The ten largest fast-food chains in the world by number of locations at the end of 2025, from Mixue Ice Cream & Tea to Burger King.
Mixue Ice Cream & Tea is the largest fast-food chain in the world by number of locations, with 59,823 stores at the end of 2025. McDonald's is second at 45,356 and Starbucks third at 40,990. The ranking uses total worldwide locations, company-operated plus franchised, as reported by each company for the end of fiscal 2025.
The biggest restaurant chain in the world by store count is not McDonald's or Subway: it is Mixue Ice Cream & Tea, a Chinese drinks-and-ice-cream franchisor that ended 2025 with 59,823 stores, about 14,500 more than McDonald's. Two Chinese coffee and fast-food chains, Luckin Coffee and Wallace, also make the top ten. This list ranks chains by the worldwide unit count each company reported for the end of its 2025 fiscal year. Two privately held chains, Subway and Wallace, do not publish audited year-end counts; their figures are the most recent the companies have stated and are flagged below.
Mixue ended 2025 with 59,823 stores, 55,356 of them in mainland China and 4,467 overseas, after a net gain of more than 13,000 in the year. Cheap soft-serve and tea drinks sold from small franchised kiosks let it outgrow every Western chain.
McDonald's had 45,356 restaurants at the end of 2025, about 1,900 more than a year earlier, with 13,706 in the United States. About 95% are run by franchisees.
Starbucks ended fiscal 2025 (28 September 2025) with 40,990 stores after closing a net 107 in the final quarter under a restructuring plan. The United States (16,864) and China (8,011) together account for 61% of its stores.
Subway, which is privately held, says it has about 35,000 locations worldwide, down from a peak of more than 37,000. Its U.S. count fell for a tenth straight year in 2025, by a net 729 to 18,773, while international openings continued. This figure is the company's own approximate statement, not an audited year-end count.
KFC had 33,897 restaurants at the end of 2025, up from 31,981 a year earlier, after opening 2,986 gross new units across 105 countries. About 90% of its restaurants are outside the United States.
Luckin Coffee ended 2025 with 31,048 stores (20,234 self-operated and 10,814 partnership stores), a 39% rise in a year after 8,708 net openings. Almost all are in China, with small numbers in Singapore, Malaysia and the United States.
Domino's ended fiscal 2025 (28 December 2025) with 22,142 stores worldwide, after 776 net openings, 604 of them outside the United States. International stores make up 14,956 of the total.
Wallace, a low-price Chinese chain selling fried chicken and burgers, had 20,065 stores in 2023, the latest count found; it is privately held and publishes no audited year-end total. It opened its first overseas store, in Malaysia, at the start of 2024.
Yum! Brands' Pizza Hut Division had 19,974 units at the end of 2025, down about 1% from 20,225, with 68% outside the United States. The division count includes Telepizza-branded units, and Yum! has begun reviewing strategic options for the brand.
Burger King had 19,900 restaurants at the end of 2025, according to parent Restaurant Brands International's annual report, only McDonald's has more burger restaurants. It sits just 74 units behind Pizza Hut.
| # | Name | headquarters | founded | primaryMarket | type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mixue Ice Cream & Tea | Zhengzhou, China | 1997 | China | Ice cream & tea |
| 2 | McDonald's | Chicago, USA | 1955 | Global | Burgers |
| 3 | Starbucks | Seattle, USA | 1971 | Global | Coffee / Café |
| 4 | Subway | Shelton, Connecticut, USA | 1965 | Global | Sandwiches |
| 5 | KFC | Louisville, Kentucky, USA | 1952 | Global | Fried chicken |
| 6 | Luckin Coffee | Xiamen, China | 2017 | China | Coffee / Beverages |
| 7 | Domino's | Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA | 1960 | Global | Pizza |
| 8 | Wallace | Fuzhou, China | 2000 | China | Chicken / Burgers |
| 9 | Pizza Hut | Plano, Texas, USA | 1958 | Global | Pizza |
| 10 | Burger King | Miami, Florida, USA | 1954 | Global | Burgers |
Chains are ranked by total worldwide locations (company-operated plus franchised or licensed), using each company's own reported count at the end of fiscal 2025: Mixue Group annual results (31 December 2025), McDonald's Restaurant Count by Market 2025 (31 December 2025), Starbucks Q4 FY2025 results (28 September 2025), Yum! Brands 2025 results for KFC and the Pizza Hut Division (year-end 2025; the Pizza Hut Division count includes Telepizza units), Luckin Coffee Q4 2025 results (31 December 2025), Domino's fiscal 2025 results (28 December 2025) and Restaurant Brands International's 2025 Form 10-K for Burger King (31 December 2025). Exceptions: Subway is private and publishes no year-end count; its figure is the approximately 35,000 locations stated on its corporate About page in 2026. Wallace is private; its 20,065 figure dates from 2023 and no 2025 count was found. Treat both as approximate. Quick-service chains of any cuisine are eligible, including coffee, tea and ice-cream chains; sit-down restaurant chains are excluded. Cotti Coffee, which claimed more than 18,000 stores in early 2026 (a count reported to include stores not yet open), falls just outside the top ten. No ties occur.
By number of locations, Mixue Ice Cream & Tea of China, with 59,823 stores at the end of 2025. By systemwide sales, McDonald's is far larger, at $139.4 billion in 2025.
Not by store count: it is second, with 45,356 restaurants at the end of 2025, behind Mixue. It remains the largest by sales, because a typical McDonald's restaurant sells far more than a Mixue kiosk.
Mixue's stores are mostly small franchised kiosks selling low-priced ice cream and tea drinks, so sales per store are a fraction of a full-size burger or coffee restaurant.
Seven are U.S.-based (McDonald's, Starbucks, Subway, KFC, Domino's, Pizza Hut and Burger King) and three are Chinese (Mixue, Luckin Coffee and Wallace).
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