What is the Pizza Meter and why does TikTok think it means World War 3 is coming?

A strangely serious conversation about pizza is taking over TikTok, as the online masses catch onto the unique but eerie implications of the Pizza Meter.

It’s not a modern concept, but the Pizza Meter is back on American minds as fresh concerns over a third World War rear their heads. Fear about the state of our world is at an all-time high as people are priced out of their homes, jobs slowly work to transform us into worker drones, and tensions between nations across the globe continue to rise, and people on TikTok are tracking it all through pizza purchases.

What is the Pizza Meter?

The Pizza Meter is an odd phenomenon that was first noted during the Cold War in the ’80s and early ’90s. It was flagged by Frank Meeks, who owned a full 45 franchised Dominoes locations around Washington DC, who noted an interesting trend. He realized that major national announcements are preceded, almost without fail, by a surge in pizza orders to government buildings.

Across several historical examples, this trend has predicted serious shifts in American politics. Government workers are forced to work late when major political shifts, burgeoning wars, and national issues are developing, and when they work late, they order pizza. The result is a trackable, surprisingly down-to-earth trend that can help predict when major global issues are occupying our national leaders.

This has cropped up numerous times over the years, starting with that first appearance in the mid-’80s. In the years since, it indicated rising tensions on Aug. 1, 1990, — the night before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait — on Aug. 21, 1991, right in the midst of the 1991 Soviet coup attempt, and as recently as April 13, 2024, when a high number of pizzas were delivered to high-level government buildings as Iran launched a drone and missile attack against Israel.

DC pizza orders used as a means to determine the timelines of international crises are so well defined, in fact, that they’ve become a national security risk. In the wake of the connection being drawn between pizza orders and blossoming crises, DC leaders often attempt to put in their pizza orders from numerous locations, at different times, in order to better cover their tracks. This is done in part to avoid panicking the American public, but more importantly, as a means to protect national information from foreign influence.

It is even thought that Soviet officials have, in the past, monitored the Pizza Meter in an effort to predict strategic U.S. moves, making it essential that the strange phenomenon is concealed as much as possible.

Each fresh generation, young people catch onto the Pizza Meter and panic over the implications to national security. As we once again see a surge in DC-based pizza orders, a number of TikTok users are predicting an impending war, but with turmoil between Russia and Ukraine stretching on, the Israel-Hamas war headed into yet another month of bloodshed, and so much turmoil kicking off around the globe, it’s entirely possible that our national leaders are just doing everything in their power to keep up — and keep fed.