Seattle's biggest World Cup win wasn't on the pitch. It was showing visitors — and maybe even Seattleites — what this city looks like at its best.

Why it matters: For three weeks, Seattle has been a global gathering place, full of unity and joy, even as much of the world feels increasingly divided.

State of play: Seattle hosts its sixth and final FIFA match — U.S. vs. Belgium — today at 5pm.

What they're saying: "We brought the best of Washington to the world and the best of the world to Seattle," SeattleFWC26 CEO Peter Tomozawa tells Axios.

How they did it: Organizers focused on everything around the matches — free fan festivals, neighborhood events and public spaces — to encourage visitors to explore beyond the stadium, Tomozawa says.

• The goal was to make sure everyone — ticketed or not — could take part in the revelry.
• "We figured the games would take care of themselves," he says. "We wanted to lift our whole community."

The scorecard:

• Sold-out matches
• Sound Transit's busiest day ever, with 280,000 riders on June 19
• Lime's biggest day in city history
• More than 750,000 visits to official fan celebrations
• Record crowds at Waterfront Park.

🏆 National outlets also showered us with praise.

• The Athletic ranked Lumen Field the tournament's top stadium experience.
• Action Network named Seattle the No. 1 U.S. host city for fans.
• And in perhaps the tournament's most unexpected accolade — The New York Times crowned the Seattle dog America's best regional hot dog.

Plus: Some U.S. Men's national team players were "raving about the crowd. And the city, in general," Sounders midfielder Cristian Roldan told the Tacoma News Tribune.

• "You know, some of them even spoke to me about playing for Seattle in the future."

The bottom line: Seattle has often been defined in recent years by headlines portraying its challenges. During the World Cup, another story took center stage.

• The games gave some people their first chance to see what "the world can be like when we are all together and unified," Tomozawa says. "That was a heart-bursting moment for me."

Tell a fan

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The CEOs may have lost this one: New government data shows that 35% of U.S. workers did some or all of their work at home last year — significantly higher than in the previous decade.

Why it matters: Despite the best efforts of many prominent executives and leaders, we live in a hybrid work world, with more people doing their jobs remotely.

Zoom in: Washington has historically had one of the highest work from home rates in the country.

• The share of workers in Seattle who said they primarily worked from home in 2021 — 46.8% — was almost triple the national average of 17.9%.
• In 2023, about 37% of the state's nearly 4 million working people did so from home at least one day per week.

Yes, but: Many Seattle-area employers are trying to get workers back into the office.

• Amazon, Microsoft, the city and the county have all instituted various levels of return to office policies, with Amazon now requiring corporate employees in the office five days a week.

Flashback: The workplace was permanently altered by the pandemic. In 2019, only 24% of workers did some or all of their work from home. By 2022, that number had risen to 34% and has stayed relatively steady since.

Between the lines: Working from home is mostly for workers with more education, per the data from the American Time Use Survey.

Friction point: Remote work may contribute to increased loneliness and social isolation, probably not something we need more of in Seattle.

Go deeper

📉 New data shows Seattle's population growth has slowed sharply in 2026 after years of booming gains. (Seattle Times)

💼 Zoom is buying Seattle startup Common Room, whose AI software helps companies find and connect with potential customers. (GeekWire)

🇺🇸 252 immigrants from 55 countries became U.S. citizens during a naturalization ceremony at Seattle Center on July 4. (KOMO)

🚧 Overnight lane reductions and ramp closures on Interstate 5 across Seattle's Ship Canal Bridge are scheduled for this week. (My Edmonds News)

A little white puffball is stealing the show at Woodland Park Zoo.

• The zoo is celebrating its first colobus monkey birth in 29 years after a baby was born last month to mom Mokiki and dad Lewis.

The infant, whose sex hasn't yet been determined, was born completely white with a pink face, but will develop the species' signature black-and-white coat over the next few months, per the zoo.

Fun fact: Colobus monkeys are raised by their whole families, with all members carrying, grooming and babysitting them, a behavior called alloparenting.

• Visitors can spot the baby with mom, dad and big sister Anapenda in the outdoor Tropical Rain Forest exhibit.

💗 By the time this little fluffer trades its snowy coat for black-and-white fur, it'll probably have won over plenty of Seattle hearts.