New Year's Eve frenzy: Grapes, biryani, pizzas among most-ordered items

As India counted down to 2026, New Year’s Eve (NYE) emerged as one of the busiest nights of the year for quick commerce (qcom) and food delivery platforms. 

Swiggy Instamart saw a spike in orders in the last hour of 2025 (11 pm-12 am) across categories, like food items, party supplies, gifting essentials, snacks, and beverages. The spike was driven by grapes, with orders seeing a 15 times jump, followed by cakes (7 times), BBQ-related items (6 times), beverages (3.5 times), party glasses (2.5 times), and pizza bases (1.8 times). 

Card games saw a three times spike in searches, while tonic water emerged as the most trending beverage on the platform. 

 

Swiggy Cofounder Phani Kishan Addepalli said on social media that the search for grapes spiked throughout the day. “Today, Instamart saw 235,000 searches for grapes in the first half of the day, with searches starting as early as 5 am,” he said. Overall, the search for grapes surged 78 times over usual levels. 

Zepto, meanwhile, saw a “three times demand in grapes (orders) this year on December 30”, according to a company spokesperson. 

Across Eternal’s food delivery platform Zomato and qcom platform Blinkit, an all-time high of 7.5 million orders were delivered to over 6.3 million customers during the day, Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Deepinder Goyal said in a social media post. 

On Swiggy, cakes, pizzas, and biryanis were among the top trending items. Notably, Biryani dominated party menus, clocking 218,993 orders before 7:30 pm. The orders peaked at 1,336 orders per minute just before 8 pm. In total, over 218,000 pizza and 216,000 burger orders were delivered by 8:30 pm. As the night progressed, Rasmalai, Gajar Halwa, and Gulab Jamun were among the top five desserts ordered around 10:30 pm. 

Magicpin, the country’s third-largest food delivery platform, also reported New Year’s Eve as one of its busiest nights. Order count started rising from 8:30 pm on the platform, and nearly 1,500 orders were processed per minute at 11:30 pm. 

Across categories, over 25,000 Margherita pizzas were delivered in Gurugram alone, while dessert orders spiked three times compared to last year. In Delhi-NCR, Butter Chicken emerged as the most-ordered dish with nearly 75,000 plates, followed by Biryani and Dal Makhni. Late evening snacking also remained strong, as customers ordered nearly 35,000 plates of fries and beverages, such as Diet Coke. All in all, the platform delivered 150,000 orders by midnight. 

Momentum, however, was not limited to large, metropolitan cities. Swiggy Instamart data highlighted strong sales in markets such as Lonavala, Karimnagar, Saharanpur, Davanagere, Patiala, and Meerut. As for Swiggy’s food delivery platform, demand picked up in cities like Patna, Surat, Vadodara, Nagpur, Jaipur, Pune, and Indore. 

The NYE celebrations also extended to out-of-home gatherings, as dining-out platforms also witnessed a sharp rise in bookings. On Swiggy Dine Out, Ahmedabad recorded a 1.6 times jump in bookings, followed by Lucknow (1.3 times) and Jaipur (1.2 times). 

“Stepping out was a preferred choice for many this NYE. While Bengaluru and Hyderabad led the way on Swiggy Dine Out, the enthusiasm for celebratory dining surged across emerging hubs,” the company said in a statement. 

The surge in sales activity, across different platforms, came even as gig worker unions had called a nationwide strike.  In a social media post, Goyal said, “Zomato and Blinkit delivered at a record pace yesterday (December 31), unaffected by calls for strikes that many of us heard over the past few days. Support from local law enforcement helped keep the small number of miscreants in check... This happened without any additional incentives for delivery partners. NYE does see higher incentives than usual days, and yesterday was no different than the past NYE days.” 

Gauri Devidayal, co-founder and CEO of Food Matters Group, also noted that it was “business as usual, and we had no disruption to deliveries, leading to one of the highest sales days”. 

However, the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers’ Union (TGPWU) and the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers (IFAT) said in a joint statement that more than 2.1 lakh delivery workers participated in the strike on NYE, leading to delays in orders and operations. 

Another union, the Gig & Platform Service Workers Union (GIPSWU), said that more than one lakh workers joined in the strike, severely impacting businesses. “There are platforms bragging about their ‘busiest night ever with high order traffic’. What a lie and a slap in the face! The truth? Apps crashed and broke down because so many workers uninstalled them and flat-out refused jobs. Orders piled up with no one to deliver,” GIPSWU said in a press note.