40% Of People Think This Pizza Chain Is The Absolute Best
While companies like GrubHub and Uber Eats are now making it relatively easy for many of us, at least anyone living in a fair-sized urban area, to order just about any kind of food and have it delivered right to our doors, for many, many years there were very few types of food that delivered, and among these foods, pizza was the undisputed king. And guess what, it still is! Whether we're watching the Super Bowl or biting our nails on election night or just staying at home for any reason, for millions of us, pizza is what's on the menu, even as leftovers.
But whose pizza is it that we're ordering? Most of us, after all, are lucky enough to have several pizza chains to choose from, and of course everybody's got their favorite. While no poll is ever going to produce absolutely definitive results, unless you're polling 100 percent of your target audience and each and every one of them is a) absolutely truthful and b) not at all inclined towards changing their mind, still everyone loves a good poll, so we decided to do one about pizza preferences. To this end, Mashed conducted a survey on YouTube of 42,000 people around the world and asked them which major pizza chain they favored. The winner, with a 40 percent share of the total vote, just so happens to be the pizza company with the highest annual sales for 2019 according to Pizza Today: Get the door, it's Domino's.
Still, 60 percent preferred another brand
Pizza Hut, always playing Avis to Domino's Hertz, came in a not-so-close second, with 24 percent of the vote. (They also occupied the number two position in Pizza Today's sales figures, although they didn't lag so far behind there.) In third place was Papa John's, proving that their pizza is far more popular than Papa himself by earning a 14 percent approval rating. Little Caesar's was a hot and ready fourth, getting the nod from 9 percent of respondents who no doubt appreciate its bargain-basement price.
Interestingly enough, sales figures showed Little Caesar's out-performing Papa John's in sales for 2019, although sales figures don't always directly align to popularity. You could prefer one pizza, but they don't deliver to your address, or you could be swayed by a great coupon deal or offer, or maybe, who knows, Little Caesar's extra millions could all have been made off the sales of that crazy good (although not at all good for you) Crazy Bread.
Mom and Pop got a lot of write-in votes
The category called "Other" took 14 percent of the votes, and of these voters, 1,458 left comments, many of which were more or less on point. Quite a few commenters seemingly missed (or chose to ignore) the fact that we were soliciting opinions regarding chain pizzerias, since they made such assertions as "There are definitely mom and pops better than these major chains, just saying," "All are garbage anymore.... Hit an Italian Mom and Pop Pizza place, they are so good!!" and 'Our local pizza place is bomb. They're never stingy on the toppings, their pizza is super cheap, great service, great quality ingredients."
Nice to know, but many Mom and Pops don't deliver, and you don't always feel like dining in, and, well, your mileage (and quality) may vary, since some Moms and Pops may be a trifle heavy on the grease while others skimp on sauce. Chains, though, tend to be a similar experience from coast to coast, which makes for more usable survey results than getting, say, 42,000 different votes for 42,000 different pizza parlors in 42,000 widely-scattered locations.
Other chains got a shout-out, too
There were other commenters who did seem to understand the "chain" part, but they were still partial to a chain that didn't crack the "Big 4." Some of the smaller, less well-known chains found worthy of mention were the midwestern Marcos and Mazzio's and mid-Atlantic-based Ledo's, while Shakey's was the preferred pizza of someone who's either living on the west coast or the long-ago past, since this once-major pizza buffet chain is now down to a mere fraction of its former number of locations.
Papa Murphy's take-and-bake also has a few fans (actually, more than a few, since Pizza Today had them ranked fifth in 2019 sales) who favor the DIY approach, although their sales have been dropping in recent years as people increasingly favor pizza that's ready to eat right out of the box. Chuck E. Cheese pizza even got a vote, though not in its impostor form of "Pasqually's," since nobody wants a pseudonymous pizza. One of the top comments, however, earned 436 likes for saying "There isn't a best. Its a contest for which one isn't the worst," which just goes to show, you can't please some of the people any of the time.