Consumer Trends

Super Bowl by the numbers: How big was the big game for restaurants?

Nearly 4 in 10 viewers planned to order food Sunday, leading to a big score for restaurants.
The Super Bowl is a busy day for restaurants. / Photograph: Shutterstock
The Super Bowl tends to be a big day for restaurants. / Photograph: Shutterstock

At 13-unit Pizza 9, Super Bowl Sunday is the busiest day of the year besides Halloween. This year’s edition, which saw the Kansas City Chiefs battle the Philadelphia Eagles in Glendale, Ariz., was no different.

“It went really well,” said CEO Hass Aslami. “We were up quite a bit compared to a normal Sunday, but I think we were right up there compared to last year.” 

The Albuquerque, N.M.-based chain was one of many to enjoy brisk business Sunday. Here’s a look at the numbers for restaurants on the day of the big game. 

39%

Amount of Super Bowl viewers who planned to get delivery or takeout for the game, according to a survey by Technomic. Another 34% said they were undecided about food for the game, which kicked off at 6:30 p.m. Eastern. 

Fox said 113 million people watched the game, the largest audience since 2017. 

2.4M

Number of orders processed by the 600 restaurant brands that use Olo. For comparison, the tech company usually handles about 2 million orders a day. 

Super Bowl Sunday is not necessarily Olo’s busiest day of the year, but the rush tends to be more spread out than usual, said SVP of Technology Greg Shackles. 

“For example, orders per minute or hour may be higher on a regular Friday during peak hours, but Super Bowl Sunday sees high ordering rates sustained throughout a full day—even sometimes days before with preorders,” he wrote in an email.

33%

Drop in order volume on Olo during halftime, which featured a performance by Rihanna.  

17%

Increase in average ticket size recorded by Slice, an ordering platform for pizzerias. The company works with more than 19,000 independent pizza shops across the U.S. 

Mamma Ramona’s pizzeria in Ramona, Calif., was busy all weekend and had one of its best lunches ever on Sunday, said owner Andrew Simmons. “But by 7 p.m., we were dead in both dine-in and carryout,” he said.

357%

Increase in sales of Hot Boxes from Dave’s Hot Chicken compared to the previous Sunday. 

The new bulk meals from the fast-growing chain are designed to feed a crowd, with a choice of 10 sliders ($60), 10 tenders ($40) or a 1.5-pound box of fries ($10).

The 10-unit Roll-Em-Up Taquitos also found success with a group offer: Sales of its Party Packs, featuring 25-100 taquitos with dipping sauces, were up nearly 400% week over week.

3

Number of Super Bowl commercials from restaurant companies. Dunkin's ad featuring Ben Affleck was a fan favorite. DoorDash ran an ad highlighting grocery delivery, and Uber Eats' spot promoted its Uber One membership program.

UPDATE: This story was updated to include viewership total.

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