Restaurants & Food

The Largest Restaurant Chains in the World by Number of Locations

China’s Mixue now has more locations than McDonald’s, and several coffee and tea brands have joined the top ranks. A “location” here is any food-service outlet of the brand (restaurant, café, tea or ice-cream shop, kiosk), franchised or company-owned, as reported by the company itself, with the data date shown for every row.

News report on Mixue becoming the world’s largest food chain, bigger than McDonald’s and Starbucks

Pictured: a news report on Mixue Ice Cream & Tea, #1 with 63,987 locations as of June 30, 2026.

Rank Chain Locations Data as of Headquarters Cuisine / type
1Mixue Ice Cream & Tea63,987June 30, 2026ChinaTea & drinks
2McDonald’s46,028June 30, 2026United StatesBurgers
3Starbucks41,304June 28, 2026United StatesCoffee
4Luckin Coffee36,310June 30, 2026ChinaCoffee
5Subwayabout 36,000Mid-2026 (approx.)United StatesSandwiches
6KFC34,747June 30, 2026United StatesChicken
7Domino’s22,531Q2 2026United StatesPizza
8Pizza Hut19,985June 30, 2026United StatesPizza
9Burger Kingabout 19,900Dec 31, 2025CanadaBurgers
10Cotti Coffee18,000+Early 2026 (company claim)ChinaCoffee
11Guming14,351June 30, 2026ChinaTea & drinks
12Dunkin’12,500+Approx. (latest company figure found)United StatesCoffee
13Taco Bell9,046June 30, 2026United StatesMexican

How locations are counted. Every row is the brand’s own system-wide total of food-service outlets (restaurants, cafés, tea and ice-cream stores, kiosks), franchised or licensed plus company-owned, on the basis each company reports: McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Domino’s, Starbucks (company-operated plus licensed), Luckin (self-operated plus partnership), Mixue and Guming (franchised and company-run) and Burger King all use that definition, so the table compares like with like. Multi-brand parents are split by brand (Yum! Brands into KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell; Restaurant Brands International into Burger King and its siblings), and brand families such as Jollibee Foods Corporation (10,767 stores across many brands) are not ranked as one chain.[1] Counts change monthly; figures are the latest each company reported, not a single snapshot. Subway, Cotti Coffee and Dunkin’ are the softest rows: Subway and Dunkin’ give rounded totals rather than a dated filing, and Cotti’s figure is a company claim that includes some stores not yet open. Burger King’s figure is from its latest annual report (December 31, 2025), not mid-2026. Mixue’s count is the group-reported network at June 30, 2026: 59,609 in mainland China and 4,378 overseas.[2][6][9][10][11][12]

The Top 10

#1

Mixue Ice Cream & Tea — 63,987 locations

Mixue began as a single shop near a university in Zhengzhou in 1997 and is now a franchise and supply-chain business selling soft-serve and tea drinks at rock-bottom prices.[2] Its network reached 59,823 stores at the end of 2025 and 63,987 by June 30, 2026, 93% of them in mainland China, while overseas stores fell to 4,378.[2] It passed McDonald’s in 2024: research firm Momentum Works counted 45,302 Mixue stores against about 43,000 for McDonald’s in September 2024, and McDonald’s still stood at 46,028 in June 2026, roughly 18,000 behind.[2][3]

#2

McDonald’s — 46,028 locations

McDonald’s counted 46,028 restaurants on June 30, 2026, up 1,915 from a year earlier: 22,722 conventional franchised, 9,833 developmental licensed, 11,461 foreign-affiliated and just 2,012 company-operated.[3] The chain grew from a 1940 barbecue stand and the brothers’ 1948 “Speedee Service System” to a global system after Ray Kroc joined as a franchise agent in 1955.[3] Its 50,000-restaurant goal has slipped to 2028.[3]

#3

Starbucks — 41,304 stores

Starbucks ended its third fiscal quarter of 2026 (June 28) with 41,304 stores, 33% company-operated and 67% licensed, up from 40,990 at the end of fiscal 2025.[4] The US holds 16,933 of them, and in that quarter its China stores moved to a licensed joint-venture model.[4] The first store opened in Seattle’s Pike Place Market in 1971; the café format came after Howard Schultz’s 1983 Milan trip.[4]

#4

Luckin Coffee — 36,310 stores

Founded in 2017, Luckin ended the second quarter of 2026 with 36,310 stores (23,734 self-operated and 12,576 partnership), after adding 2,714 net new stores in the quarter alone.[5] It overtook Starbucks in China by store count in 2021 and by revenue in the second quarter of 2023, and it now has US stores in New York.[5]

#5

Subway — about 36,000 locations

Subway began in 1965 with a $1,000 loan and grew past 41,000 locations by 2015, then shrank: it closed a net 729 US restaurants in 2025, ending that year with 18,773 in the US.[6] The company now cites “nearly 37,000” worldwide and independent trackers about 36,000 to 36,500, so it sits within a few hundred stores of Luckin; treat the #4/#5 order as close.[6]

#6

KFC — 34,747 locations

KFC’s division had 34,747 units on June 30, 2026, 90% of them outside the US and 99% run by franchisees, and it opened 660 gross new restaurants in 55 countries that quarter.[7] Colonel Harland Sanders started selling fried chicken from a roadside kitchen in Corbin, Kentucky, in the 1930s.[7]

#7

Domino’s — 22,531 stores

Domino’s added a net 209 stores in the second quarter of 2026 (26 in the US, 183 abroad) to reach 22,531, making it the world’s largest pizza chain by both stores and sales.[8] It began in 1960, became “Domino’s Pizza” in 1965 and opened its first franchised store in 1967; about 99% of its stores are franchised.[8]

#8

Pizza Hut — 19,985 locations

Pizza Hut’s division had 19,985 units on June 30, 2026, 70% of them outside the US and more than 99% franchised, nearly 2,550 fewer than Domino’s.[7] Brothers Dan and Frank Carney opened the first one in Wichita, Kansas, in 1958. Yum! Brands has since agreed to sell the Pizza Hut business to two buyers.[7]

#9

Burger King — about 19,900 locations

Restaurant Brands International’s 2025 annual report lists about 19,900 Burger King restaurants in 126 countries and territories at December 31, 2025.[9] The chain began as Insta-Burger King in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1953, and the Whopper arrived in 1957. It was the only top-10 chain headquartered in Canada, where RBI is based.[9]

#10

Cotti Coffee — 18,000+ stores

Founded in October 2022, Cotti opened its 10,000th store in Doha, Qatar, in October 2024 and now claims more than 18,000 stores in 33 countries and regions, mostly in China.[10] It missed its public goal of 50,000 stores by the end of 2025, and Chinese media reported in 2025 that thousands of counted stores had not yet opened, which is why this row carries the weakest sourcing in the top ten.[10]

Restaurant Chains Fast Food Coffee Franchises Mixue

Sources

  1. Definition and method: store counts as each company defines and reports them (system-wide outlets, franchised plus company-owned), taken from the filings and releases in notes 2–12. Jollibee Foods Corporation, first-half 2026 results as reported by QSR Media (10,767 stores across multiple brands, not ranked as one chain).
  2. Mixue Group, 2026 interim results (HKEX announcement, August 17, 2026, and The Standard, Hong Kong: 63,987 stores, 59,609 mainland, 4,378 overseas); Mixue Group 2025 annual results via Food Business Africa and CTMA (59,823 stores at December 31, 2025); Inside Retail, “China’s Mixue surpasses McDonald’s as largest food chain globally” (Momentum Works: 45,302 vs about 43,000, September 2024); YouTube, “Bigger Than MCDONALD’S & STARBUCKS: Chinese Brand Mixue In Now World’s Largest Food Chain”.
  3. McDonald’s Corporation, Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 and Q2 2026 results release, August 4, 2026 (46,028 systemwide restaurants; 44,113 a year earlier; 50,000-restaurant target moved to 2028); Britannica and TBS News on the company’s history; YouTube, “How McDonald’s Took Over America”.
  4. Starbucks Corporation, Q3 fiscal 2026 results, July 29, 2026 (41,304 stores, quarter ended June 28, 2026) and Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 (40,990 stores at September 28, 2025); Fox Business, “History of Starbucks”; YouTube (CNBC), “How Starbucks turned fast coffee into a $36 billion business”.
  5. Luckin Coffee, “Announces Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results” (36,310 stores) and KrASIA coverage; NRN and The China Project on Luckin overtaking Starbucks in China; YouTube, “The Chinese Coffee Chain Beating Starbucks”.
  6. Subway: QSR Magazine, “Subway cuts hundreds more stores as rightsizing effort continues”; Fox local stations and Yahoo Finance on 729 US closures in 2025 (18,773 US units); Subway press statements (“nearly 37,000” and “more than 35,000” locations) and tracker estimates of 36,000–36,500; YouTube, “SUBWAY: The Incredible History Of The Subway Sandwich”. No dated global filing is available because Subway is privately held.
  7. Yum! Brands, Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 and Q2 2026 earnings release, July 29, 2026 (KFC 34,747; Pizza Hut 19,985; Taco Bell 9,046 units; Pizza Hut sale agreements); YouTube, “How Colonel Sanders Created a Chicken Empire” and “The History of Pizza Hut”.
  8. Domino’s Pizza, Inc., “Announces Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results”, July 20, 2026 (net 209 stores; 22,531 total per L’Express Franchise coverage); Domino’s investor materials on its history and franchise mix; YouTube, “How Domino’s Went from a Failing Pizza Chain to the Biggest in the World”.
  9. Restaurant Brands International, Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 (Burger King about 19,900 restaurants in 126 countries at December 31, 2025) and Q2 2026 results (33,156 restaurants across all RBI brands); YouTube, “The Complete History of Burger King: From Insta-Burger King to Global Fast-Food Giant”.
  10. Daily Coffee News, “China’s Cotti Coffee has been quietly growing throughout the U.S.” (June 8, 2026); KrASIA, “After racing to 15,000 stores, Cotti Coffee gets serious about quality control”; Momentum Works/The Low Down on the 10,000th store and the 50,000-store target.
  11. Guming Holdings, 2026 interim results (14,351 stores at June 30, 2026) and 2025 annual results (13,554 stores), via iTiger/Longbridge coverage of the HKEX filings.
  12. Dunkin’ and Inspire Brands: QSR Magazine and Global Franchise coverage of Inspire Brands (“more than 12,500” Dunkin’ locations worldwide), ScrapeHero (about 10,100 US locations, July 2026). Inspire is private, so the global figure is approximate.