WASHINGTON — It's that time of year again when you have to decide what to bring to your Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving celebrations.
Something that there can never be too much of is dessert, and the Thanksgiving holiday tends to lean toward pies.
So we took a look at what pie-like desserts were trending to see what the country seems most interested in – according to Google Trends.
Editor's Note: The information gathered for this story contains data on 5 desserts with search traffic from Nov. 1 to Nov. 21, 2023. Admittedly, the data cannot include what people will search for on Thanksgiving itself. Also, Google has no way of accounting for people who have no need to look up recipes.
WUSA9 looked at data for five different Thanksgiving-table staples. We'll start with two honorable mentions that gave a valiant try but couldn't compete with the desserts higher on the list.
#5: Sweet Potato Pie
While this dessert was popular in the WUSA9 newsroom, it came in fifth place nationwide for the selected time period.
Sweet potato pie is most popular in Southern states – with Mississippi showing the most interest in the dessert with 15% of search traffic in The Magnolia State. Coming in hot at 11% is Louisiana and Alabama with 10%
The dessert was least popular in Nevada, Utah, Massachusetts, California, West Virginia, Indiana, Nebraska, Washington, Maine, and Idaho where it had only 2% of traffic – while just 1% of searches in Kansas and New Mexico were for this dessert.
Sweet potato pie, along with the dessert in fourth place were the only two on the list to have search percentages in the single digits.
#4: Pecan Pie
The next dessert on the list was also most popular in Southern states with the top three being Mississippi, Arkansas, and Alabama with 22%, 19%, and 18% respectively for search traffic this month.
Pecan pie has also been popular in search traffic ranging from 10-15% in Indiana, Colorado, North Carolina, Kentucky, Kansas, Missouri, South Carolina, New Mexico, Georgia, Wyoming, Vermont, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Alaska.
The dessert was least popular this Thanksgiving holiday in Hawaii, Nevada, Delaware, New Jersey, and Rhode Island with only 4-5% of searches compared to the other desserts on the list.
#3: Apple Pie
While apple pie is America's choice for second place all year long, for the selected timeframe, it comes in third. It turns out one of the desserts on the list is popular enough around this holiday to bump apple pie down one position.
Apple pie is most popular this holiday in The Pine Tree State – Maine – with 28% of the states search traffic for Thanksgiving desserts.
Wyoming is the second most popular state for the dessert with 25% of traffic; Connecticut, Vermont, Montana, New Hampshire had 22%, 22%, 23% and 24% respectively. And 21% of searches in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, Michigan, Oregon, and Alaska were for apple pie.
Apple pie is least popular this Thanksgiving in Mississippi with 10% of search traffic, followed by Hawaii, Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, and Nebraska with 12%
#2: Pumpkin Pie
While some may see pumpkin pie's position in second place as controversial, remember, this data only shows what people were searching for on Google – there's no way to know for certain which dessert is the best for Thanksgiving (though we all have our favorites).
Nebraska, Idaho, and Wyoming all loved pumpkin pie the most with 35% of the states' search traffic – followed by Alaska and Maine with 34% and West Virginia, New Mexico, Vermont, and South Dakota with 33%
It's much less popular in Mississippi, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Georgia, Louisiana, Hawaii, and Texas – which all had under 20% of search traffic.
Finally, the dessert is least popular in Alabama with 13% of the state's searches.
#1: Cheesecake
What has the ability to unite the residents of California, Texas, New York, and Florida? Cheesecake.
The most popular dessert on the list may be controversial to some, because it's not a pie like the rest, but it's not only been popular leading up to Thanksgiving; it's also overwhelming the most popular on this list all year long.
Cheesecake enjoys heavy search traffic 12 months a year in all 50 states and the nation's capital – with its highest peak in the days leading up to Christmas.
Its 12 months of success peaks in Nevada and Hawaii with 81% of the search traffic in those states, followed by Florida at 77%, and New Jersey and Washington, D.C. at 76%
But this isn't a ranking for the whole year, so how does cheesecake stack up against its biggest Thanksgiving rival – pumpkin pie?
Hawaii far and away had the most search traffic for cheesecake this Thanksgiving with 63% of searches. Compare that to The Aloha State's 19% of searches for pumpkin pie.
Nevada looked up cheesecake in 59% of their searches, Florida was at 56%, California was at 54% – Nevada and Washington, D.C. at 53%, Maryland at 52%, and Texas and Delaware at 50%
The dessert did not drop below 25% of searches this Thanksgiving in any state – with the least amount of searches being in Alaska, Maine, Wyoming, Vermont, and Montana – all between 27-30% of search traffic.
In fact, the only states where pumpkin pie beat out cheesecake for the top spot this holiday were Maine, New Hampshire, Montana, Wyoming, and Alaska.
One thing is clear: America loves cheesecake.
A Thanksgiving Caveat
Last year when we looked at this data, there were similar results. However, as noted at the top of this story, we had no way of looking at data for Thanksgiving itself since this story is written before the holiday.
While cheesecake took the top spot last year in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, for the sake of a harmonious holiday, we looked back at 2022, and pumpkin pie overwhelmingly took first place on Thanksgiving Day last year. So there's no need to add to holiday drama over which dessert is the best.
They're all winners in our hearts.