(NewsNation) — As some get ready to watch the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers battle it out in this year’s Super Bowl, others are looking forward to eating their favorite game-day snacks at parties.
This year, the National Retail Federation anticipates households will spend $86.04 on game day festivities, with total spending across the country hitting $17.3 billion.
That’s a slight increase from last year, when the average household spent $85.36, and the country spent $16.5 billion.
According to Statista, 2024 Super Bowl spending levels are still below what they were before the COVID-19 pandemic when adjusted for inflation. In 2020, the last pre-pandemic Super Bowl, people spent a total of $17.2 billion. However, when inflation is taken into account, 2020’s total is about $20.5 billion, Statista wrote.
Yet, the amount of people who say they are watching the Super Bowl has gone slightly up in recent years: 77% say they’re tuning in Sunday, an increase from 2023’s 75%, or the 72% in 2022.
So what are people getting in preparation for the big game? The New York Times says a lot of finger foods — the newspaper says Americans will buy 11 million wings from Buffalo Wild Wings, four million pounds of Velveeta cheese (for queso) and 2 million Domino’s pizzas.