Popeyes U.S. comps -5.2% Q2’26Wingstop domestic SSS -7.5% Q2’26KFC U.S. units 3,523 YE’25Dave’s unit growth +52.3% FY’25Chick-fil-A AUV $9.16MCane’s systemwide $5.48B FY’25Franchisee QSR cap 6.85%Corporate QSR cap 5.85%Category growth +5.3% ’25Wings wholesale $0.98/lb YE’25
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About

An intelligence platform, not a food blog

Chicken Sandwich Wars is an independent intelligence platform tracking the brands, operators, real estate and consumer trends shaping America's chicken restaurant industry.

Why it exists

Chicken is the most consumed animal protein in the United States and the fastest-growing major restaurant category — and the information about it is scattered across earnings releases, franchise disclosure documents, bankruptcy dockets, net-lease brokerage reports and trade press. Nobody has assembled it in one place with a consistent standard for what counts as a fact.

What CSW covers

Four databases and the analysis connecting them: brands (units, volumes, growth, structure), operators (who actually owns the restaurants), real estate (cap rates, leases, comps and second-generation inventory), and rankings (a computed answer to who is winning). Around them sit the news desk, the expansion tracker, openings and closures, transactions, markets, research and the data center.

The standard

Every figure published on this site carries a source and an as-of date. Where a number has not been published by a company, a filing or an industry data provider, CSW shows a dash rather than an estimate. Figures derived arithmetically from two published numbers are marked as derived. Franchisee-reported figures are labelled as such. The methodology page sets out the scoring formula in full, including its known limitations.

Independence

CSW is not affiliated with any restaurant brand, franchisor or franchisee. Where the people behind CSW have a commercial interest — brokerage, or investment through Chicken Capital Partners — that is disclosed rather than hidden. Coverage is not for sale, and sponsorship never buys a ranking, a score or a favourable analysis.