McDonald’s, like usual, has been on the frontlines this past year trying to adjust to consumer activity. Rocky traffic on years of price hikes led the brand to unified value and a $5 price point that rolled throughout fast food. That evolved toward a McValue Menu and larger efforts to regain visit share via promotions, digital growth and outreach, and innovation that centered on core equities—McRib and Chicken Big Mac—but will soon ramp toward Snack Wraps, chicken strips, and other launches.
Quarterly reports peeled back this effort throughout the year. McDonald’s U.S. same-store sales fell 1.4 percent in Q4 (largely due to recovery from the E. coli incident), with performance sinking to a low point in early November and trends rebounding into December. CEO Chris Kempczinski said guest count growth reported slightly positive in December and beat peers in Q4. He added momentum continued in Q1 2025 and McDonald’s expects to be fully recovered by the start of Q2.
More store-level performance amid these challenges surfaced recently in the brand’s FDD.
One of the big swings: growth.
MORE: Did McDonald’s Answer the Call for Value Customers?
McDonald’s in December 2023, its first investor day in three years, shared it was ready to put down its “fastest period” of expansion in brand history—an expected run rate of 1,000 gross openings across the U.S. and International Operated Markets in 2027 that would take the chain to 50,000 units. Or broken down as 4–5 percent annual net new restaurant growth. That projected expansion of 9,000 or so stores included about 900 in the U.S., 1,900 in IOM (international operated markets, like France, Australia, and Canada), and 7,000 in its IDL segment (where China is included).
McDonald’s in 2022 reported net unit growth in the U.S. for the first time in eight years, expanding by 19 to 13,455 locations. It then added two in 2023 (13,457) and, as released in its latest FDD, expanded by 102 restaurants in 2024 to get to 13,559. That’s the most locations McDonald’s has lifted by in a year since 2013, when it opened a net 121 restaurants.
The 2024 growth comprised 115 positive net change on the franchise side and retraction of 13 company-owned units (12,887 and 672 total respectively).
McDonald’s also had 843 transfers (outlets from franchisees to new owners other than corporate), a number that rose from 672 in 2023 but was down from 1,169 in 2022.
The largest franchised footprints in the system were:
California: 1,152 locations (flat, year-over-year—an interesting development on its own given the ongoing legislative challenges with the Fast Act)
Texas: 1,133 (up from 1,105 in 2023 and 1,086 in 2022)
McDonald’s projected 181 new franchised outlets and 14 company stores for fiscal 2025. Again, Texas paced the list with 50 slated. California had 10, Florida 11, and every other state in the single digits or flat.
Into the performance of restaurants, of the roughly 12,572 domestic traditional McDonald’s opened at least a year as of December 31, about 79 percent had annual sales volumes in excess of $3 million; 72 percent north of $3.2 million; and 65 percent more than $3.4 million.
The average annual sales volume was $4.002 million. That number in 2023 was $4.001 million.
The highest and lowest annual sales volume in 2024 was $19.68 million (McDonald’s does not break out where this store was) and $914,000, respectively. The median annual sales volume across the system was $3.838 million.
Of the 12,023 U.S. traditional franchised McDonald’s opened at least a year (the above pool also included corporate stores), about 78 percent posted annual sales volumes above $3 million; 71 percent more than $3.2 million; and 64 percent higher than $3.4 million.
The average annual sales volumes of traditional franchised McDonald’s in 2024 was $3.966 million. That result in 2023 was $3.797 million.
The highest and lowest annual sales volume here was $19.68 million (meaning the highest performer noted before was a franchise) and $914,000 (the same was true of the lowest-generating store).
For the 549 domestic traditional McOpCo restaurants (corporate), roughly 96 percent had annual sales volumes above $3 million, 94 percent were in excess of $3.2 million; and 89 percent eclipsed $3.4 million. The average annual sales volume was $4.793 million, with the range stretching from $10.030 million to $1.82 million. The median annual sales volume clocked in at $4.612 million.
McDonald’s U.S. total revenues in 2024 were $10.630.8 billion, slightly up from $10.568.4 billion in 2023, and ahead of 2022’s $9.588.4 billion.
Net income inched to $3.461.6 billion from $3.394.4 billion. It was $3.095.7 billion in 2022.
McDonald’s is set to report Q1 2025 earnings on May 1.
A lot of investor attention will focus on how McDonald’s grew its guest counts and if it can shift the momentum of this metric running ahead of check—a point consistent with the brand launching new value programs in the past. BTIG analyst Peter Saleh, off franchisee checks in February, said the McValue platform, $5 Meal Deal, and app/loyalty discounts were accounting for more than a third of sales—three times the company’s historical mix and the highest Saleh could recall.
He felt McDonald’s was over-indexing to value with a discount mix so much greater than the traditional average of low-teens. Some franchisees, he added, indicated food costs as a percent of sales had not been this high in six or seven years, implying margin pressure. Several franchisees, reportedly, raised prices on the BOGO items before the deal went into effect to protect margins.
The BOGO represented a mid-teens percent of mix, while the $5 Meal Deal was still in the low double-digits, placing the total discount block north of 30 percent, as mentioned, when including existing app/loyalty discounts (mid-single digits).
Although McDonald’s dealt with inflation, investment in value, and the E. coli incident in 2024, U.S. franchisees still achieved cash flows north of $500,000 per unit, the company claimed.
