The pizza wars are always pretty intense. From an advertising perspective, there is no group of franchised restaurants that spend as much of their sales investing in marketing and advertising.
Given that, we took a look at Google Trends to understand what was the most searched brand in every state and assume that is the most popular chain in the state.
As expected, the Domino’s Franchise was the overall most popular. Domino’s is the largest pizza chain in the United States with north of $7 billion in sales in 2019 and greater than 6,000 US locations. From Google trends, Domino’s was the most popular in 28 states.
Coming in at second place was the Pizza Hut franchise. Once again, this isn’t a surprise given that Pizza Hut is the second largest pizza chain by volume with nearly $5.5B billion in sales and 7,306 according to Restaurant Business Online. Overall, Pizza hut was the most popular with 21 states in the US.
The Papa John’s franchise and Little Caesar’s franchise didn’t do too well. Little Caesar’s took home one state of Michigan (corporate headquarters in Detroit), and Papa John’s was the most popular in Kentucky (headquarters in Louisville, KY)
Take a look below to see what the most popular pizza chain is in every state.
| State | Most Popular Pizza Chain |
| Alabama | Domino’s |
| Alaska | Domino’s |
| Arizona | Pizza Hut |
| Arkansas | Pizza Hut |
| California | Domino’s |
| Colorado | Domino’s |
| Connecticut | Domino’s |
| Delaware | Domino’s |
| District of Columbia | Domino’s |
| Florida | Pizza Hut |
| Georgia | Pizza Hut |
| Hawaii | Pizza Hut |
| Idaho | Domino’s |
| Illinois | Domino’s |
| Indiana | Pizza Hut |
| Iowa | Pizza Hut |
| Kansas | Pizza Hut |
| Kentucky | Papa John’s |
| Louisiana | Pizza Hut |
| Maine | Domino’s |
| Maryland | Domino’s |
| Massachusetts | Domino’s |
| Michigan | Little Caesar’s |
| Minnesota | Domino’s |
| Mississippi | Pizza Hut |
| Missouri | Pizza Hut |
| Montana | Pizza Hut |
| Nebraska | Pizza Hut |
| Nevada | Pizza Hut |
| New Hampshire | Domino’s |
| New Jersey | Domino’s |
| New Mexico | Domino’s |
| New York | Domino’s |
| North Carolina | Domino’s |
| North Dakota | Domino’s |
| Ohio | Pizza Hut |
| Oklahoma | Pizza Hut |
| Oregon | Domino’s |
| Pennsylvania | Domino’s |
| Rhode Island | Domino’s |
| South Carolina | Pizza Hut |
| South Dakota | Pizza Hut |
| Tennessee | Domino’s |
| Texas | Pizza Hut |
| Utah | Domino’s |
| Vermont | Domino’s |
| Virginia | Domino’s |
| Washington | Domino’s |
| West Virginia | Pizza Hut |
| Wisconsin | Pizza Hut |
| Wyoming | Domino’s |
