City Stories Index · United States · 2026 edition
San Francisco vs Scottsdale
Not opinions, measured walking data. On what we can measure, San Francisco leads 2–1. Character is a different question: San Francisco is the gold rush city; Scottsdale is the desert resort town.
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| What we measure | San Francisco | Scottsdale | Leads |
|---|---|---|---|
| Places with a storyspots where a route tells you what happened there | 60 | 25 | San Francisco |
| How often you pass a storymetres from one story to the next; fewer is better | 329 | 152 | Scottsdale |
| Historical figuresreal people you meet in its stories | 4 | 1 | San Francisco |
| Instagrammabilityscore /100, on the index’s fixed scale | 23 | — | San Francisco |
| Group outingsof every 100 plays, how many bring a group of 3+ | 22 | — | San Francisco |
| International visitors% of player reviews written in a foreign language | 6 | — | San Francisco |
Differences under 5% count as ties. Sample sizes and definitions on the methodology page.
What their stories are about
How many places with a story each city has per theme: San Francisco in orange, Scottsdale in blue. All bars share one scale, so lengths are comparable everywhere on the chart.
San FranciscoScottsdale
11 places
arts & culture13 places
9 places
industry & modern era3 places
9 places
parks & leisure2 places
7 places
crime & dark history0 places
7 places
guilds & trade5 places
San Francisco scorecard →
The gold rush city
Scottsdale scorecard →
The desert resort town