The 20 Most Popular Ice Cream Flavors in America, Ranked

For as many millions of ice cream flavors in this world as there are, there is a person that loves that flavor more than anything. Our preferences for ice cream are as different as anything, but where’s our common ground? What flavors do we share love for? 

Lactaid, the lactose-free dairy company, put together a comprehensive report detailing America’s ice cream preferences. 

38% 

This is the problem in this country. For sure. Vanilla? That’s what we picked? This is such an uninteresting choice that I could use the phrase, “this is a vanilla choice” and everybody would know what I meant. We’ve adapted “vanilla” to mean “boring” in our lexicon. I would suspect soft serve plays a huge hand in this which is understandable, but overall I’m disappointed in our country for picking this flavor as number one. 

32% 

I’m not even that much of a chocolate-head, but I’m still picking this over vanilla. I would have expected this to take number one in a heartbeat. Six percent is a pretty wide margin; I’m stunned over here. 

25% 

I am aware that people like strawberry ice cream. It’s usually the third milkshake option. That said, I have never actually seen somebody order strawberry ice cream before. In all the times I have ever eaten ice cream with somebody, that person has not ordered plain strawberry. Maybe in a two-scoop situation, that person has paired strawberry with chocolate, but for the most part I feel like this doesn’t happen. Yet here it is at number three. Curious.

21% 

Fourth place for butter pecan is a mega-surprise to me. People like this flavor more than the rest of the top ten? I’m learning all kinds of things today 

21% 

I would have expected a Top 5 slot for cookie dough, but I would never have suspected it wouldn’t beat butter pecan. I would have put money on cookie dough landing in the Top 3.

21% 

Cookies and Cream is a supremely underrated flavor, especially when it’s made properly. Hint: You don’t always need Oreos. Looking at you, McConnell’s. 

20% 

How is mint chip not Top 5 material? Most people I know absolutely love mint chip. And you better believe I’ve seen them order it more often than strawberry or stupid butter pecan. I’m sorry. I’m not over the butter pecan thing, clearly. I’ll try to shake it off. 

18% 

Please explain this to me. Please, please, please. Vanilla drives people wild, right? And then if they can’t have vanilla, they want chocolate? But if you stick tiny chocolate chips into vanilla, then people lose their minds and would rather have six other kinds of ice cream instead? Not sure I follow this one. 

16% 

Here’s another flavor I would have expected to see way higher. For me, though? Send it lower. I don’t like thick, decadent chocolate ice cream without any sort of relief. Plus I don’t love nuts. Sorry, rock. 

15% 

I’m relieved this beautiful flavor made the Top 10, but I would have had it higher. 

14% 

Bing bing! This is probably my favorite ice cream flavor. I’m real basic for salted caramel ice cream. This is 10 places too low, in my opinion. If you want to stock up on some great ones, try Jeni’s or Salt & Straw. 

14% 

There is a product that is not allowed in my house. It’s not allowed to be in my house because if it’s within 100 yards of me, I will crush the entire pint. I have absolutely no self control or ability to slow down when I am in front of this product. This product is Häagen-Dazs coffee ice cream. 

12% 

I’ve never been a death-by-chocolate person, so brownie never appeals to me. 13 seems about right. 

11% 

Vanilla with peanut butter cups and chocolate fudge is what makes up the classic moose tracks flavor, and for me, that’s the absolute maximum amount of stuff you can stick into some ice cream before it becomes unwieldy. A lot of people like a lot of chunkers in their ice cream. Not me. Write that down. 

10% 

The Cold Stone special, eh? This is a good base if you like to stick stuff in your ice cream. If you wrote down what you were supposed to write down in the previous slide, you already know that I don’t want stuff in my ice cream. So when you are put in charge of my next birthday party, you’ll remember that. 

10% 

Beyond Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia, I’m not sure I’ve dabbled in much cherry ice cream in my time. I’m open to it. Where do I start? 

10% 

I’m not really so sure this counts as a flavor since it’s just three other flavors combined: vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. Those are the top three slots, right there. If anything, Neapolitan is not really a flavor, and more of a dessert. But why am I arguing with the semantics of a report that’s already been written? I don’t know. Thanks for listening to me. 

10% 

This is where I expected butter pecan to be, right next to the other flavor that nobody actually orders. 

8% 

Banana-flavored things are crimes. More like 119, in my opinion. 

8% 

So, vanilla ice cream is number one and if you stick a little bit of fudge in it, it plummets 19 slots? Foof. People really like their vanilla vanilla.  

Want to know how we’re dressing up our ice cream for a sundae? Here are our favorite toppings, as a country: 

• Hot fudge: 35% 
• Whipped cream: 29% 
• Caramel sauce: 24% 
• Chocolate sauce: 21% 
• Nuts: 19% 
• Sprinkles: 18% 
• Chocolate Chips: 17% 
• Cherries: 12% 
• Brownie bits: 11% 
• Cookies: 11% 
• Peanut butter: 9% 
• Fruit: 9% 
• Marshmallows: 6% 
• Chocolate bars: 5% 
• Gummy bears: 5% 
• Coconut shavings: 5% 
• Granoola: 4% 
• Hazelnut spread: 3% 
• Honey: 3% 
• Cereal: 3%