The Burger King Whopper was created in 1957 by co-founder James McLamore, making it 68 years old as of 2025. It was introduced to compete with larger burgers on the market, originally selling for 37 cents. It has remained a staple on the menu, celebrating its 65th anniversary in 2022.
History. The Whopper was created in 1957 by Burger King co-founder James McLamore and originally sold for 37 US cents (equivalent to US$4.14 in 2024). McLamore created the burger after he noticed that a rival restaurant in Gainesville, Florida, was succeeding by selling a larger burger.
BIG MAC OR WHOPPER — WHICH STAYS? 🍔🔥 The Big Mac was launched in 1968 and became McDonald's signature burger worldwide, while the Whopper has been Burger King's flame-grilled icon since 1957. 👉 This isn't just about burgers — it's about brand loyalty, nostalgia, and which one defines your fast- food cravings.
(Today it's closer to $6 to $8, or even more, depending on your location.) A few years ago, in 2021, Burger King had a birthday bash for the Whopper's 64th anniversary, and for two short days, you could get a 37-cent Whopper.
There's an origin story to the Whopper, of course. It was introduced by Burger King co-founder James McLamore in 1957, after he'd noticed some of his local competitors were selling a bigger burger that was proving quite popular.
A Triple Whopper with cheese and mayo has 1250 calories and 84 grams of fat. That's 63% of your daily calories and 100% of your allowable fat for the day (based on a 2000 calorie diet)! The Double Whopper with the full fixings isn't much better with 1010 calories and 64 grams of fat.
But the fast food chain is thanking everyone who entered — more than a million "Whopper-fanatics," according to a release Monday — with a $1 original Whopper, starting Tuesday, Nov. 12.
Most historians agree that the American company White Castle was the first fast-food outlet, starting in Wichita, Kansas in 1916 with food stands and founding in 1921, selling hamburgers for five cents apiece from its inception and spawning numerous competitors and emulators.
McDonald's McChicken is the Least Unhealthy Fast-Food Chicken Burger. The McChicken (14 points) at McDonald's is the healthiest of its type among the fast-food chains we surveyed. The McDonald's chicken burger scores roughly half the unhealthiness points of its equivalents at Burger King (31 points) and KFC (27 points) ...
The Impossible Whopper patty is 0% beef. It is made without any ingredients from animal sources but is still cooked on the same broiler that makes the beef Whopper patties. If you would like a non-broiler version of the Impossible Whopper, then our team members will microwave the patty and remove mayo from the build.
The Whopper prices are as follows: single Whopper 80 cents; single Whopper with cheese 90 cents; double meat Whopper $1.30; double meat Whopper with cheese $1.40. These prices look like that they are from late 1974 or early to mid 1975.
I suggested that we call our product a "Whopper" knowing that this would convey imagery of BIG. I also suggested that we put signs, "Home Of The Whopper" under our Burger King name to indicate that our new product was the specialty of the house.
A Burger King Whopper patty starts out as a four-ounce disk of frozen ground beef that gets placed on a tank tread-like conveyer belt, which carries it through a cooking device that flame-broils it on one side.
1980s: $1.00–$1.50 The “dollar burger” era. Fast-food combos started becoming more popular. 1990s: $2.00–$2.50 Value menus appeared, but gourmet-style burgers began rising in popularity. 2000s: $3.00–$4.50 Sit-down restaurant burgers often $6–$8; fast food averaged around $3–$4.
The name “Big Mac” was actually coined by Esther Glickstein Rose, who was a 21-year-old secretary for the advertising department at the company's Chicago corporate office in 1967. Rose told CBS News in 2014 that her idea was prompted when a product development manager “said 'I need a name for this new bigger hamburger…
On that note, the Big Mac contains 580 calories, 34 grams of fat, and 1,060 grams of sodium. The Whopper, meanwhile, comes in at 660 calories, 40 grams of fat, and 980 milligrams of sodium.