This Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest Giant Is Making A 2025 Return

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2024 was an unusual year in the annals of the Nathan's Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest, which is held every Fourth of July. For the first year since 2005, Joey Chestnut was not among the competitors, and it was also the first year since 2016 that he didn't hoist the Mustard Belt. Chestnut has won the contest 16 times. His winning streak lasted from 2007 to 2014, then resumed again until 2023 after Matt Stonie's one-off 2015 triumph. 

In 2025, however, Chestnut will appear once again on the scene of his numerous victories. In a post on X, he said, "I'm thrilled to be returning to the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest. This event means the world to me. It's a cherished tradition, a celebration of American culture, and a huge part of my life."

Chestnut didn't compete in the 2024 Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest because of a conflict that arose with Major League Eating (MLE), the organization that runs the Nathan's-sponsored event. He was not officially banned from the event as Chestnut claimed at the time, but MLE did cite Chestnut's endorsement deal with Impossible Foods as violating its "basic hot dog exclusivity provisions" (via NPR). 

MLE issued a statement expressing its disappointment that Chestnut would champion a rival brand. For his part, Chestnut stated that while he has worked with other brands (as he is free to do), he has never been an official spokesman for any non-Nathan's hot dogs, vegan or otherwise. By the time any confusion was cleared up, however, he'd already made other plans for Independence Day last year.

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Just because Joey Chestnut wasn't in the Nathan's competition doesn't mean he didn't down some dogs. On July 4, 2024, the day that Patrick Bertoletti earned his first Mustard Belt on Coney Island, Joey Chestnut was down near El Paso, Texas, competing in a hot dog eating challenge against soldiers stationed at Fort Bliss. Since none of the service members were professional eaters, much less champions at the sport, four of them were pitted against one. Chestnut still won handily, as he was able to shovel 57 dogs in just five minutes (the Nathan's contest lasts for 10), while the quartet of soldiers only managed 49 amongst themselves.

The real challenge, however, came on Labor Day, when Chestnut met long-time rival Takeru Kobayashi in a live Netflix hot dog showdown titled "Unfinished Beef." With a final count of 83 hot dogs to Kobayashi's 66, Chestnut was able to squash that beef pretty definitively. It's likely that the matchup will never reoccur, since prior to the match Kobayashi — winner of the first five Nathan's Famous contests – announced his retirement from competitive eating due to health reasons. Chestnut, however, has no such end in sight, and oddsmakers predict he has a 96% chance of hoisting the Mustard Belt again this year.