We started tracking Cooking in 2021 with a handful of launches. Now there are 125 products in the index. The growth curve and engagement data are below.
Five years of Cooking launch data. Volume, engagement, and the products that stood out.
We started tracking Cooking in 2021 with a handful of launches. Now there are 125 products in the index. The growth curve and engagement data are below.
| Quarter | Launches | Avg Interest Score | Top Product |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2026 | 1 | 29 | Nosh |
| Q2 2026 | 1 | 170 | Ember |
| Q1 2025 | 7 | 116 | openRCP |
| Q2 2025 | 6 | 92 | Duocook |
| Q3 2025 | 7 | 45 | Yummery |
| Q4 2025 | 7 | 171 | PlanEat AI |
| Q1 2024 | 6 | 154 | Dinnerfy |
| Q2 2024 | 8 | 221 | OH, a potato! |
| Q3 2024 | 7 | 96 | Cooked.wiki |
| Q4 2024 | 8 | 143 | Slide Dish |
| Q1 2023 | 7 | 92 | Recipes By AI |
| Q2 2023 | 18 | 109 | TastyPlan |
| Q3 2023 | 14 | 104 | Notion Meal Planner |
| Q4 2023 | 10 | 93 | Fridge2Food - Transform food into meals |
| Q1 2022 | 4 | 90 | Vegenerator |
| Q2 2022 | 1 | 79 | Morsel |
The Cooking category has been steady over the past 6 years of tracked data. Total launches went from 10 in 2021 to 2 in 2026.
Average engagement ratio across all Cooking launches: 0.27. Products above that line tend to solve a specific, painful problem. Products below it often entered a crowded space without clear differentiation.
Cooking peaked in 2023 with 49 launches. That was 3 years ago. The decline since then could signal market consolidation, saturation, or attention shifting to adjacent categories.
Average engagement per product has risen from 0.13 in 2021 to 0.22 in 2026. That upward trend means the community is spending more time with each new launch. Either the products are getting better, or the audience is getting more selective. Probably both.
The highest-performing quarter was Q2 2024, with an average interest score of 221 across 8 launches. OH, a potato! led that quarter.
62 B2B launches (49%) vs 63 B2C (51%) across the full Cooking dataset. The split is close to even. Cooking serves both business buyers and individual users.
2021: 10 launches. Average interest: 96. Average engagement: 0.13. Top launch: Suspended Pizza (136 interest).
2022: 8 launches (-20% vs 2021). Average interest: 125. Average engagement: 0.20. Top launch: Recipify (310 interest).
2023: 49 launches (+512% vs 2022). Average interest: 102. Average engagement: 0.23. Top launch: TastyPlan (245 interest).
2024: 29 launches (-41% vs 2023). Average interest: 155. Average engagement: 0.28. Top launch: OH, a potato! (989 interest).
2025: 27 launches (-7% vs 2024). Average interest: 106. Average engagement: 0.39. Top launch: PlanEat AI (758 interest).
2026: 2 launches (-93% vs 2025). Average interest: 99. Average engagement: 0.22. Top launch: Ember (170 interest).
Volume without engagement is saturation. Engagement without volume is opportunity. Check which one you're looking at.
Sum of all interest scores in the quarter divided by number of products. Simple average. We don't weight by category or product age.
Depends on what's declining. If volume drops but engagement rises, the market is maturing. That's often good for existing players. If both drop, the category may be dying. The quarterly breakdown on each page tells you which pattern you're seeing.
At least three. Two data points is a line, not a trend. We have five years of data for most categories, which is enough to distinguish real shifts from noise.
Current year launches compared to the same period last year. Positive means more products launching. Negative means the category cooled. Neither is inherently good or bad. A mature category with fewer but better launches is often healthier than one flooding the market with clones.
Launch volume drops but engagement per product rises. Fewer builders entering, but the ones that do find a more receptive audience. That's an opportunity signal. We flag it when we see it.
We report what happened. We don't predict. Five years of data shows patterns, but markets surprise people for a living.