SEATTLE—Two hundred and thirty-eight. That's the final tally of responses Amazon received to its request for proposals to locate a second headquarters campus somewhere in North America, the e-commerce giant said Monday. These came from 43 states and 11 assorted provinces, territories and districts, including the District of Columbia.

Since just 51 US metropolitan areas are home to a population of one million or more—one of the qualifications Amazon stipulated in its RFP—it stands to reason that some of the 238 submissions were long shots, and community leaders were aware of this. Neither Idaho nor Alaska are home to any metro areas that large, for example, but proposals came in from both states. And Amazon's hometown of Seattle reportedly submitted a proposal that the company keep its second headquarters in the same city where it's currently based.

However, given the potential payoff—an investment of $5 billion to build what Amazon is calling HQ2, and the creation of up to 50,000 jobs—it's understandable that the final tally of submissions far exceeded what analysts had predicted. MarketWatch's Rachel Koning Beals on Monday reported that dozens of submissions had been expected, not hundreds.