India might not be a part of the FIFA World Cup 2026, but its food industry is certainly facing an impact of the tournament, which is being held thousands of miles away, in the Western Hemisphere.
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While demand for night-time food delivery in India has seen a revival in recent years, thanks to shifting eating habits and sleeping patterns of young consumers, the odd hour matches in the ongoing tournament in the USA, Canada and Mexico have given it a boost, an Economic Times report said, citing industry executives.
Late night and early morning delivery demand goes up
Quick-service restaurants, food delivery firms and quick-commerce services have recorded a 12-15 per cent rise in late-night and early morning delivery demand over the past two weeks, partly due to the World Cup, the report added. Even before the tournament began on June 11, the demand had grown 10-12 per cent in the last year, it said, citing the executives.
McDonald’s India (North and East) chairman Sanjeev Agrawal told The Economic Times that young consumers in India go to sleep at 2 or even 3 am. According to him, the idea of a 9 pm dinner has changed significantly, which means the timing of placing food orders is also changing. The trend has become more prominent during the World Cup.
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Currently, 20 per cent of the chain’s stores in cities such as Delhi-NCR, Lucknow and Jaipur are kept open till 3 am, he told the news outlet. Some remain open till 6 am. Stores on the highways are offering services round the clock.
Pizzas, burgers most ordered between 11 pm-3 am
Food delivery platform Swiggy said that between June 11 and June 24, the most popular orders that were placed between 11 pm and 3 am were for pizzas and burgers. Among the big cities, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai saw the maximum orders, while those like Surat, Thiruvananthapuram and Patna were among the emerging markets, Swiggy’s data showed. One customer in Chandigarh placed an order exceeding Rs 16,000 in this window, the Times report said.
Companies that sell packaged foods have also witnessed a growth in late-night orders. Quick commerce firms have enabled the delivery of the products.
Jayen Mehta, managing director at Amul, known for its dairy products, said the demand surges by 30-40 per cent on the World Cup match days compared to the non-match days (the tournament has seen games every day since it kicked off).
Referring to it as the “FIFA spike” on select delivery platforms which also depend on local government approvals, Mehta said around 80 per cent of dark stores of some operators run round the clock, with deliveries continuing until 2 or 3 am before resuming at 5 am.
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He said the demand for ice cream, frozen snacks and chocolates, particularly on quick commerce platforms such as Blinkit, BigBasket and Zepto in metro cities and across southern cities, has been notable.
Popular tea-chain Chaayos has also remained witness to the business surge. Nitin Saluja, the company’s co-founder, conceded that the World Cup has indeed fuelled an increase in all-night orders, an option that Chaayos had for some years but has now moved into the mainstream.
The owl-hour demand for food is expected to soar over the next few weeks as the World Cup approaches its business end and many matches in the knock-out stage, which began on Monday (June 29, IST), expected to run longer.
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