Three-quarters of San Francisco's population partied for the Valkyries at parade

Valkyries fans wait in line to exit BART just prior to the start of the championship parade in San Francisco on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (Charles Russo/SFGATE) The Golden State Valkyries may have traveled by boat to San Francisco for their championship parade, but their fans reached the Embarcadero on public transit. Muni said it recorded approximately 600,000 trips on Wednesday - the first time since 2020 that ridership reached 600,000 trips in a single day. "The fever is real," Parisa Safarzadeh, SFMTA director of communications, told SFGATE by text on Thursday. "600,000 riders, a beautiful day celebrating the Valkyries, and a city that has shown it wants great transit. It's clear Muni moves San Francisco and we're ready to continue delivering on excellent customer service for our riders." View this post on Instagram A post shared by SFBART (@sfbayarearapidtransit)Wednesday wasn't only Muni's highest-ridership day in years; BART said it set a new single-day post-pandemic ridership record with 260,738 trips. San Francisco has a population of roughly 826,000 residents, and it's absurd to imagine that three quarters of the city skipped work on Wednesday to join the reverie. However, the copious transit riders exhibit how the fanbase for the Golden State Valkyries is not confined to a single city and pulls from across the Bay Area. Aaminah Norris and her daughter Aasiya Norris make their way to the celebration parade in San Francisco on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (Charles Russo/SFGATE) Meanwhile, the Valks usurped their male team counterpart. In 2022, during the Golden State Warriors' championship parade down Market Street, Muni said it recorded approximately 290,000 trips. BART's ridership that day was 190,519. As ridership data reveals, twice as many fans traveled on transit in San Francisco for the Golden State Valkyries than for the Warriors.More Valkyries- Janelle Salaun misses Valkyries victory parade due to second job- Kiah Stokes wears T-shirt mocking ESPN at victory parade- Valkyries MVP celebrates in the most low-key way imaginable- Protesters showed up at the WNBA Finals. Valkyries fans shut them down.Full Valkyries coverageFor all of our Bay Area sports coverage, sign up for The Catch newsletter.This article originally published at Three-quarters of San Francisco's population partied for the Valkyries at parade.