Forget the Charcuterie Board—This Is What Americans Actually Buy for Super Bowl Sunday, According to Instacart Data
Instacart’s latest numbers reveal which snacks win Super Bowl Sunday, how each state really eats, and what everyone’s drinking with all that salt.
The Super Bowl might be about football on paper, but in most living rooms, it’s really about snacks. If you feel like every watch party you’ve ever attended is just bowls of chips, bubbling queso, and an ocean of ranch, you’re not imagining it; the data backs you up.
Using U.S. purchase data from the 2025 Big Game weekend, Instacart dug into what people actually add to their carts for game day and how that compares to the rest of the year.
Chips and Dips Still Run the Whole Offense
No surprise here: chips and dips absolutely dominate Super Bowl weekend.
According to Instacart’s numbers, tortilla chips more than double their usual presence, with orders jumping 106% compared to the typical 12-month average. Potato chips also get a solid bump, up 32% as people stock up for watch parties.
What really seals the deal, though, are the toppings and dips that go with them. Orders for salsa climb 96%, queso shoots up 196%, French onion dip rises 146%, and even humble scallions see a 38% lift as people doctor up their spreads. Together, it’s the perfect formula for game day: easy, salty, dunkable snacks that can sit out for four quarters and feed a crowd with almost no effort.
The Foods That Peak Only for the Big Game
Some items are popular year-round, but a few absolutely live for Super Bowl weekend.
Instacart found that several categories see their biggest spike of the entire year around the Big Game:
- Buffalo sauce: Orders surge 201% compared to the yearly average during Super Bowl week. There are smaller bumps at the start of football season in September and again around New Year’s Day when college bowl games kick off, but nothing matches Super Bowl weekend.
- Frozen chicken wings: These don’t just show up in February. They climb during March and April’s college basketball playoffs and again at the start and end of summer. Still, the top moment is Super Bowl week, when orders jump 123%.
- Tortilla chips: They’re a constant presence in American carts, but they shine brightest around the Big Game, with purchases rising 46%. Other big moments are New Year’s, Cinco de Mayo, and the Fourth of July.
- Ranch dressing: The share of ranch orders climbs 34% for Super Bowl weekend, but it doesn’t disappear the rest of the year either. Demand ticks up during college football season and summer cookouts, too.
- Hot sauce: People toss hot sauce into their carts 38% more often around the Big Game. There’s another noticeable spike in early May, likely tied to Mexican and Tex-Mex meals around Cinco de Mayo.
In other words, your gut feeling that “everyone is eating wings and buffalo-flavored everything” on Super Bowl Sunday is absolutely correct.
What Each Region Is Really Eating
The national picture is one thing, but zoom in, and the map gets more interesting. Instacart looked at which snack categories are most uniquely popular by state, and the results were fun to read through.
- Queso dominates the West and Upper Midwest. Whether it’s heated straight from the jar or leveled up on the stove in a recipe, queso shows up again and again as a go-to centerpiece for Big Game spreads in these states.
- Processed cheese products (Velveeta and similar) rule across much of the South and Great Plains.
- Chicken wings take over much of the Midwest, Northeast, and parts of the West. Heat-and-serve proteins that feel substantial but require minimal prep clearly win when you’ve got a house full of hungry fans.
- Tortilla chips stand out in parts of the Mountain West and the Plains, reinforcing their role as the default base layer for dips, queso, and salsas in snack-heavy households.
- Buffalo sauce hits its hardest regional peak in the Northeast, especially New York, which feels fitting for a sauce that was born in Buffalo and still anchors the region’s game day identity.
If you bounced from party to party across the country, you’d see completely different tables, but the through line would still be chips, cheese, wings, and something tangy to go with all of it.
What People Are Drinking with All That Salt
Salty, spicy snacks obviously need something to wash them down, and alcohol gets a noticeable bump around the Big Game, too.
Instacart reports that the share of orders containing alcohol rises about 10% on Super Bowl weekend compared to the yearly average. Looking at categories that are gaining momentum year over year among 21+ customers, a few stand out:
- Mexican-style lagers are on the rise, pointing to a growing preference for crisp, easy-drinking beers that you can sip all afternoon.
- Prosecco is climbing, which suggests more people are bringing bubbles to football parties, or at least keeping something celebratory on hand.
- Unflavored tequila is gaining traction, likely for simple cocktails and shots.
- Light lagers and canned cocktails are also trending up, fitting the “grab, pour, and go” vibe of a long watch party.
Basically, people want drinks that are refreshing, low-effort, and crowd-friendly, the beverage equivalent of a sheet pan of wings.
If you’re still in full Super Bowl-planning mode, you can also take a peek at my breakdown of the best U.S. cities to watch the Big Game, plus a data-backed look at which sport Americans actually spend the most money on booze for. They pair very nicely with all this snack intel.
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