The world ate more instant ramen and paid for more Tinder subscriptions in the same years (r = 0.959), which is the kind of pairing that sounds like a college senior's short story but is in fact a business plan that worked for both categories. The noodle warms at midnight; the swipe continues past midnight. The 2010s expressed themselves in convenience purchases of roughly identical ambition.
Global instant ramen consumption grew from about 98 billion servings in 2015 to over 121 billion by 2022, with particular growth in India, Vietnam, and the US cup-noodle segment; Tinder paid subscribers grew from about 560,000 in 2015 to over 10 million by 2022, as the app converted a larger fraction of its matching base into premium tiers (Tinder Gold, Tinder Platinum). Both are subscription economies in their own way — the ramen eater returns to the same brand with quiet regularity, the Tinder user returns to the same swipe loop with slightly less quiet regularity — and both cater to audiences underpaid enough that the small treat at the end of the day is a meaningful line item.
The cup steams. The match lights up. Neither is a full meal. Both are, for a moment, enough.
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Want to learn more about why correlations like “Tinder paid subscribers” vs “Global instant ramen consumption” don't prove causation? Read our guide to statistical thinking.
