Super Bowl Sunday might not be an official holiday, but that doesn’t stop it from claiming the title of second-biggest “food holiday” in the United States — only Thanksgiving tops it! What are some of the most popular foods we eat on Super Bowl Sunday? Here are some fun and interesting Super Bowl food facts you can share at this year’s party.
A Pizza or a Pie? How ‘Bout a Pizza Pie?
Pizza is the top snack for the Super Bowl — the reason behind the enormous number of delivery orders on this Sunday. One out of every seven people order in on Super Bowl Sunday, and the majority of those orders include at least one sausage pizza — sausage is the third most popular pizza topping overall.
Don’t Be Chicken
Chicken is the second most popular snack for the football holiday — but don’t start looking for breasts or thighs. Chicken wings are the food of choice. According to the National Chicken Council — yes, there is a National Chicken Council — Americans consume more than 100 million pounds of chicken wings on Super Bowl Sunday alone. For those playing along at home, that’s more than 1.25 BILLION individual wings.
While wings can come in a variety of flavors, with a wide range of different dipping sauces, more than half the people who partake in chicken wings choose to dip their wings in ranch dressing.
More Than Chips and Dip
Everyone loves finger food and dippable snacks, especially on Super Bowl Sunday. Chopped vegetables and ranch dressing are always a popular option, unless your guests decide to commandeer all your ranch dressing for the aforementioned chicken wings.
Veggies aren’t the most popular dipping snacks, though — that title belongs to the irresistible potato chip. People chow down on more than 11.2 million pounds of potato chips on Super Bowl Sunday alone, followed closely by 8.2 million pounds of tortilla chips for all your guac and salsa needs and 4 million pounds of pretzels.
Speaking of guacamole, folks will eat more than 8 million pounds of guac on the football holiday. That’s a LOT of avocados!
Grilling Power
There’s nothing quite like firing up the grill for the big game day — and that’s what a lot of people are going to do on Super Bowl Sunday. One of the most surprising stats about Super Bowl parties is that the big game is the second-biggest grilling week of the year, right after July 4. Experts estimate hungry football fans will finish off more than 14 billion grilled hamburgers nationwide.
People aren’t just grilling at home — the fans in the stadium have to eat, too! Most Super Bowl games have a no-tailgating policy, so it’s up to the stadium to provide all the tasty food their fans could want. In 2014, that amounted to 21,500 hot dogs and 20,000 sausages, in addition to things like soda, coffee and of course — pizza. They used a whopping 500 gallons of marinara sauce!
Snack Smart
Tasty food isn’t the only popular item people consume around Super Bowl Sunday. In fact, one of the most interesting Super Bowl party facts isn’t about food at all — did you know antacid sales go up by 20 percent the day after the big game? Maybe all that heartburn explains why more than 1.5 million people will call in sick to work the day after the game.
It might be all about the game, but Super Bowl Sunday isn’t the same without the food! Just make sure you snack smart!