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- Super Bowl LIV kicks off on Sunday between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers.
- Insider polled 1,078 American adults and asked which of the two teams they would be rooting for in the Super Bowl, with an option in case they were abstaining from a pick.
- While the slight majority of fans were cheering for San Francisco over Kansas City, the responses varied by their location, revealing some interesting pockets of 49ers fans.
- Both New England and South Carolina seemed fond of the 49ers, possibly due to ties to players in the game.
- Read more of Business Insider's Super Bowl 2020 coverage here.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
The Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers will face off on Sunday in Miami in Super Bowl LIV.
Close to 100 million people will be tuning into the big game, from die-hard fans of the Chiefs and Niners to casual fans from around the league, and even those who are watching more for the commercials and the halftime show.
While those in California and Missouri don't need to think much about which side they'll be supporting in the Super Bowl, for fans across the rest of America, it's a fair question.
As a new poll from Insider showed, support for both the 49ers and Chiefs remained fairly territorial, save for a few somewhat humorous exceptions.
Insider polled 1,078 American adults and asked which of the two teams they would be rooting for in the Super Bowl, with an option in case they were abstaining from a pick. We also asked them for their zip code. Of the 1,078 respondents, 687 said that they were backing one of the two teams, with a little more than half going for San Francisco. Here's a map of each respondent and who they're supporting:
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Who are you rooting for?
Though this is a national survey, the state-by-state data is slimmer than one would hope to draw a definitive conclusion of who's got who in the big game.
This map shows the percentage of respondents in each state who favored one team or another. There is a lot of neutral territory, but you can not only make out their regional support but also a few regional differences that make sense when you scratch the surface.
Ruobing Su/Business Insider
49ers fans dominate California, but also are popping up in New England and South Carolina, while Chiefs fans are bunched in the middle of the country.
In New England, the sudden upswing in support for the 49ers likely stems from quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who was a backup to Tom Brady for years before finally getting his chance at a starting job in San Francisco.
While the Patriots failed to make the Super Bowl for the first time in four years, this Sunday, their fans still might get to claim a moral victory if a former quarterback is lifting the Lombardi Trophy.
The other seemingly random outburst of support for the 49ers comes from South Carolina. While there's no way to be sure, there's a good chance that their fandom comes thanks to rookie wide receiver Deebo Samuel, who was born and raised in South Carolina and played college football for the Gamecocks. Those who cheered for him in the past seem to be pulling for him to get a championship ring.
While some parts of the country have chosen a side, there is still a lot of neutral ground, and close to 36% of adults we surveyed haven't picked a team.
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SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by census data of age and gender. Respondents are incentivized to complete surveys through charitable contributions. Generally speaking, digital polling tends to skew toward people with access to the internet. SurveyMonkey Audience doesn't try to weigh its sample based on race or income. A total of 1,078 respondents were collected January 29-30, 2020, a margin of error plus or minus 3 percentage points with a 95% confidence level.