Super Bowl LVIII is this Sunday, February 11— The San Francisco 49ers vs. Kansas City Chiefs at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada. It’s the biggest game of the year for football fans. And, as things have played out over the years, it’s also the biggest sporting event when it comes to food. Actually, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Super Bowl Sunday is the second-highest day of food consumption in the US, behind only Thanksgiving.
So, with that in mind, let’s pause the analysis of Xs and Os and look at what motors the countless parties dedicated to celebrating the big game– food and drink. Here are some ridiculous, wild, sometimes bizarre facts about what Americans eat and drink on Super Bowl Sunday.
- According to a report by the National Chicken Council, Americans are likely to consume 1.45 billion chicken wings during this year’s Super Bowl. If those wings– BBQ, Honey BBQ, whatever– were laid out back to back, that would stretch one-third of the way to the moon. By the way, the bill for those wings is tallied out to be, approximately, $623 million.
- Americans will eat about 11.2 million pounds of potato chips during the Super Bowl, per Premio Foods. In football terms, that’s the weight equivalent of about 11.2 million regulation NFL footballs.
- Americans will also consume about 8.2 million pounds of tortilla chips, 4 million pounds of pretzels, and 3.8 million pounds of popcorn. All together, counting potato chips, tortilla chips, pretzels, and popcorn, Super Bowl aficionados will gobble up 27.2 million pounds of salty snacks. That comes out to eating the equivalent of 60 Statue of Libertys.
- And what about the dip? Guacamole has become the favorite dip of hungry football fans on Super Bowl Sunday, with Americans scooping up about 53.5 million pounds during the big game, according to the Mexican Avocado Producers and Packers (APEAM). That’s enough to cover a football field, end zone to end zone, more than 20 feet deep.
- Don’t forget about the cheese. According to the Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, Super Bowl viewers will consume about 88 million pounds of cheese, in one form or another. That would be enough to cover Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, end zone to end zone, 10 yards deep in cheese.
- How could anyone forget about our beloved pizza? HungryFan.com estimates that Americans will eat about 12.5 million pizzas during the big game at a total cost in the neighborhood of $130 million. Lined up one after the other, that would stretch from San Francisco to Kansas City (and maybe further if we’re talking extra large)!
- As for drinks? Beer is by far the preferred adult beverage of Super Bowl watchers, with about 325.5 million gallons guzzled down on Super Bowl Sunday. That’s enough to fill 493 Olympic-sized swimming pools. That comes out to about $1.3 billion on brewskies, alone.
- For those unwilling or unable to imbibe in alcoholic beverages, soda is the favorite choice for the championship game, with Americans earmarking $3 million for soft drinks to be consumed during the action.
- In total, Americans are expected to spend more than $16 billion on food, drinks, gear and party supplies for the Super Bowl. That’s more than the entire yearly gross domestic product (GDP) of Nicaragua.
