The Ryans have a record. For now it's just theirs. On Friday, July 24, people named Ryan filled the Mall of America's rotunda ("Rytunda" for the night) and took turns on Nickelodeon Universe's Pepsi Orange Streak, renamed the Ryan Coaster for the occasion. They were going for the most people with the same first name to ride a roller coaster consecutively. Guinness World Records has not verified the result, and it's unclear if or when it will. Until then, the riders are calling it a self-proclaimed world record.
Nobody agrees on the size of the crowd. One early estimate put it at 2,000 Ryans. Later counts came in at about 1,000 to 1,200. Organizers say they kept the receipts. "We have all the wristband numbers, the number of Ryans, the number of people riding and all that," said Ryan Le, Ryan Meetup's Chief Operations Ryan.
Ryan Meetup is a nonprofit that photographer Ryan Rose started in Brooklyn in February 2023. Ryan Le and Ryan Cousins joined as co-founders after seeing Rose's neighborhood posters asking Ryans to meet up. The group has since held gatherings in Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Toronto, Boston and other cities, and by June 2026 it had more than 108,000 Instagram followers. The long-term goal is the record for the largest same-name gathering of any kind, which stands at 2,325 people.
The math behind the Bloomington attempt was simple: fill the Orange Streak with Ryans for a full hour. Spokesperson Ryan Fisher said the coaster's official capacity works out to about 1,000 Ryans an hour. Every Ryan rode free, and after the ride came an afterparty at The Fair on 4.
Every attendee had to show ID before boarding, and Chief Creative Ryan Ryan Cousins summed up the policy: "No Brians allowed." Between rides, Ryans got slimed in a sliming competition and stuck notes onto giant R-Y-A-N letters. Plenty came a long way. Ryan Sims drove 9 hours from Muncie, Indiana, and Ryan Gidden spent his birthday driving 10 hours from Battle Creek, Michigan.
Even so, nobody topped a Marine who flew in from Hawaii and won the "Farthest Traveling Ryan" award. The next day the group moved to Target Field for the Ryan Baseball Classic with the Twins, whose roster includes shortstop Ryan Kreidler. The weekend ended in the obvious place: a July 26 "Welcome to Ryan" event in Ryan, Iowa.
