WASHINGTON — What are you bringing to Thanksgiving this year? Many families have a Thanksgiving tradition of having a table with more food than people can eat ─ and after dinner, a table filled with desserts.
Desserts are a popular item for family members to bring to their Thanksgiving celebration, but what dessert is the most popular?
The last two years, we've broken down what the most popular Thanksgiving desserts are, based solely on Google Trends search data. So we took a look again this year to break it down for you.
Editor's Note: The information gathered for this story contains data on five desserts with search traffic for the last 30 days. Admittedly, the data cannot include what people will search for on Thanksgiving itself.
WUSA9 looked at data for five different Thanksgiving-table staples, and while they're all tasty, we put them in order of popularity.
#5: Sweet Potato Pie
While it may be No. 1 in our hearts, Sweet Potato Pie came in fifth nationwide for the last 30 days.
This sweet treat is most popular in some of our Southern states ─ with its peak popularity being in Mississippi where it had 16% of search traffic. Alabama and Georgia both Google this dessert 11% of the time compared to our other four desserts. And Louisiana rounds us out at 10%
Those were the only states with search traffic in the double digits, and while delicious, Sweet Potato Pie was an afterthought in many states. In Montana, Maine, New Hampshire, North Dakota, West Virginia, Idaho, Iowa, Wyoming, Vermont, Utah and Rhode Island ─ only 1% of search traffic for our five desserts went to Sweet Potato Pie.
Similarly... Kentucky, Alaska, Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Indiana, Minnesota, Arizona, Nebraska, Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, California, Connecticut, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Hawaii all searched for Sweet Potato Pie only 2-3% of the time.
#4: Pecan Pie
While Sweet Potato Pie only had four states with double-digit search traffic, Pecan Pie was in the double digits in 24 states.
Again, Pecan Pie was most popular in Southern states. It was most popular in Mississippi with 24% of search traffic and Arkansas with 21%
Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, and Oklahoma all had between 16-19% of their search traffic.
The state where Pecan Pie is least popular is Hawaii with only 3% of the state's search traffic for these five desserts. And Delaware, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Nevada, and Maryland only had between 5-6% of traffic.
Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming all tied in search traffic with 9% looking for Pecan Pie.
#3: Apple Pie
Who doesn't love a warm slice of Apple Pie? Hawaii and Mississippi ─ that's who. The pair had the lowest amount of search traffic at 11% ─ but at least now we're in the double digits for the low end of popularity.
The sweet treat is most popular in New Hampshire and Vermont, who both had the dessert searched 27% of the time.
Meanwhile, Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut were all at 24% Montana, South Dakota, West Virginia, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania all searched this dessert 21% of the time. And Minnesota, North Dakota, Idaho, Iowa, Oregon, Michigan, and the District of Columbia all searched for this dessert 20% of the time.
#2: Cheesecake
This decadent dessert has been the most controversial pick on our list the last two years because it's not a pie like the rest. Its position on this year's list may also be controversial for reasons we'll get into when we talk about the No. 1 dessert on the list.
Cheesecake is universally popular ─ all year round. If this ranking was based on year-long popularity, Cheesecake would win eight days a week. But our focus is Thanksgiving specifically.
Hawaii was mentioned three times already in this ranking for essentially despising certain desserts ─ Cheesecake is not one of them. The Aloha State LOVES Cheesecake. Not only is it their favorite dessert on this list, but their search traffic for Cheesecake was the highest of any dessert and state on the list ─ at 60%
Nevada loves Cheesecake, too, with 56% of their search traffic. Florida and California finally see eye to eye on something ─ both with 50% of their traffic. New Jersey, Delaware, Utah, and Maryland all love Cheesecake with 47% of their traffic. The nation's capital of Washington, D.C. searched for Cheesecake 46% of the time compared to the other four desserts on this list.
No state had less than 25% of search traffic devoted to Cheesecake. The lowest interest was in Vermont where it monopolized search traffic only 26% of the time. Montana was at 29% and Maine was at 30% Alaska, South Dakota, and New Hampshire were at 33%
This dessert is overwhelmingly popular across the country, which is why it was in the No. 1 spot for us the previous two years we've done this list. So what changed this year to bump it out of the top spot? The reasoning may also be controversial.
#1: Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin Pie is taking the No. 1 spot this year despite a more mixed popularity compared to Cheesecake. Its top search traffic for the last 30 days only hit 38% compared to Hawaii's 60% love of Cheesecake.
The map below breaks down each dessert's popularity by state, and as you can see, Cheesecake still seems like the overwhelming favorite across the country. Only a handful of states chose Pumpkin Pie over Cheesecake.
So why is Pumpkin Pie No. 1? Well, we noticed something this year that hasn't been the case for the last two years.
When we looked at the chart, Cheesecake was the obvious favorite for the last 30 days. But at the end of the day, this is a list of popular desserts for the Thanksgiving holiday. This year, Pumpkin Pie saw a massive spike in popularity for the week of Thanksgiving specifically ─ which was not the case in 2023 and 2022.
So, for the purposes of Pumpkin Pie being in the No. 1 spot, we chose to look at Thanksgiving week for our data on Pumpkin Pie. Please don't come for me.
For example, this week, Vermont and North Dakota searched for Pumpkin Pie 44% of the time. Now, compare that to Cheesecake searches this week which maxed out at 40% of traffic ─ again, it was Hawaii.
So let's go over the numbers for Thanksgiving week...
Minnesota and Montana loved Pumpkin Pie this week 42% of the time. Oregon, Iowa, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado, and South Dakota all loved Pumpkin Pie 40% of the time.
Wisconsin and Maine Googled Pumpkin Pie 39% of the time. West Virginia, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Alaska all searched for this dessert 38% of the time. And Ohio, Michigan, Idaho, and Kansas loved Pumpkin Pie 37% of the time.
The delicious dish was least popular in Mississippi with only 14% of traffic this week. Louisiana was at 17% Alabama was 19% And Georgia searched it only 21% of the time. Interestingly enough, these four states were the four we mentioned for being supporters of Sweet Potato Pie.
Does this ranking match up with your personal tastes? Maybe not. But we're not really saying which dessert is best, we're just looking at search traffic. We also understand this list does not account for people who didn't need to look up a recipe because they may have one of their own. But whatever you decide to bring as your contribution, I'm sure it's going to be great.