While the rest of the fast-food world is busy fighting the chicken wars, Burger King is betting the farm on beef.
Over the last year, crispy chicken fillets and fried chicken cutlets have dominated menus and news headlines most everywhere. Consumer Edge data shows the quick-service chicken category was the only major restaurant segment to grow its share of total food spending across income groups in 2025.
Amid the frenzy, McDonald’s revived its Snack Wraps in July and added McCrispy Strips in May, while Wendy’s fired up the Cajun Crunch Sandwich that April and debuted chicken ‘Tendys’ tenders in September.
Burger King’s answer, though? Go harder on burgers.
The chain is doubling down on the Whopper by handing the keys to the fans who love remixing it. The strategy solidified in July with the launch of the Whopper by You platform, but the company has been building toward this moment for over a year.
The “guest-led” playbook began in earnest with the Million Dollar Whopper Contest in early 2024. That experiment proved that customers wanted complex, premium builds, paving the way for the Steakhouse Bacon Whopper in March—a savory mashup of A.1. sauce, crispy onions, and peppercorn aioli.
Now, with Whopper by You, that occasional engagement has become a permanent pipeline. The platform has already produced the Crispy Onion Whopper, a texture-heavy build that stacks golden onion rings and fried onions alongside bacon and BBQ sauce. The concept is simple: let guests pitch flavor combinations at BK.com/WBY, and turn the best ones into limited-time menu items.
During Restaurant Brands International’s Q3 earnings call, CEO Josh Kobza said the platform is “delivering strong results, engaging our guests through personalized takes on their favorite flame-grilled burger.” He added that Whopper by You has extended the brand’s reach with women and Gen Z customers — a demographic shift Burger King has chased for years.
Internally, the enthusiasm is even louder. In a recent interview, CMO Joel Yashinsky called the response “phenomenal.”
“We’re going to build on this platform and introduce even more new flavors,” he said. “We want to lead with our burgers. We’re seeing a lot of competitors going into chicken, and it’s opened up a lane for us to talk about burgers in a way that others aren’t. A big white space has been created.”
That lane isn’t limited to the Whopper. The chain is preparing its Double Cheeseburger for its own round of innovation, positioning it as another core item with room to experiment.
“We talk a lot about the Whopper, but we have a great handheld sandwich in the Double Cheeseburger as well that we’ll be leaning into,” Yashinsky said.
None of this means Burger King is ignoring chicken altogether. Yashinsky noted the brand has “chicken opportunities” coming in 2026 and can still rely on “its OG” chicken sandwich. But the weight of the strategy is unmistakable: reclaim the burger space while competitors drift elsewhere.
“We’re Burger King, which means we believe we need to be the king of burgers. It’s on brand,” he said. “People still love a great hamburger.”
Big marketing invites big scrutiny
Of course, leaning this hard on the Whopper comes with baggage. Burger King’s still tangled up in a lawsuit from 2022, where customers claim the chain’s ads puff up the Whopper to look 35% bigger with twice the meat.
A judge in Miami recently shot down the nationwide class action, which limits the damage, but the optics aren’t great: BK’s betting everything on Whopper hype while simultaneously defending how it advertises the thing.
The chain insists the patties in its ads match what’s actually served, but the case is a reminder that cranking up Whopper marketing means inviting more eyeballs—and more questions. Subway’s dealing with similar heat over its steak sandwiches, so at least BK’s got company.
A strategy born from economic necessity
There’s also a bit of necessity baked into this burger obsession. RBI’s North American sales haven’t exactly been lighting up the scoreboard in 2025, and McDonald’s isn’t faring much better—its same-store sales dropped 3.6% in Q1 as customers tightened their wallets amid tariff chaos and economic jitters.
So while everyone else scrambles into chicken, Burger King’s eyeing the gap they left behind. And it’s not just a U.S. play—over in Japan, BK rolled out its Wild West Burgers in June, stacking beef patties with onion rings and double cheese. Turns out international customers are hungry for Whopper innovation too, especially as RBI’s overseas markets outpace its domestic ones.
Sources: Burger King, NRN, U.S. District Court, Reuters, McDonald’s