Americans Will Consume 1.3 Billion Chicken Wings On Super Bowl Sunday

Super Bowl Sunday is one of the highlights of the global sporting calendar, but it’s also a major deal for foodies, too.

Even if you’re not interested in the game, Super Bowl parties and tailgates are a quintessential part of American culture. And although the ongoing pandemic means most people will be watching at home, that doesn’t mean it will be any less of an event.

As well as being the biggest day in American sports, Super Bowl Sunday is also the second biggest day for food in the US, beaten out only by Thanksgiving for the amount consumed by Americans in a single day. If anything, this year is going to be an even bigger year when it comes to Super Bowl snacks than usual.

Betting company OddsMonkey has been looking into what Americans have planned for the big day, and some of the figures are both impressive and shocking. Among other things, Super Bowl viewing parties will see 1.3 billion chicken wings, 14 billion burgers and 22,700 pigs’ worth of bacon eaten over the course of just a single day. That’s enough wings to circle the Earth three times, and more burgers than the population of the UK eats in a whole year.

For take-out restaurants, it’s a highlight of the year, with Dominos reporting that they sell more than 11 million slices of pizza during the Super Bowl – 350% more pizza than they shift on regular Sundays.

The average American is set to consume a truly mind-boggling amount of food on the day – worth an estimated 6,000 calories – wolfing down up to three times their recommended daily intake. It’s also a big day for drinking, with 51.7 million cases of beer and $2.37 million worth of soda sold in the US for the Super Bowl.

With that in mind, it’s not a surprise to learn that the Super Bowl also takes its toll on productivity the next day, with roughly 6% of Americans calling in sick to work the following morning. With most people still working from home this year, it remains to be seen whether that trend will stick.

It’s fair to say that all of these statistics don’t exactly paint a healthy picture, but there’s good news on that front too, with the growing trend of meat-free alternatives set to see Vegan snacks like cauliflower wings and dairy-free pizza taking centre stage in more and more households.

Super Bowl LV is set to kick off on Sunday February 7 at 6.30pm EST (11.30pm GMT,) with Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers taking on reigning champions the Kansas City Chiefs.

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