Who feeds America
In 2005 the eight biggest restaurant chains in America were four burger brands, a sub shop, a pizza chain, KFC and Starbucks.
Rank those same eight again in 2025 and only two of them moved up.
US systemwide sales, 2005: 1 McDonald's $25.6B 2 Burger King $7.9B 3 Wendy's $7.7B 4 Subway $7.2B 5 Taco Bell $6.1B 6 Pizza Hut $5.3B 7 Starbucks $5.3B 8 KFC $5.2B
The same eight in 2025: 1 McDonald's $55.1B 2 Starbucks $30.3B 3 Taco Bell $17.2B 4 Wendy's $11.9B 5 Burger King $11.1B 6 Subway $9.2B 7 Pizza Hut $5.1B 8 KFC $4.7B
Starbucks was seventh, a rounding error behind Pizza Hut. It is now second and roughly six times the size of the chain it was tied with. KFC and Pizza Hut both sell fewer dollars today than they did twenty years ago, before counting inflation.
And the chain that answers the CTA: Chick-fil-A. It was 15th in 2005 at $2.0B. In 2025 it did $23.9B - third in the country, ahead of every chain on this chart except McDonald's and Starbucks. It is not on the chart because it was not in the 2005 eight, which is the whole point of it.
One note on how this was built: both columns are the same eight chains measured the same way, so the chart shows how they moved against each other. It is not 2025's top eight. Chick-fil-A, Dunkin' and Chipotle all outsell the bottom half of this list today.
Both columns are the QSR 50, which ranks limited-service chains by US systemwide sales - the 2006 edition for 2005 and the 2026 edition for 2025.
