Top 5 Fast-Food Giants Raking in Billions

By Todd H.. Jul 25, 2024

We all know fast-food makes money. But of all the burger joints, chicken shacks, and taco emporiums, which franchise actually brings home the biggest bucks? The answer, it turns out, can be a bit complicated.

What Counts as Fast-Food?

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This might seem like a pointless question or one with an obvious answer. But it isn’t just semantics; how we answer determines which fast-food franchise is truly the one making the most bank.

For example, does Panera Bread^® count as fast-food? They can certainly turn out their food quickly, but some people will argue the food they make doesn’t have the same feeling as other fast-foods. And what about speedy and prevalent coffee shops like Dunkin’^® or Starbucks^®? On the one hand, they certainly resemble fast-food enterprises but not everyone sees them the same way they see McDonald’s^®, for example.

Choosing to include or exclude these examples changes what makes the list of profitable fast-food franchises. For the record, we decided to include all the above as fast-food establishments as they offer speedy service with a casual atmosphere and their food can be easily taken to-go.

Further, we decided to go off global systemwide sales instead of other profit markers like average sales per unit or U.S. sales only for one simple reason: much like going for fast-food itself, it felt easier.
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The Most Profitable Fast-Food Franchises

#5 Wendy’s^®: Wendy’s generated $11.69 billion in 2022 by slinging Baconators, spicy nuggs, and Frostys at nearly 6,000 locations. That’s pretty exceptional!

#4 Taco Bell^®: The late-night Tex-Mex favorite has proven to be a powerhouse in the fast-food market: they generated $13.85 billion in systemwide sales in 2022 with nearly 7,200 locations. They triumphed in terms of profit over their biggest Tex-Mex rival, Chipotle^®, which generated $8.6 billion in the same period. Hooray for tacos!

#3 Chick-fil-A^®: No matter how you define fast-food, no one can deny the power of Chick-fil-A. In 2022, they generated $18.8 billion, a marked increase from their 2020 profits of $13.7 billion. And that comes from a relatively paltry 2,837 stores; for comparison, McDonald’s has 10,607 stores. Furthermore, Chick-fil-A is closed on Sundays. Its profits are truly incredible the more you dive into their business practices. People just love those chicken sandwiches!

#2 Starbucks: The coffeehouse giant is constantly churning out people’s morning brews and pick-me-ups, bringing in the greenbacks! In 2022, they generated $28.1 billion at 15,873 stores. For context, their prime New England-based rival Dunkin’ generated a profound but relatively miniscule $11.28 billion in the same year. More mochas all around!

#1 McDonald’s: The most recognizable and profitable fast-food franchise on the planet, McDonald’s made a staggering $48.7 billion in 2022. Think about how much money that is! It’s more than double the GDP of some smaller countries; as just one example, Abania’s GDP is $18.9 billion. Think about how many burgers they must sell to make that happen!
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