FEB. 9 IS NATIONAL PIZZA DAY. As arguably one of the most popular foods in the nation (or possibly the world), pizza has become a common comfort food for many Americans. I mean, honestly, what is more comforting than carbs topped with cheese?

In celebration of pizza’s well-deserved national day, analysts at DelightedCooking baked up a report on every state’s favorite pizza chain. They took the top ten pizza chains by gross annual sales (according to Pizza Today’s 2019 report), and analyzed their relative search volume in each state between Jan. 2021 and Jan. 2022 to find every state’s favorite pizza chain.

Pennsylvania fell in line with 17 other states where Chuck E. Cheese is the most popular pizza chain in the nation.

Some states picked the obvious choice as their favorite, as they were the place these pizza chains were founded: California is the birthplace of Round Table Pizza; Pizza Hut began in Kansas; Indiana is home to the first Papa John’s; Little Caesars were founded in Michigan and Marco’s Pizza started in Ohio.

Surprisingly, California Pizza Kitchen, Round Table and Sbarro were the least popular pizza chains overall in the United State being the favorite of only one state each.

PIZZA TOPPINGS. Of course, with pizza orders comes the endless possibility of topping combinations. Research shows that 62% of pizza lovers across the United States prefer meat on top of their pies, while 38% prefer veggies. That’s not to say that some people don’t mix and match though.

The top ten topping choices in the United States are pepperoni, extra cheese, mushrooms, onions, sausage, black olives, green peppers, pineapple, spinach and last but not least, the plain pie — with no toppings at all.