Food delivery platform Zomato released a comprehensive data report on 31 December showcasing India’s food delivery patterns observed in 2025. The data revealed that Delhi-NCR recorded 4.22 crore more orders than Mumbai and 4.22 crore more orders more than Bengaluru as it drew upon details registered till 28 December 2025.
The caption to the post stated, “When India gets going, so do we.”
The National Capital Region spearheaded the food delivery space with robust appetite for online food ordering. Positioned as Zomato’s largest market in terms of total order volume, Delhi-NCR reported 18.72 lakh orders at 8:25 PM, marking it as “India’s national dinner time.” IIT Kharagpur topped the list of total orders from university campuses with 2.4 lakh orders, followed by IIT BHU and IIT Bombay.
At the international stage, Deepinder Goyal-led platform showed strong performance, particularly in the Middle East region. United Arab Emirates recorded 2.30 lakh orders in 2025, followed by 1.2 lakh of United Stated and 80,000 of United Kingdom. Meanwhile, Vijaywada Junction reported 1.4 lakh orders this year.
On Raksha Bandhan, 171 sweets were ordered every minute and on Christmas 98 cakes were ordered every minute.
The hungriest minutes of the day are listed below:
- 8:25 PM – 18.72 lakh orders
- 8:24 PM – 18.71 lakh orders
- 8:22 PM – 18.69 lakh orders
Zomato offered peak hour incentives of 120 to ₹150 per order from 6:00 PM to midnight.
Zomato hikes delivery partner incentives
Anticipating a surge in demand during the year-end days, Zomato raised incentives for its delivery partners for peak hours during New Year’s Eve.
This move came at a time when gig workers across India went on strike to protest, including delivery partners working with food aggregator platforms such as Zomato and Swiggy. The gig workers protested against low pay, lack of social security and poor working conditions.
Calling its recent incentive hike unrelated to the strike, Zomato in a statement said, “This is part of our standard annual operating protocol during festive periods, which typically see higher earning opportunities due to increased demand,” a spokesperson for Eternal, Zomato’s parent company, said in the statement.
