CHICAGO — While there was no shortage of fans who came out to cheer the Chicago Cubs as they took a victory lap during the World Series championship downtown parade Friday, experts caution the crowd numbers may not be as robust as city officials have claimed.

By Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communication’s Count, an estimated 5 million people lined the 6-mile parade route and gathered at the rally in Grant Park.

“The guestimates are almost always vast exaggerations,” said Clark McPhail, a sociology professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.