Super Bowl fans to devour 1.4B chicken wings: Report

The hierarchy of the chicken sandwich was the trending topic for 2019 but for football’s big day it’s all about the "wing."

Chicken wings continue to be a favored choice for the highly anticipated game with Super Bowl fans expected to consume a record-breaking 1.4 billion chicken wings over the weekend, according to the National Chicken Council’s annual Chicken Wing Report.

To put this in perspective, this is the equivalent to every player in the NFL, including the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs, consuming 825,000 wings each.

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“Football is great. Wings are great. But they’re even better together,” said Council spokesman Tom Super. “Sure, you can have your chips, your guacamole, your pizza. But when it comes to Super Bowl menus, wings rule the roost. So grab a wet nap, dive in and help put a dent in that 1.4 billion.” 

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America’s love for the fried piece of poultry continues to grow with Americans projected to eat 27 million more wings than last year, an increase of about two percent, according to the report.

While 65 percent of Americans say they like to eat wings during major sporting events like the Super Bowl, about 51 percent of wing eaters say it should be dubbed the official food of the Super Bowl.

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And while the battle in Miami is still days away, a giant game of chicken is being played off the field between some of the country's biggest food chains clamoring for the most orders.

Before kickoff even begins, Buffalo Wild Wings, Hooters, Applebee's, whose parent is Dine Brands Global, and other chains are trying to out-market each other to become the No. 1 pick for football fans.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
DIN	DINE BRANDS GLOBAL INC.	35.07	+1.08	+3.18%

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And while the competition is beefing up between chicken chains, pizza chains are also going head to head to try to claim as many customers as possible on one of the biggest food-oriented days of the year.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
DPZ	DOMINO'S PIZZA INC.	469.18	+15.83	+3.49%

Pizza chains say they are expecting to sell millions of pies around the highly coveted game weekend. And although slim by comparison to the 1.4 billion wings, Pizza Hut anticipates selling more than 1.5 million pizzas this year while rival Domino's typically sells nearly 2 million pizzas on Super Bowl Sunday, an increase of about 40 percent from a typical Sunday, according to its website.

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The Feb. 2 game in Miami will be televised on FOX and livestreamed on the FOX Sports App and FOXSports.com. Kickoff will begin around 6:30 p.m. ET.

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