The CF Toronto Eaton Centre was North America’s busiest mall in 2017, while the Yorkdale Shopping Centre was Canada's most profitable, according to a new Retail Council of Canada report.

The 2017 Shopping Centre Study found the downtown Eaton Centre — Canada’s second-largest mall after the West Edmonton Mall — easily topped the list as North America’s busiest with an annual footfall of 50.1 million pedestrians.

This far outpaced Canada’s second-busiest mall, Burnaby, B.C.’s Metropolis at Metrotown, which had 28 million pedestrians.

More significantly, the CF Toronto Eaton Centre was tops in North America in 2017, ranking well ahead of the U.S.’ busiest mall — the Ala Moana Shopping Center in Honolulu, which had an annual footfall of 42 million last year.

“Remarkably, four of Canada’s top 10 busiest malls are in urban cores (CF Toronto Eaton Centre, CF Pacific Centre, CF Rideau Centre, The CORE). In the United States, none of the country’s top 10 malls are downtown,” reports the study.

“This can be attributed to factors including stronger urban cores in Canada as well as a combination of history, culture, downtown population concentration and mix, investment priorities, and transit access when compared to most cities south of the border.”

Other busy malls in the GTA included the Square One Shopping Centre (23 million visitors), the Scarborough Town Centre (22 million) and the Yorkdale Shopping Centre (18 million).

The study found that the Yorkdale mall, which unveiled a $331M expansion in 2016, generated $1,653 of sales per SF last year, leading all Canadian malls for a second year in a row. Following close behind were Vancouver’s Oakridge Shopping Centre ($1,579/SF) and the CP Pacific Centre ($1,531/SF).

Also in the top 10 for sales were the CF Toronto Eaton Centre (No. 4, $1,528/SF), Mississauga’s Square One Shopping Centre (No. 7, $1,064/SF) and the CF Sherway Gardens (No. 10, $979/SF).

Of the top 30 most profitable Canadian malls listed, 11 are in the Greater Toronto Area and 15 are in Ontario.