The Chicken Company Behind America's Most Popular Hot Dog Brand

Nothing goes together like baseball and hot dogs ... except for chicken (kind of). Ball Park is the most popular hot dog brand in the U.S. in 2025, according to recent data from Statista. Considering the average American hits four cookouts every single summer, that shakes out to a lot of glizzies. Last year, U.S. foodies spent more than $8.5 billion on hot dogs, consuming an estimated 7 billion hot dogs from Memorial Day to Labor Day alone, as reported by the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council. Ball Park brand saw hot dog sales of $125.37 million during fiscal Q4 2024 alone, per the data analytics firm. Perhaps most surprisingly of all, the 100%-beef Ball Park hot dog brand is owned by Tyson Foods — a company best known for its chicken.

Tyson acquired Hillshire Brands in 2014, and according to a press release from the time, "The combination of Tyson Foods and Hillshire Brands will reposition Tyson as a clear leader in the retail sale of prepared foods, with a complementary portfolio of well-recognized brands, including Tyson, Wright, Jimmy Dean, Ball Park, State Fair, and Hillshire Farm." A decade later, the American multinational corporation saw sales of $53,309 million in 2024, according to the company's fourth-quarter fiscal report. Tyson Foods is known for meats of all kinds, and if you think "nuggets" when you think "Tyson," it might be time to think again.

In 2017, Tyson Foods removed nitrates, nitrites, and other fillers. The modern iteration of the Ball Park dog is now made from 100% USDA-inspected beef with no artificial colors, flavors, byproducts, or additives. As Ball Park brand director Colleen Hall shared in a 2017 press release, "We're America's number one beef hot dog for a reason, and taste tops the list."

Even though Tyson's Ball Park came in fourth place in Tasting Table's ranking of grocery store hot dog brands, its brand recognition and popularity might be due in part to Ball Park's link to the inherently American love of chowing down on a frank at a baseball game. It's all about sentimentality and Americana vibes — iconism that even a chicken-based reputation can't dampen. In fact, the Ball Park brand originated at the Detroit Tigers Stadium in 1957. Fan demand for Hygrade Food Products' franks (the stadium's sole supplier of hot dogs) grew so rapidly that by 1959, the supplier broke onto the grocery store sphere packaged under the "Ball Park" brand name so foodies could chow down on their favorite glizzies at home. Traditional Chicago-style hot dogs are made from an all-beef base (like Tyson's Ball Park), and today at a Target in Chicago, an eight-pack of Ball Park dogs costs $6.29. At $0.79 per dog far, it's "ball park" flavor is far cheaper than the $6.67 average hot dog price charged at Wrigley Field in 2025.