10 Interesting Facts About Burger King’s Whopper

As all brands do, Burger King has spent decades continuously building up and refining its identity. The high-selling fast food chain started in 1954, and in the years it has been open since then, it has become associated with a number of defining qualities. But even more than its red, orange, and beige color palette or its regal cardboard crowns, nothing is more telling of the eatery than its famous Whopper.

The Whopper is Burger King’s signature sandwich. People could gather that much from its extensive presence on the menu as well as the restaurant’s proud marketing phrase, “Home of the Whopper.” Still, there’s always more for both average customers and die-hard fans alike to learn about the renowned burger. Whether it’s how the menu item came to be or the wacky variations and merchandise created around it, there’s more to Burger King’s Whopper than you might have known.

Around since 1957, the name “Whopper” has become a household term, likely being thrown around in countless homes come lunch or dinner time. You can imagine this is especially the case when the joint it was coined by is one of the top 10 fast food chains in America. Perhaps “Whopper” has been said so much that you forget the weight this name carries — literally.

Deciding the burger’s name to be “Whopper” was a thought-out choice on behalf of Jim McLamore and David Edgerton, the founders of Burger King. The pair was in Florida when McLamore noticed a nearby drive-through restaurant that was finding much more success than Burger King at the time. Why? Because of how large its burgers were. This inspired McLamore to dream up a bigger burger for their restaurant, too, with a purposeful name to indicate its hefty size. Thus, the “Whopper” came to be.

Save for its hefty size and flame-grilled beef patty, the Whopper is an otherwise pretty standard, all-American burger. It contains the components you can expect to find on just about any other burger, including tomatoes, lettuce, pickles, white onions, mayonnaise, and ketchup, all on a toasted sesame seed bun. What makes a Whopper fun, however, is how you choose to use (or not use) those toppings.

Once you’ve exhausted the many possibilities for what ingredients can be added or removed to the sandwich, Burger King claims there are about 221,184 ways you can enjoy a Whopper. The options for how to make the meal your own are almost endless. So each time you make a special request for how your burger is made, whether it be to add cheese, hold the tomatoes, lessen the ketchup, or go heavy on the mayo, you’re bringing truth to the chain’s slogan, “Have It Your Way.”

Equally big to the Whopper’s ¼ lb. patty is the price customers have to pay for a bite of this burger. These days, the sandwich can go for up to $11, and that’s only for the classic version. Should you order a Double Whopper, you’ll be charged a minimum of $12.14, depending on where you live. That number goes up even higher by 49 cents if you get the Steakhouse Bacon version.

Back in the glory days, however, when Whoppers first came out in 1957, they only cost a mere 37 cents. That undoubtedly sounds like a steal today, but at the time, it was why Burger King stirred up controversy when it first opened. 37 cents was a high price to pay for a burger back then, though everyone sure wishes those kinds of prices could have followed us into the present time. Well, Burger King was every Whopper-lover’s genie in a bottle in 2021 when it celebrated its 64th birthday. It instead granted a gift to its customers, bringing the price of the Whopper way down to the original 37 cents for two days. It did a somewhat similar promotion for its 55th birthday where people could purchase a Whopper and only have to pay another 55 cents for a second one.

According to Creative Foods Corporation, a franchise of Burger King that owns almost 30 of the chain’s locations, over 1.3 billion Whoppers are sold each year. The franchise goes into further detail, also stating that every second that passes, 41 of these signature sandwiches are eaten somewhere out there. There’s no indication on the page of exactly when these statistics were recorded, but we can only assume that the numbers have gone up since then.

In fact, Zippia says that as of 2023, Burger King has a yearly rate of selling about 2.1 billion Whoppers. The increase in sales isn’t surprising in the slightest, considering the sandwich takes up so much of the menu. Burger King has about eight types of Whoppers available depending on your location, and that’s not even taking into account the varieties on Burger King’s secret menu. Regular customers and curious foodies alike are bound to try them out at some point or another, in turn driving those stats up even more.

Touting itself as “Home of the Whopper,” Burger King has ensured its tagline wasn’t created in vain. The best-selling item truly is the chain’s pride and joy, evident through the multiple variations of the sandwich that dominate the menu. One of those would be the Whopper Jr., another well-loved offering. The difference between a Whopper and a Whopper Jr. just comes down to the latter not being a behemoth of a burger and having fewer calories, actually making it a preferable choice to some customers.

The funny thing is that this menu item was never meant to exist. It wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for an oopsy-daisy moment that happened in 1963 at the hands of Luis Arenas Pérez, the person in charge of opening the first Burger King in Puerto Rico. On the big day, he realized the molds needed to create the ginormous Whoppers’ bread weren’t there. His solution was to use hamburger buns instead, thus unintentionally creating the smaller-sized sandwich that now holds a place in the hearts (and stomachs) of so many people.

One of the quickest ways to tell food has gone bad — and to lose your appetite — is by checking it out for mold. The clearest indicator your meal has become inedible and should be tossed out is the white, green, and blue spurts of fuzz growing on a burger. That’s what the typical reaction would be, at least, but Burger King has proven to be an outlier.

In 2020, Burger King launched the “Moldy Whopper” campaign. This ad showed the sandwich becoming progressively moldier over the course of 35 days. By the last week, the once-picture-perfect burger was more teal than brown in color, and the patty was indistinguishable within its new crust of hair and fluff. You’d think this rotten visual would make people wary of getting near a Whopper with a 10-foot pole. However, it was actually an attention-demanding method that effectively demonstrated the burger contains no artificial preservatives. The point was certainly made to customers, as sales increased by 14%.

It’s safe to say that as each of the worst scandals in Burger King history have taken place, whether it was the horse meat incident or the lawsuit concerning its false advertising, the fast food joint had no intention of such problems arising. However, the same cannot be said of an event that took place in December of 2007. In what was called the “Whopper Freakout,” Burger King intentionally created a fuss by removing its signature burger from the menu with absolutely no warning to the public.

The chain didn’t plan on actually discontinuing such an integral part of its identity. Rather, it was done as a social experiment to see how people would react. The results were compiled into a short film showing real-life customers having a mix of reactions to being denied a Whopper at the cash register. Some were wholeheartedly disappointed, while others looked ready to rumble at the sudden news. Responses only worsened when, in phase two of the experiment, people were handed Wendy’s burgers instead of Whoppers after ordering. Despite the emotional turmoil it caused certain customers, the tactic worked in promoting the Whopper for its 50th birthday and raised sales by 29%. Because clearly, you don’t know what you have ’til it’s gone.

The history of McDonald’s Big Mac would tell you that the burger came about in 1967, a whole decade after Burger King’s Whopper had already been introduced to the world. Still, the two orders continue to be pitted against each other. The debate concerning which tastes better persists today and will likely never die out so long as the chains keep making their respective sandwiches. It should be noted, though, that Burger King attempted to squash the squabble in 2015.

In honor of Peace Day, which is celebrated on September 21st, Burger King extended an olive branch to McDonald’s when it proposed the creation of the McWhopper. The joint intended for the profits made from the groundbreaking mashup to be given to Peace One Day, the non-profit organization that created the day of peace in the first place. To much of the world’s surprise and dismay, McDonald’s rejected the truce.

But the prospect of a McWhopper had already worked up the hopes of too many people, so the public took matters into their own hands by ordering the two sandwiches and combining them all on their own. Moreover, four other restaurant chains stepped up to the plate instead, leading to a “Peace Day Burger” that crossed the Whopper with popular offerings from Denny’s, Giraffas Brazilian Grill, Krystal, and Wayback Burgers.

Japan’s most popular fast food chain might not be Burger King, but it’s there that true die-hard fans of the eatery were once able to purchase an extra eccentric piece of memorabilia. That would be the “Flame-Grilled” perfume — a limited-edition product that mimicked the scent of beef patties, leaving customers smelling like a walking Whopper. And if you thought it was a joke, you’d be wrong. Partially, at least.

The perfume was released on April 1st of 2015 as a silly celebration of April Fool’s Day. For just one day, the public could dish out 5,000 yen, which was approximately $41 at the time, to get a bottle of the stuff. That, alongside a free Whopper. At the same time, the Japan Anniversary Association registered April 1st as the country’s “Whopper Day,” making it a perfect occasion to whip out some beef-scented perfume while chowing down on the burger inspired by it.

Burger Kings around the world have put their own odd twists and turns on Whoppers through the years. From Taiwan’s saccharine Hershey’s Chocolate Whopper to Wisconsin’s Green Bay Whopper with eight slices of cheese, the chain has had its fair share of fun. But none compares to the limited edition line released by Germany in May of 2022.

May is the month for mothers, and the chain chose to celebrate by highlighting mother-to-be’s in particular. Burger King Germany launched the “Pregnancy Whopper.” This took the classic Whopper and added the most unconventional toppings imaginable to it, resulting in nine different varieties. What might seem odd or unappetizing to the general public, though, could be the most delicious meal to ever exist in the eyes of someone going through intense pregnancy cravings. So before you turn your nose up at the sound of a Currywurst and Fried Herring Whopper, or when you scoff at the mention of a Bratwurst and Nut Nougat Cream Whopper, remember that, somewhere out there, there’s a strong woman carrying a child who would want nothing more than to get a chomp out of that burger. And even people who aren’t victims of bizarre pregnancy cravings can’t deny that the line’s Strawberry Ice Cream and Fries Whopper piques their interest in the slightest.