On Jan. 15, 1967, the Green Bay Packers faced off against the Kansas City Chiefs in the very first Super Bowl.
On that day, few of the estimated 51 million fans gathered around their television sets realized the profound impact the Super Bowl would have on chicken consumption in the United States. The Packers won the game 35-10, but ultimately the real winner was chicken — particularly wings.
In 1967, Americans consumed 32.6 pounds of chicken per capita, typically purchased in whole-bird form. Cuts of chicken were a novelty at the grocery store, and there was little demand for chicken wings.
But, in 1964, the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York decided to turn the typical soup-stock staple into a spicy finger food to feed a hungry crowd.
For a few years after they first served them, wings gained popularity in the bar scene — then came Super Bowl I, turning them into a sporting event tradition. Since that first game, chicken wings have become a staple of football gatherings and tailgaters, even carrying over into other major sporting events with the annual college basketball tournaments and the college and pro football season rivaling the big game for wing consumption.
In fact, any big sporting event that generates a crowd increases demand for chicken wings. In recent years, chicken consumption was estimated at 90.1 pounds per capita, a 176% increase from 1967.
On the day of Super Bowl I, the wholesale price for chicken wings on the New York market was 23 cents per pound. By August of 2023, the price restaurants paid for chicken wings averaged $1.76 per pound.
In 2015, the U.S. chicken industry produced around 28.5 billion chicken wing portions — the drumette and flat portions of the wing, which excludes the tip portion that is typically exported. At least 5.6% of those chicken wing portions were marketed during the week leading up to the big game. That’s 1.6 billion chicken wing portions flying through the fingers of eager football fans across the nation!
This year, Americans are projected to consume nearly 1.5 billion chicken wings during Super Bowl weekend alone, when the Kansas City Chiefs play the San Francisco 49ers Feb. 11 in Las Vegas.
A lot has changed for chicken since that fateful day in 1967. But one thing has not — they still only come with two wings.
This historic article was updated by FarmWeek staff.
Michael Sheats is the director of the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service Agricultural Analytics Division in Food and Nutrition.
