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I have an old SAE paper on exactly this: Bishop, I., "Effect of Design Variables on Friction and Economy," SAE Technical Paper 640807, 1964, doi:10.4271/640807.
For a given power at a given RPM, fewer cylinders have less friction and burn less fuel. But more cylinders with less displacement per cylinder can run higher RPM, and thus get more total power.
When the priority is MPG, the solution is the least number of cylinders that meet overall requirements of smoothness, noise, driveability, etc.
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06 Canyon: The vacuum gauge plus wheel covers helped increase summer 2015 mileage to 38.5 MPG, while summer 2016 mileage was 38.6 MPG without the wheel covers. Drove 33,021 miles 2016-2018 at 35.00 MPG.
22 Maverick: Summer 2022 burned 62.74 gallons in 3145.1 miles for 50.1 MPG. Winter 2023-2024 - 2416.7 miles, 58.66 gallons for 41 MPG.
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