USA and Bosnia-Herzegovina ranked fifth on the all-time list, clocking in at approximately 38,000 riders. 

Outpaces Super Bowl and concerts

Local perspective:

Even Super Bowl LX and Taylor Swift's concerts could not match those figures.

To prepare for international visitors, the VTA promoted public transit options through both traditional and social media channels. The agency even held a press conference featuring diplomats from the participating nations to help spread the word.

"It has been 28 years since Austria played in the World Cup last… so this is big and exciting!" said Isabella Tomas, the Austria Consul General in San Francisco, ahead of the matches.

Blueprint for other South Bay events

VTA officials say the strategies utilized during the World Cup will serve as a blueprint for upcoming major events.

"The biggest thing that we learned is that the general template we had for this service is what works," Hendler Ross said.

The historic transit effort relied heavily on regional coordination. Both BART and Caltrain provided crucial feeder services to the VTA light rail. 

Approximately 40% of the riders transferred from Caltrain at the Mountain View station, while the remaining 60% originated from downtown San Jose hotels or the Milpitas BART connection.

FIFA World CupVTATransportation