While New England is known for its chowder and Seattle its salmon tossing, when it comes to Super Bowl menus, nothing is hotter than wings. The National Chicken Council today released its annual Chicken Wing Report, projecting Americans to eat 1.48 billion chicken wings watching the Patriots and Seahawks battle for the Lombardi Trophy on Feb. 8. This figure represents an increase of about 10 million more wings than last year’s game.
“I think Bradley Cooper is wrong: Football is for food,” said NCC spokesperson Tom Super, referencing an Uber Eats ad campaign starring Cooper. “Especially when it comes to the Super Bowl, where wings rule the roost. For football fans looking to add protein to their spreads at an affordable price, wings are king of Super Bowl menus.”
Because you’ve never really thought about that many wings … how do 1.48 billion chicken wings stack up?
- Laid end to end, they’d stretch roughly 27 times from Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, to Lumen Field in Seattle, Washington
- They’d circle the planet almost three times, like a crispy equator
- Eat one wing every 30 seconds and you’ll finish right around the year 3430
- Or one wing every 30 seconds since the fall of the Roman Empire
- You’d need more than 3,400 fully loaded semi-trucks to haul them all — enough trucks to make a 40-mile long convoy of nothing but wings
NFL playoffs + wings
In the latest four weeks (playoff window), chicken wing units surged nationally 19.8 percent year-over-year and dollars were up 11.4 percent versus the prior period, reflecting strong seasonal/game‑day demand.
In the Seattle retail market over the past four weeks during the playoffs, wing sales were up 8.6 percent in dollars, up 26.3 percent in units and up 22.2 percent in volume. In the Boston market, wing sales were up 4.4 percent in dollars, 17.1 percent in units and 10.9 percent in volume.
But of the four cities who played in the NFC and AFC Championship games, consumers in Los Angeles order the most wings per person at 4 times per year, beating out Boston, Seattle and Denver.
Affordable protein option
Retail prices for fresh wings are down 2.8 percent year-over-year, with a four-week moving average from Circana of $3.47 per pound, according to Wells Fargo’s Super Bowl Food Report. This dip in cost comes thanks to U.S. broiler producers boosting domestic production by 2.2 percent in 2025, aided by lower feed costs.
Despite softer wing prices, at 57 million lbs., cold storage inventories reported to end November were at their lowest November total in more than 10 years (outside of 2020 COVID), according to USDA. This means restaurants, bars and supermarkets started stocking up well in advance of the Big Game.
“The bottom line … wings will be available in plenty, they’ll be affordable, and they’ll be delicious,” Super added.
