Pizza Hut Released Its Annual Pizza Trends Report. Here’s What Americans Like to Eat.

Pizza Hut has released its annual pizza trends report. Its findings indicate that pizza is still a favorite food of most Americans, and it also unveiled other interesting trends about pizza in the United States. Here’s what the popular chain uncovered in the report.

Pizza Hut Findings: Boneless Wings, Booze-Free, and Pizza

Pizza Hut launches its second annual pizza trends report to start the year. The report includes the most recent data on customer pizza consumption patterns as well as a prediction of new trends in the sector, per a press release. The report provides a thorough examination of how Americans continue to embrace their love of pizza, covering everything from toppings and unusual combinations to eating habits and consumption.

“The Pizza Hut brand is built on a strong heritage of innovating the pizza experience, from the Original Pan® Pizza introduced in 1983 to Original Stuffed Crust® in 1995, and innovation continues to be at the core of everything we do,” said Rachel Antalek, Pizza Hut’s chief food innovation officer, in a statement accompanying the press release. “We continue to see a growing trend and demand for unique flavors and modern, bold toppings. We are also seeing customers gravitating towards pairings or pizza-centric accouterments that complement their orders, whether it be dipping sauces or sides like wings.”

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Amongst their myriad of findings:

• The average person eats 288 slices of pizza per year. That’s roughly 480 gallons per person, meaning the nation collectively eats 95,040,000,000 slices of pizza in a year — equivalent to 240,000 Olympic sized swimming pools.
• What’s more, this year 32% predict they’ll eat more pizza than they did in 2024.
• Kansas leads the way when it comes consumption of pizza slices per month, on average, with Kansas reporting they eat an average of 9.4 slices a month. Next states consuming the most slices are North Dakota (9.9 [this may have been a reporting error on Pizza Hut’s part]), South Dakota (9.4), West Virginia (9.3) and Wisconsin (9.3).
• When looking at on-trend and unique pizza toppings, mushrooms (57%) were ranked most popular. Garlic (41%), pineapple (38%), anchovies (8%), pickles (8%), cherries (2%) followed as other unique toppings ranked by pizza lovers.
• The experts at Pizza Hut predict thin crust continues to grow in popularity and consistent with Pizza Hut’s 2024 survey findings, thin crust remains the most popular type of pizza crust (29%) followed by stuffed crust (24%) and hand-tossed crust (23%).

A Deep-Fried Frog?

Speaking of unique flavors, Pizza Hut has offered a number of odd menu options over the years, but none have been as fascinating as the Deep-Fried Frog Pizza. However, only a small market offers this culinary mashup.

Two black olives, a hard-boiled egg that has been cut in half, and a deep-fried frog are all featured in a special pie that Chinese Pizza Hut shops are selling. All of this is presented with crimson sauce and parsley over a thick crust. The arrangement of the egg halves and olives is meant to resemble the amphibian’s eyes.

It was called “pure blasphemy” by one Redditor. One person maintained that “whoever made that pizza should go to a gulag,” while another called it a “pizza felony.” Another person said, “I don’t mind frogs, but bones don’t belong on pizza.”

The “goblin pizza,” a protein-rich pizza, was allegedly first offered in connection with the fantasy video game Dungeons & Dragons. Social media’s reaction to the pie was pretty much what was expected.

Pizza Hut rarely claims to have “stunt foods” on its menu. However, a few years ago, KFC started offering “pink and black burgers” in China. In Japan, Burger King also offered crimson hamburgers.