Super Bowl Sunday remains one of the most consequential food‑spending moments of the year, offering a rare chance for restaurants, delivery platforms, and grocery retailers alike to capture incremental demand as millions of Americans gather to eat, drink, and watch the big game. Using Consumer Edge’s US transaction data, this report examines consumer spend behavior during recent years’ Superbowls to provide a timely read on who is entering the event with momentum, which categories and brands are most exposed to Game Day performance, and where competitive share is most at risk.
Key takeaways include:
- DoorDash lost share during Super Bowl 2025, but enters 2026 with stronger YTD momentum and a 64% share heading into the event.
- Grocery’s strong 2025 performance has softened in early 2026, suggesting consumers may shift back toward restaurants for this year’s game.
- Chicken and Pizza consistently gain the most on Game Day, with Pizza’s Super Bowl share holding steady despite weakening year‑round performance.
- Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, Wingstop, and Buffalo Wild Wings over‑index on Game Day, while Domino’s, Popeye’s, KFC, and most Casual Dining brands capitalize less on the event.
- Longhorn, Texas Roadhouse, Outback, Taco Bell, and Jersey Mike’s topped our 2026 YTD spend growth rankings, giving them momentum into this year’s event.
Will Doordash deliver this Superbowl?
Doordash’s share of total 3P restaurant delivery spend in CE’s US Transact panel dipped by just over 1% on Superbowl Sunday 2025 when compared with Superbowl 2024, with rival Uber Eats capturing nearly 3% of additional share – partly at the expense of Grubhub, which occupies an increasingly distant third place in the US delivery market share race.
Doordash may be set to regain momentum this year, however – with its share in 2026 YTD standing at 64% ahead of the big game (2.4pp higher than last year’s share during the Superbowl and 1.5pp higher than its YTD share this time last year).
Will consumers eat out or cook at home for this year’s event? Tracking Grocery’s momentum
Grocery panel spend growth outperformed that of restaurants in aggregate through much of 2025 as inflation-pressured consumers increasingly opted to prepare meals at home rather than eat out. However, Grocery’s share of total food spending in 2026 YTD is meaningfully lower than it was over the comparable period (through 21st Jan) over the past three years – perhaps indicating that consumers are returning to eating out so far this year with holiday spending in the rearview mirror.
Grocery’s share of total food spend tends to be higher on SB Sunday than in the YTD comp period – and if the YTD trend provides any indication, restaurants may be set to reclaim a significant percentage of total SB food outlays during 2026’s event.
Which categories are most popular on Game Day?
Breaking down panel spend by restaurant category on Superbowl Sundays vs. typical shares pre-Superbowl shows two big gainers on Game Day: Chicken (ex-Chick Fil A) and Pizza. Pizza’s typical share over the last three Superbowls is ~12.4%, nearly 60% higher than its pre-Superbowl comparison period* average of 7.8%. Chicken restaurants’ share, meanwhile, is 6.8% on Superbowl Sunday vs. 5.9% in the comparison period.
Worth noting is that Pizza has seen an overall decline in share in recent years as Americans “fall out of love” with the category (WSJ), with its panel spend share in the YTD (6.8%) meaningfully lower than it was in the comparable period in 2023 (8.2%) – but its share during the Superbowl event itself remained stable over the past three years, at 12.4% in 2025 vs. 12.5% and 12.2% in 2024 and 2023 respectively. This may indicate that consumers are willing to set aside evolving dietary preferences for special events – but also presents an opportunity for competing categories to grab a slice of Game Day spend if they can win over pizza fans with more compelling value and quality.
Brand‑level share analysis reveals Superbowl winners and losers
Zooming in on the brands making up the key restaurant subindustries underscores the category shift that takes place on Game Day – and highlights potential opportunities for in-category laggards to take part in elevated demand for delivery‑friendly, high‑volume ‘watch‑party’ foods that consumers rush to stock up on ahead of the game. The chart below shows top restaurant brands’ share of Superbowl 2025 spend as a percentage of their average share on the Sundays in 2025 prior to the Superbowl – bars >1 indicate greater than average share, while bars <1 indicate less than average share.
The top three Pizza brands – Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, and Domino’s – all increased their share of total restaurant spend by more than 50% on Superbowl Sunday, though Domino’s saw a less dramatic increase – perhaps indicating promotions are not resonating as well as competitors’.
Meanwhile, wing-focused chicken concepts Wingstop and Buffalo Wild Wings also saw sharply higher share during Superbowl – but chicken mainstays Popeye’s and KFCs’ share was little different than average, suggesting that they may be failing to capitalize on consumers’ demand for specific shareable, snack‑forward formats such as wings, bundles, and party‑platter items that dominate football‑viewing occasions.
Finally, Casual Dining concepts such as Outback, Applebee’s, and Chili’s all garner lower than average share on Game Day, presenting an opportunity for these brands to lean more heavily into targeted Game Day promotions – particularly simplified take‑out bundles, competitive value messaging, and digital ordering incentives – that help them capture demand otherwise flowing to delivery‑oriented competitors.
Which brands rely most heavily on Superbowl, and who has momentum going into the big game?
Strong performance during the Superbowl is critically important for restaurant brands that derive a significant proportion of their first quarter sales from the event – particularly Pizza and Chicken banners, which are over-indexed to Game Day. The table below shows the percentage of top restaurant brands’ calendar 1Q sales that came from Superbowl day over the past three years, as well as YoY growth for the 2023-2025 games and YTD.
Wingstop is the most exposed to Superbowl, with nearly 3% of its 1Q sales coming from the day on average; Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Domino’s followed, earning more than 2% of their 1Q revenue during Superbowl.
The growth numbers also highlight some interesting dynamics – notable, Applebee’s experienced a marked YoY sales decline during last year’s Superbowl, while Chili’s saw a corresponding sales increase. Jersey Mike’s also appears to have seized share of the Sandwich sub-category from Subway on 2025.
Going into Superbowl 2026, brands with the most momentum (highest YTD spend growth) include Casual Dining concepts Longhorn Steakhouse (+16.7%), Texas Roadhouse (+13.9%) and Outback Steakhouse (+7.3%), as well as quick-service banners Taco Bell (+12.0%) and Jersey Mike’s (9.2%).
