More Than Demand Driving Super Bowl Chicken Wing Price Increase This Year

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The nearly 1.5 billion chicken wings fans are expected to consume during Sunday’s Super Bowl watch parties will cost more this year, and it is more than just the demand driving the increase.

Jada Thompson, an associate professor in the agricultural economics and agribusiness department for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said the national composite chicken price is up 5 percent year-over-year for December, but for whole wings it is up 19 percent.

“Likely, these are higher because of the holiday demand and strong market for these products,” Thompson said of the chicken wings. “In terms of what is driving these prices, we can relate a lot to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza.”

The total number of chickens harvested in December was down 4 percent year-over-year, and while some of the dip was compensated by bigger birds, each chicken still only has two wings and two drumettes, she noted.

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or HPAI, impacted some broiler production with a loss of 5.6 million broiler chickens last year. It was the largest number of affected broilers in a given year since the outbreak started in 2022, she said. An additional 1.6 million broilers were lost this year by the end of January.

HPAI is also affecting the breeding side of the industry, with a 4 percent drop in broilers coming into the system, she added. There have been at least 65,000 breeder birds lost to HPAI this year and 127,000 were lost in the final three months of 2024.

“Broiler eggs in incubators are up, so the industry is trying to compensate for lower supplies,” Thompson said. “Work continues to improve biosecurity, develop vaccines and other control plans.”

Wing demand up

According to the National Chicken Council’s annual Chicken Wing Report, Americans are projected to eat 1.47 billion chicken wings watching the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX on Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s about 20 million more wings than last year’s game.

The increase in chicken wing sales is directly tied to American football and beer sales, the council adds.

“Cooking the whole bird was trendy in the 1960s and 1970s, but in the 1980s, U.S. consumers started preferring boneless-skinless breast meat, and wings became an inexpensive byproduct for chicken producers,” a National Chicken Council news release explained. “Restaurants and bars realized they could charge low prices for the relatively inexpensive protein, and due to the spicy/salty nature of the sauce, they discovered that beer sales would go through the roof when customers ate wings.”

Thompson conducts research for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the Division of Agriculture’s research arm. She also teaches classes for the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences.

POULTRY PRO — Jada Thompson is an associate professor of agribusiness who specializes in poultry for the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness. (U of A System Division of Ag photo by Nick Kordsmeier)

In addition to her work analyzing poultry meat prices, Thompson also recently collaborated on a study exploring the effects of HPAI on U.S. egg prices. The work, published last year in the journal Food Policy, was titled “Biological lags and market dynamics in vertically coordinated food supply chains: HPAI impacts on U.S. egg prices.” Her collaborators included corresponding author James Mitchell, assistant professor and extension economist in the agricultural economics and agribusiness department, and Trey Malone with the department of agricultural economics at Purdue University.

​To learn more about the Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website. Follow us on 𝕏 at @ArkAgResearch, subscribe to the Food, Farms and Forests podcast and sign up for our monthly newsletter, the Arkansas Agricultural Research Report. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit uada.edu. Follow us on 𝕏 at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit uaex.uada.edu.

About the Division of Agriculture

The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land grant education system.

The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on three campuses.

The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs to all eligible persons without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status, and is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.