What America Eats on Game Day: Every State’s #1 NFL Snack

Just a few weeks into the NFL season and backup quarterbacks have already found themselves at the forefront of the conversation. With Caleb Williams, Jaxson Dart and Jayden Daniels all injured, there’s been plenty of chopping and changing of lineups. 

But one place where things are more set is our game-day menu. We might not know who’s going to the Super Bowl, but the nation’s favorite game-day snack is a two-horse race between chili and chicken wings. 

World Sports Network analyzed search interest data between the start of the season on September 9 to September 29. Chili edges ahead in 41 states and D.C., wings take 8 and North Carolina is too close to call. 

Those are just the MVPs though—there’s plenty more unique snacks each state is sinking their teeth into. So, from Frito pie in New Mexico to cheese curds in Wisconsin, what’s every state’s most popular game-day fare?

Key Takeaways: 

• Chili is the favorite game-day food of 41 of the states and D.C.

• Wings lead the way in 8 and North Carolina is a split. 

• For the most unique game-day snacks, there’s clear regional similarities—buffalo chicken dip dominates the Eastern states, while guacamole is popular in the west and Hawaii. 

• The strongest local preference is in New Mexico where Frito pie takes 10.65 times its national share. 

• The next strongest is Maryland’s love for crab dip with 7.21 times the national share.

Leading Food: Over 80% of States Opt for Chili

Chili and wings are the only two foods that lead relative search interest across the country. Take a look at how they’re divided across the country.

Chili leads game-day menus in 41 states, as well as D.C., while chicken wings are the most popular in eight, and North Carolina is too close to call. 

Wings have a stronghold in southeast states, dominating search interest from Texas to Florida and South Carolina. They also claim one outlier with New Yorkers opting to snack on chicken wings while watching the Giants score touchdowns—hardly a surprise given the state is home to Buffalo. 

Chili is the choice of game-day chow in 41 of the states, claiming all of the west and practically sweeping the north. The chili belt stretches all the way from California and Oregon in the west to Maryland and Delaware in the east. Hawaii, Alaska and D.C. also enjoy a bowl of chili while watching the NFL. 

North Carolina Too Close to Call

Some states come down to the wire. In North Carolina, chili and chicken wings finished dead level, making it the only state too close to call.

A few others were decided by a whisker:

• Kansas: chili is ahead by less than 6%.

• New York and South Carolina: chicken wings lead by less than 6%.

• Texas: chicken wings edge ahead by around 6.5%.

• Pennsylvania and Delaware: chili holds on by around 7%.

Each State’s Most Unique Game-Day Snack

A second measure reveals what makes each state different: the food whose share of interest in that state is furthest above its share nationally. For example, a score of 2× means a food takes twice its national share of interest in that state.

We can see a clear pattern regionally with neighboring states often sharing preferences. Buffalo chicken dip is one case of this, taking the top spot in six states across the East: Massachusetts, the Carolinas, Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio. 

Another is cheese curds, which tops the western Great Lakes region as the most popular standout food in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois. 

Guacamole is the most popular game-day snack in the west, leading the way in California, Arizona and Hawaii. Whereas, crab dip dominates in eastern, coastal, fishing areas, like Virginia and Maryland. 

Philly Not the Home of Cheesesteaks

One of the biggest curveballs is that cheesesteaks skip their home state. Despite Pennsylvania’s largest city, Philadelphia, being home of the cheesesteak, the most popular standout food in the state is pierogi which takes 2.43 times the national share. 

Cheesesteaks are the favorite unique game-day dish in neighboring Delaware (2.76 times) and New Jersey (2.39 times) though. 

The Strongest Local Preferences

There are some states where the local interest in a food massively outweighs the national.

Here are some of the clearest game-day preferences:

New Mexico: Frito Pie 10.65 Times 

Frito pie takes more than ten times its national share of interest in New Mexico. 50% higher than the next-best score anywhere in the country.

Maryland: Crab Dip 7.21 Times 

The second-biggest standout in America. Crab dip also leads the way in neighboring Virginia and D.C.

Louisiana: Gumbo 6.58 Times

Gumbo is more than six times more popular than usual in Louisiana, and it's also the standout in neighboring Mississippi.

Wisconsin: Cheese Curds 6.24 Times

Wisconsin has the clearest preference for cheese curds in the country at 6.24 times the national interest. They’re also the standout in fellow Great Lakes states Minnesota and Illinois.

Texas: Frito Pie 4.36 Times 

Texas is a chicken wings state overall, but Frito pie is its most unusual favorite.

Minnesota: Cheese Curds 2.75 Times

Part of the cheese curd belt, Minnesota has 2.75 times the share of the national interest.

Mississippi: Gumbo 2.73 Times

Just like its neighbor, Louisiana, gumbo is the standout snack in Mississippi with 2.73 times the interest. 

Key Definitions

• Leading food: the food with the highest relative search interest in each state. 

• Unique food score: we compared each food's share of a state's interest across the 20 foods with its share nationally, so a score of 2.0 means a food takes twice its national share in that state. 

• Too close to call: where the top two foods were within 5%, or the leader changed between collections, we describe the state as too close to call.

Methodology

We used Google Trends to compare search interest in 20 game-day foods across all 50 states and D.C., from 9 to 29 September 2026. 

Google Trends measures relative search interest, not the number of searches, so our results show how the 20 foods compare with each other.

Each food was measured as a Google Trends topic, so "chili" means the dish, not chili peppers. Trends compare up to five topics at a time, so we ran five comparisons with nachos as a common reference point to put all 20 foods on one scale. We collected each comparison twice on 30 September 2026 and averaged the results.