The first parade in 1997 gathered around 2,000 participants, according to the military police.
The ninth parade gathered over 2.5 million people according to the police and 3 million according to the organizers.

The military police, which traditionally counts the number of participants at major public events, does not release its estimates for attendance at the parade since then, which caused the omission of the Parade from the 2008 issue of Guinness that requires official sources for records regarding attendance at events.
According to the police, it would be impossible to count the number of people attending an event with a "floating population."
There has been controversy about the exact number of participants.
The first parade in 1997 gathered around 2,000 participants, according to the military police. The ninth parade gathered over 2.5 million people according to the police and 3 million according to the organizers. 
The military police, which traditionally counts the number of participants at major public events, does not release its estimates for attendance at the parade since then, which caused the omission of the Parade from the 2008 issue of Guinness that requires official sources for records regarding attendance at events. According to the police, it would be impossible to count the number of people attending an event with a "floating population." There has been controversy about the exact number of participants.
São Paulo Gay Pride Parade