The answers to the questions America asks every Super Bowl
Every year, no matter who’s playing in the game, no matter who takes center stage at halftime, America — from die hard fans to party hosts to “here for the commercials” — asks the same questions around the Super Bowl. Based on a decade of Search data, “A little help before the Super Bowl” is intended to do just that; a film that answers the questions that get searched year after year around the big game.
For scale, in 2019, searches for the Super Bowl eclipsed searches for weather on Super Bowl Sunday in the United States. On this day every year America asks more questions about Roman numerals than any other day of the year (pssst... LIV equals 54). And though it’s asked every year, last year, “what time is the super bowl” became the top searched question of the day in the United States.
Questions around players, teams, and stats skyrocket every Super Bowl, but the data shows that people really want to understand how the game actually works. On Super Bowl Sunday of last year, the top searched questions about the rules of the game were: how long is a quarter in football, how to understand football, how many timeouts in nfl football, what is a safety in football, and how many yards is a football field.
And Google Trends reveals that game day foods seem to be just as important to the Super Bowl experience as any player on the field. On Super Bowl Sunday last year, buffalo wings were searched just as much as Tom Brady. The data also shows that searches for recipes change with geography. On last year’s game day, the top trending recipe in Arizona was for fruit pizza, North Dakota was bacon wrapped smokies, Wisconsin was beignets, and Nebraska was breakfast casserole.
While we’re on the topic of a championship event, Search data can tell us what football-related figures and moments Americans search for the most. For example, Malcolm Butler has the most searched interception in Google Trends history, Tom Brady is the most searched NFL quarterback, and the most searched NFL team? That goes to the Dallas Cowboys, whose fans are clearly anything but fairweather.
As football fans are getting ready for the Kansas City Chiefs to face the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV, the top trending U.S. questions on Sunday, January 19, 2020 (after the 49ers won the NFC Championship Game).
1. last time kansas city went to super bowl
2. what channel is the super bowl on this year
3. who is playing in the super bowl in 2020
4. who played in the first super bowl
5. when is super bowl 2020 date
Learn more about the data methodology behind “A little help before the Super Bowl.”
