Visualizing America’s Most Popular Fast Food Chains

Fast food is big business in America. From national chains to regional specialties, the industry was worth $331.4 billion as of June 2022

Which fast food brands are currently dominating this space? This graphic by Truman Du uses data from Quick Service Restaurant Magazine to show the most popular fast food chains across America.

Each year, QSR Magazine puts together a report that ranks America’s top 50 fast food chains. It uses a number of metrics to determine this, including total sales, average-unit volume (AUVs), and growth figures.

For this graphic, Du zoomed in on a specific metric from the report—the number of stores that each fast food chain has across the country. 

Subway takes first place with over 20,000 restaurants across the country—that’s more stores than all the other sandwich chains on the list put together.  Subway’s popularity is reflected in its 2021 sales figures with about $9.4 billion in sales, about double its closest rival Arby’s.

“Quick service restaurants are a popular dining option across America, and the successful ones have the potential to generate billions of dollars each year” 

Second on the list is Starbucks, with more than 15,000 stores across America. Despite a rough 2020, the coffee chain managed to turn things around in 2021, making more than $24 billion in sales that year.

The iconic burger joint McDonald’s comes in third, with more than 13,000 restaurants across the country. While the restaurant has fewer stores than Starbucks and Subway, it generated $46 billion in 2021 sales, which is more than Subway and Starbucks combined.

The “Stay in Your Lane” Curse

Quick service restaurants are a popular dining option across America, and the successful ones have the potential to generate billions of dollars each year.

However, QSRs are not without their struggles. One difficulty facing fast food chains is the fact they’re often siloed into specific verticals—once a QSR establishes its niche, it can be difficult for that chain to branch out and successfully launch different menu items.

Take McDonald’s McPizza for example, which was launched in the mid-1980s and tested for a decade or so before being widely discontinued by 2000. Various factors contributed to its demise, but one major issue was the pizza’s relatively long cook-time of 16 minutes.

Innovation in the Fast Food Industry

While fast food restaurants may have difficulty diversifying their menus, there’s still tons of innovation happening in the industry, especially when it comes to optimizing service and cutting wait times for customers.

For example, Starbucks’ mobile order and pay service, which allows customers to order from their phone, has grown 400% over the last five years. And in 2021, the McDonald’s app was downloaded 24 million times.

It’ll be interesting to see what changes in the next decade, as fast food companies continue to invest in their digital offers and tech support.