How they came to this list:

“We scored the 50 largest metros in the U.S. on their pizza prowess, weighting the criteria as follows:

5x: Google Trends interest in 20 pizza variations 3x: Pizza restaurants per 100,000 residents 2x: Pizza restaurants per square mile 2x: Google Trends interest in general pizza terms 1x: Independent pizza restaurants per 100,000 residents 1x: Average price and affordability of cheese pizza (the cheaper the better) 1x: Average price and affordability of pepperoni pizza (the cheaper the better) -1x: Big chain pizza restaurants per 100,000 residents

To analyze pizza costs, we looked at two factors: the average price for pizza (combining all sizes, including individual slices) and affordability, which takes into account the typical income for that area. Cities with a high share of independent pizza restaurants got extra points, and cities dominated by large pizza chains suffered a small penalty.”