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Visualizing America’s Most Popular Fast Food Chains

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 (QSR) Magazine to show the most popular fast food chains across America.

The Most Prevalent Fast Food Chains, by Store Count

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 (which we’ve covered in a previous article), 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. Here are the top 50 chains, and the number of restaurants they each have across America:

Rank Brand Total U.S. Stores (2021)
1 Subway 21,147
2 Starbucks 15,450
3 McDonald's 13,438
4 Dunkin' 9,244
5 Burger King 7,105
6 Taco Bell 7,002
7 Domino's 6,560
8 Pizza Hut 6,548
9 Wendy's 5,938
10 Dairy Queen 4,339
11 Little Caesars 4,181
12 KFC 3,953
13 Sonic Drive-in 3,552
14 Arby's 3,409
15 Papa Johns 3,164
16 Chipotle 2,966
17 Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen 2,757
18 Chick-Fil-A 2,732
19 Jimmy John's 2,657
20 Panda Express 2,334
21 Baskin-Robbins 2,317
22 Jack in the Box 2,218
23 Jersey Mike's 2,100
24 Panera Bread 2,080
25 Hardee's 1,734
26 Wingstop 1,534
27 Five Guys 1,390
28 Papa Murphy's 1,240
29 Firehouse Subs 1,140
30 Carl's Jr. 1,058
31 Tropical Smoothie Café 1,039
32 Marco's Pizza 1,002
33 Zaxby's 908
34 Church's Chicken 892
35 Whataburger 873
36 Culver's 837
37 Checkers / Rally's 834
38 Bojangles 773
39 Qdoba 739
40 Moe's 659
41 Tim Hortons 637
42 Del Taco 600
43 Raising Cane's 567
44 McAlister's Deli 505
45 El Pollo Loco 481
46 Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers 420
47 In-N-Out Burger 370
48 Krispy Kreme 358
49 White Castle 349
50 Shake Shack 243

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 sales figures, as well—in 2021, Subway generated about $9.4 billion in sales, about double its closest rival Arby’s.

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

As the report shows, 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 sixteen 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.

The post Visualizing America’s Most Popular Fast Food Chains appeared first on Visual Capitalist.