Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest: Did Joey Chesnut set record?

Entering the 2023 Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest 2023, there was no real doubt that Joey Chesnut would win … right? We’re talking here about someone who has dominated this event for so many years, and he’s really the only competitor on the men’s side casual viewers have heard of.

With all of this in mind, the question entering today’s event was whether the event’s GOAT could set a new record and personal best. Last year was actually a down year for him, mostly because he was only able to eat 63 hot dogs (yeah, only) while recovering from an injury. The record is 76, which he managed to do a couple of years ago. Is this going to be the year to break it?

It’s true that the entire idea of this is utterly ridiculous, but that’s a part of the pageantry that comes with this tradition. Chestnut actually does train for this, as there is a lot that goes into preparing his body for the big moment. (You have to, we suppose, to recover after the fact.)

So how many dogs did Chesntut down this year? Our prediction was that he’d get back to at least 70, mostly because he probably wants to recover from last year’s showing.

The actual result

Is Chestnut on the decline after so many years? The contest started two hours later than expected because of bad weather in the area, and maybe that did impact his performance to some degree. In the end, he struggled to keep up his usual pace. He did manage to still past five dozen hot dogs and finished with 62 overall. We still can’t disparage this, given that we would not even be able to eat six of these things. (Also, this is one of the most disgusting things to watch close to the end.)

Ultimately, we’ll see if he is able to get higher than this next year…

Entering the 2023 Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, did you expect a new record from Joey Chestnut?

Let us know right away in the comments! Once you do just that, remember to stick around — there are other updates coming in the near future.

(Photo: ESPN.)