Buffalo Wild Wings Is the Place To Watch Sports — Can It Own More?

The bottom line up front

Buffalo Wild Wings owns the most valuable single occasion in casual dining — and almost nothing else. No brand in the category owns a single moment the way BWW owns watching the game. But that moat surrounds a small castle: BWW under-indexes on nearly every other occasion, carries the category’s highest active rejection, and is effectively invisible to women and older diners. The growth question isn’t how to become better known — it’s how to be thought of for more reasons, by more people, without losing the one thing it owns.”

In this briefing, we use the Category Advantage research framework. A few terms you should know:

• Mental Market Share (MMS) measures a brand’s "mental availability"—how often it comes to mind, compared to competitors, when consumers think of buying in a category
• Category Entry Points (CEPs) are the specific needs, motivations, situations, or feelings that trigger a consumer to consider a product category and the brands within it
• Network Size refers to the average number of distinct usage occasions or buying situations that consumers mentally associate with a brand

Where Buffalo Wild Wings Stands

Buffalo Wild Wings is the category’s clearest specialist — dominant on one occasion, peripheral on most. BWW’s mental market share (~7%) sits mid-pack, below the bar-and-grill leaders, and its occasion network is narrower than theirs. But that understates the position: on the sports occasion, no brand comes close. BWW doesn’t have an awareness problem — it has a relevance problem everywhere except game day.

The emotional signal is polarized, not warm. BWW’s emotional connection (2.9) sits below the category midpoint, and its purchase data reveals sharp polarization: 16% of aware consumers say they definitely won’t buy — the highest active rejection of any brand here — rising to 33% among 65+ and concentrated among women. This isn’t indifference; it’s resistance, which calls for a different playbook than building reach.

Buffalo Wild Wings’ mental advantage is the deepest in the category — and the narrowest. Adjusting for brand size, BWW’s mental advantage — a measure of whether a brand earns disproportionate association with an occasion given its size — on watching a sporting event (+27) is among the largest in the category, the most dominant single-occasion ownership in casual dining outside IHOP’s hold on breakfast. It also over-indexes on the off-premise and casual-social occasions: ordering takeout or delivery (+8), picking up dinner on the way home (+8), and drinks and apps after work (+10). But it faces steep disadvantages on family (-8), relaxed dining (-7), generous portions (-8), date night (-7), and the reliable everyone-will-enjoy choice (-5).

The CEPs Buffalo Wild Wings Owns — and the Ones It Doesn’t

Game day is a genuine moat. BWW leads watching a sporting event (~43% association) by a wide margin — the cleanest occasion ownership in casual dining. This is defensible, distinctive, and emotionally charged. Protect it; it is the foundation everything else builds on.

Takeout and delivery are the adjacent white space. BWW already over-indexes on ordering takeout and picking up dinner — and the category’s single largest mental gap is off-premise, where “none of these” is the top answer for delivery occasions (~29%). Wings travel. BWW has natural credibility to own “order in for the game” and the everyday delivery occasion that no casual dining brand currently holds.

Buffalo Wild Wings is absent from the occasions that drive everyone else’s frequency. On going out with family (~44% salience, the category’s biggest trigger), relaxed dining, and the reliable group choice, BWW barely registers. These aren’t winnable head-on without diluting the brand — which is precisely why takeout, not family dining, is the right adjacency.

Who Buffalo Wild Wings Is Winning — and Losing

BWW’s strength is concentrated in young men — and that base is narrower than its national footprint suggests.

Young, male diners are the core. Among aware diners, definite intent reaches 36% among 18–34s, and men show far lower rejection (11% definitely won’t) than women (20%). Recent visits skew male and young. This is the loyal base — protect it.

Women and older diners are the missing audience. Among aware women, 31% have never visited BWW; among aware 65+, 47% have never visited and a third actively reject the brand. This isn’t a product limitation — it’s an occasion limitation. BWW is associated with a moment (the game) that skews male, not with the everyday occasions that are gender-neutral.

Rejection, not obscurity, is the ceiling. With 27% of aware diners having never purchased and 16% definitely refusing, BWW’s constraint is a wall of resistance that reach alone won’t move — the same structural challenge a niche brand faces when it’s known for one thing.

What’s In the Way

For non-fans, the barrier is relevance and resistance. BWW is mentally filed under “sports bar,” which excludes it from most dining decisions and actively repels diners who don’t want that environment. Additional advertising on the sports occasion deepens the moat but widens the exclusion.

Off-premise friction is the gating issue on the growth path. Delivery fees (~22%) and waiting too long for takeout (~15%) are real barriers in exactly the occasion — off-premise — where BWW has the most room to grow. Solving delivery economics and speed is the unlock, not more dine-in reach.

Price and crowding hit the dine-in occasion. High prices (~48%) and crowding on game days (~32%) cap the in-restaurant experience, particularly for the casual diner BWW most needs to win beyond its core.

What to Do About It

Defend the sports moat first. Watching the game is BWW’s single greatest asset and the most distinctive occasion ownership in the category. Any strategy that dilutes it weakens the foundation. Reinforce it — but recognize it is a moat around a small castle.

Make “order in” the growth engine. BWW already over-indexes on takeout and delivery, and the category’s biggest white space is off-premise. Position BWW as the default for wings delivered — game day at home, the casual weeknight order — and fix delivery speed and fees so the occasion converts. This grows frequency without forcing the brand into family dining it can’t win.

Broaden the audience through occasion, not repositioning. BWW’s gender and age gaps come from being tied to one male-skewing moment. Associating the brand with gender-neutral everyday occasions — the casual weeknight meal, the group order — broadens reach among women and older diners without abandoning the sports identity.

Protect the young-male core where it lives. BWW’s loyal base over-indexes on sports media and social platforms. Keep investing there to hold the foundation while the off-premise and occasion-broadening work expands the base.

About this research

Morning Consult conducts over 30,000 daily proprietary surveys in 45 countries covering more than 5,000 brands and 50 economic indicators. 

Our category advantage research is aimed at understanding the needs driving consumers in your category — and how your brand can own more of them. This research is built on validated principles of brand-driven growth and powered by Morning Consult’s industry-leading sampling technology.

Measure the true drivers of brand strength

Capture both mental availability (the likelihood your brand comes to mind when consumers face a need or occasion) and emotional closeness (how strongly consumers connect with your brand), benchmarked against competitors.

Uncover Category Entry Points (CEPs)

Directly tied to mental availability, see the specific needs, occasions, and triggers that drive purchase decisions in your category, and how strongly your brand is linked to them.

Pinpoint growth opportunities

Direct investment toward the moments and consumer segments with the greatest potential to grow your brand.

Turn insights into action fast

Get survey results in 4–5 days through a centralized dashboard and short-form memo that equips stakeholders with clear direction on where and how to win.

Learn more