It probably won’t surprise you that Americans love chowing down on wings while watching the Super Bowl, but just how many wings they eat during the big game just might: According to the National Chicken Council’s annual Chicken Wing Report, Americans will consume an estimated 1.48 million chicken wings during Super Bowl LX.
“For football fans looking to add protein to their spreads at an affordable price,” NCC spokesperson Tom Super said in a statement, “wings are king of Super Bowl menus.”
Chicken wing consumption on Super Bowl Sunday has been rising steadily each year: In 2019, Americans ate 1.38 billion wings; 2026’s projected number is 10 million more than what was estimated for 2025.
It’s an epic accomplishment for a food that most Americans once wouldn’t have bothered with—in fact, as TIME magazine put it in 2019, “you would have had to have paid many Americans to put this part of the chicken in their mouths” before the 1970s, when the Bellissimos of Buffalo, New York, began serving deep-fried wings coated in hot sauce and served with blue cheese.
The rest, as they say, is history, and now, per a poll conducted by Statista last year, chicken wings are the go-to Superbowl food for 51 percent of respondents, followed by pizza (47 percent), nachos (39 percent), and burgers (29 percent).
2026 Superbowl Chicken Wing Consumption by the Numbers
When the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots face off at 6:30 p.m. on February 8, Americans will be eating more wings than ever before. The NCC crunched the numbers to help visualize just how many.
- 1.48 billion wings could circle the planet almost three times, “like a crispy equator”
- Lay the wings end-to-end, and you could go back and forth between Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and Lumen Field in Seattle, Washington, around 27 times
- To haul all those wings, you’d need 3,400 semi-trucks—and the convoy would be 40 miles long
- If you ate the wings yourself at a rate of one every 30 seconds, you wouldn’t finish until 3430
- Do the math another way, and that’s one wing eaten every 30 seconds since the end of the Roman Empire
Putting a New Spin on a Game Day Classic
Chicken wings are king on Super Bowl Sunday, but they’re not exactly healthy—which might be why 56 percent of adults say they’re willing to try a meatless alternative to wings, according to a new poll by Morning Consult and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM).
The poll, which surveyed more than 2200 Americans, revealed that nearly half of the adults were planning to eat wings at their Super Bowl parties, but few of them understood the health risks that could come with consuming chicken.
“After learning about the adverse health effects of chicken consumption,” the study notes, “a third of Super Bowl viewers would appreciate a plant-based food option at their super bowl viewing party, and over half of viewers would consider trying a plant-based food option during the event.” Younger adults in particular were more likely to appreciate having a plant-based option available—and to try it.
If you’re interested in offering meatless wing options, PCRM has several recipes available, including Baked Buffalo Cauliflower Bites. “Choosing healthier options doesn’t mean giving up the flavor, the fun, or the game-day experience—these plant-based dishes are satisfying crowd-pleasers,” Stephanie McBurnett, RDN, a nutrition educator for PCRM, said in a statement.
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