The Snacktime Report: The Top Scoring Game-Day Snacks

In terms of day of the week, Sundays tend to be the most popular grocery shopping day and by the evening, inventory on popular items can be low. To boost your odds of finding all the desired items on your watch party shopping list, I recommend shopping on Tuesday or Wednesday morning before Sunday’s Big Game. Here’s my favorite #ProTip: if you can, create and schedule your order the night before you’d like it to be delivered so you can select the earliest delivery slot for the next morning.

What’s a wing without the sauce?

For many, chicken wings go hand-in-hand with football. With so many flavor options and sauces to choose from, I wanted to know if the classic buffalo sauce still holds up against its competition. I looked at popular wing sauce and dip searches in the lead-up to last year’s game, and here’s how they stack up, in order of popularity:

1. Buffalo sauce (+133%)
2. Chipotle sauce (+50%)
3. Blue cheese dressing (+47%)
4. BBQ sauce (+32%)
5. Ranch dressing (+22%)

Chip chip hooray!

It’s nearly impossible to have a game-day snack spread without chips — they’re some of the top sellers in the snack aisle — so we looked into the top-trending varieties people are scooping up left and right and here’s how they rank:

1. Vinegar potato chips
2. BBQ potato chips
3. Dill pickle potato chips
4. Cool Ranch tortilla chips
5. Nacho Cheese tortilla chips

In Canada, I grew up with unique chip flavors like all-dressed, ketchup, and dill pickle being the norm, so it’s fun seeing less traditional chip varieties, like dill pickle, starting to trend in the states. In my opinion, incorporating a fun chip flavor into the snack bowl is a good way to add some novelty and mixup the chip & dip flavor profile.

Small-bite snackers to watch out for

Sure, classic chips take all the glory, but flavored-popcorn, fruit chips, and other small-bite snacks are rising stars when it comes to satisfying those salty and savory cravings. Here are America’s favorites for game-day snacking:

1. Kettle corn popcorn
2. White cheddar popcorn
3. Bagel chips
4. Cheddar cheese popcorn
5. Banana chips

When I dip, you dip, we dip

What are folks dipping their chips in during the Big Game? Among Instacart customers, spinach dip comes out on top in terms of trending sales for game day spreads followed by some healthier — but still tasty — runner-ups:

1. Spinach dip (+35%)
2. Hummus (+32%)
3. Guacamole (+31%)
4. Salsa (+28%)
5. Tzatziki (+27%)

Dipping into this further, according to our insights…

• Texans love their spinach dip. San Antonio purchases the most spinach dip in the U.S., with Houston coming in third on the charts.
• Tampa likes tzatziki! The Florida Gulf Coast city purchases the most tzatziki for the Big Game.
• Folks from Los Angeles purchase the most hummus and guacamole for the Big Game compared to any other city in the country.
• Californians like to spice up their game-day snack spread with a side of salsa, with Sacramento and Los Angeles coming in at number one and two in the country for their total salsa purchases.

Finger foods for the win

Looking for something you can easily pop in the oven for game day? These top five finger foods will have you licking your fingers for more!

These cities are in the mood for finger foods:

• Sacramento loves their frozen finger foods! The capital of California purchases more potstickers, tater tots, and corn dogs than any other city in the U.S. for the Big Game.
• Mozzarella sticks are flying off the shelves in Orlando and Baltimore — taking the number one and two spots for the cities with the most purchases for the app loaded with breaded cheesy goodness.
• If you’re from SoCal, you might have a hankering for sweet potato fries. LA tops the list for purchasing the most sweet potato fries and San Diego follows close behind with the third most purchases out of any city in the U.S.

Kansas City vs. Tampa Bay: How the snacking stacks up

Kansas City: Throughout the regular season, KC fans have been snacking on tortilla chips and salsa with a side of chicken nuggets while cheering on their home team. In the name of superstition, we expect devoted fans to continue creating similar snack spreads for their Big Game watch parties.

Tampa Bay: Tampa Bay fans have been snacking on tortilla chips, salsa, mashed potatoes, and tater tots and washing it all down with hard seltzer variety packs this football season. Will this game-winning snacking combo take Tampa Bay all the way?

Game-day grocery savings

Now that we’ve covered all the top finger foods, dips, chips, and small bites you should be adding to your Big Game menus, here are some of the top deals from Instacart you can start shopping now in preparation for February 7. Simply select a store in your area, click on the “savings” icon and choose between the “sales” tab or the “stock up & save” tab to save on the following food items.

🏈 Big Game Deals From Instacart 🏈

• Kraft and Instacart are offering the following deal: “Spend $25 on select Kraft products including Big Game favorites like Kraft cheeses, lunch meats, frozen sides and appetizers, and save $5 or unlock free delivery.” Offer valid until February 7.
• Dreyer’s and Instacart are offering the following deal: “Spend $20 on select Dreyer’s ice cream products and save $5 or unlock free delivery.” Offer valid until February 28.
• Utz and Instacart are offering the following deal: “Mix and match 2 select Utz chips, and save $1.50.” Offer valid until March 31.
• Pepsi and Instacart are offering the following deal: “Spend $28 on your favorite Pepsi, Doritos, Lay’s, and Tostitos brands and save $5 or unlock free delivery.” Offer valid until February 7.
• Pepsi and Instacart are offering the following deal: “Buy 2 Smartfood popcorn products and save $1.00.” Offer valid until February 13.

Happy home watch parties, everyone!

Methodology: Instacart analyzed anonymized, aggregated sales and search activity across our marketplace from January 1 — February 1, 2020 to understand what products were trending during Super Bowl LIV.

Adjusting for Growth: We adjust Instacart growth percentages by the overall growth of total deliveries. Doing so removes the influence of our platform growth so we can focus on the change in consumer behavior.

Laurentia Romaniuk

Laurentia Romaniuk is a member of the Instacart team. To read more of Laurentia Romaniuk's posts, you can browse the company blog or search by keyword using the search bar at the top of the page.