McDonald’s grew from a single drive-in into a system of 45,356 restaurants at the end of 2025, 95% franchised. Its revenue peaked at $28.1B in 2013, fell as it sold company restaurants to franchisees, and has recovered to $26.9B; net income reached a record $8.6B. The founding story follows below; the figures here come from McDonald’s 10-K filings.
Correction (11 Oct 2026): the earlier text said McDonald’s “now has close to 39,000 restaurants in 119 countries”. Its 2025 10-K reports 45,356 restaurants at year-end 2025 (10-K).
How we source: figures on this page come from the company’s own filings (SEC 10-K, 10-Q and earnings releases, or its annual report), with the period stated next to each number. Last refreshed October 2026. Our methodology.
McDonaldโs history: from operator to landlord. Source: McDonald’s Forms 10-K 2007โ2025, SEC EDGAR (revenue, operating income, restaurant counts, company-operated restaurants, strategy name). Growth calculated. Columns to scale. Analysis by The Business Engineer.
Year
Revenue
Net income
Restaurants
2025
$26.9B
$8.6B
45,356
2024
$25.9B
$8.2B
43,477
2023
$25.5B
$8.5B
41,822
2021
$23.2B
$7.5B
40,031
2019
$21.4B
$6.0B
38,695
2017
$22.8B
$5.2B
37,241
2016
$24.6B
$4.7B
36,899
2013
$28.1B
$5.6B
โ
2010
$24.1B
$4.9B
โ
2007
$22.8B
$2.4B
โ
Source: McDonald’s 10-K filings via SEC EDGAR (latest 10-K).
The modern era: what changed
2013โ2020: refranchising. Revenue fell from $28.1B to $19.2B as company-run restaurants were sold; there were 5,669 at the end of 2016 and 2,677 by 2020.
2021โ2025: growth through partners. The system grew from 40,031 to 45,356 restaurants, mostly in developmental licensed markets.
Earlier analysis and background (pre-2026 figures)
The text below is the earlier version of this page. Its figures refer to earlier periods and some were corrected above; the current, sourced figures are in the sections above.
As explained on McDonaldโs website, โDick and Mac McDonald moved to California to seek opportunities they felt unavailable in New England.โ In 1948 they launched Speedee Service System featuring 15-cent hamburgers.
As the restaurants gained traction, the brothers began franchising their concept until they reached nine operating restaurants.
A native Chicagoan, Ray Kroc, in 1939, was the exclusive distributor of a milkshake mixing machine called Multimixer. In short, he was a salesman.
He visited the McDonald brothers in 1954 and was impressed by their business model, which led to him becoming their franchise agent.
He opened the first restaurant for McDonaldโs System, Inc., until in 1961, he acquired McDonaldโs rights to the brotherโs company for $2.7 million.
Ray Kroc died on January 14, 1984; all the rest is a legend.
And indeed, while most people associate McDonald’s with the Ray Kroc story, in reality, McDonaldโs was founded in 1940 by Richard and Maurice McDonald, with the first restaurant being a BBQ stall in San Bernardino, California.
Ray Kroc leveraged the McDonald’s brothers’ “Speedy Service System” to initially scale the restaurant chain’s operations.
This process was developed by the McDonald’s brothers (what we would later call “fast food”), which was an incredible development that provided an improved product faster.
This stall was eventually sold to businessman Ray Kroc, who opened the first McDonaldโs franchise in 1955 and made the company what it is today.
Indeed, McDonaldโs now has close to 39,000 restaurants in 119 countries. While it remains a highly successful franchise, shifting consumer preferences pose the most serious challenge to the company.
As the story goes, McDonald’s started to use a franchising model to grow its restaurant business, and it became, over the 1960s, a giant in the restaurant business (or real estate, depending on the perspective).
The speedy system itself represented the application of the manufacturing process to the restaurant business. Later another important building block was added.
The franchising model really became widely applied during the 1920s and 1930s in the restaurant business.
As new physical communication networks (in the US, the Interstate Highway System) enabled people to move long distances with their cars.
Later on, Ray Kroc would apply, in its most aggressive form, the franchising model (different formats already existed centuries before) to McDonald’s existing operation to create one of the most scalable restaurant businesses in the world.
The major institutional shareholders comprise The Vanguard Group (8.83%) and BlackRock (7.1%). Major individual shareholders include Kevin Ozan (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer), Stephen Easterbrook (President and CEO), and John Rogers, Jr., an investor, philanthropist, and Ariel Capital Management founder. And a few other individual shareholders.
McDonald’s is a heavily franchised businessmodel. In 2023, 61% of the total revenues came from franchised restaurants. The company’s long-term goal is to transition toward 95% of franchised restaurants (by 2023, franchised restaurants were 94.9% of the total restaurants). The company generated over $25 billion in revenues in 2023, of which $9.74 billion was from owned restaurants and $15.43 billion from franchised restaurants.
Of over $25 billion in revenues for 2023, $9.74 billion came from company-operated stores, while $15.43 billion came from franchised restaurants compared to $23 billion in revenue in 2022, of which $8.74 came from company-operated stores, while $14.1 billion came from franchised restaurants. And over $23 billion in revenue in 2021, McDonald’s generated almost ten billion dollars from company-operated restaurants, while it generated $13 billion from franchised restaurants.
In 2023, McDonald’s generated $8.47 billion in net profits compared to $6.18 billion in net profits for 2022, and $7.54 billion in 2021. The company runs a heavily franchised businessmodel, where it has reached its target of nearly 95% franchised restaurants worldwide.
In 2023, McDonald’s generated $8.47 billion in net profits compared to $6.18 billion in net profits for 2022, and $7.54 billion in 2021. The company runs a heavily franchised businessmodel, where it has reached its target of nearly 95% franchised restaurants worldwide.
McDonald’s had 150,000 employees in 2023, compared to 150,000 employees in 2022, 200,000 employees in 2021, and the same in 2020. The company runs a heavily franchised businessmodel, where most stores are franchised restaurants vs. owned ones. In 2022, McDonald’s franchised locations employed over two million individuals.
McDonald’s runs a heavy franchise businessmodel, where it has been substantially increasing its franchised restaurants while reducing its company-operated ones. For instance, by 2023, McDonald’s had 39,680 franchised restaurants vs. 2,142 owned and operated ones.
McDonald’s runs a heavily franchised businessmodel, where most of its margins come from franchised restaurants vs. operated ones. For instance, in 2023, $1.52 billion came from owned restaurants whereas $12.96 came from franchised restaurants.
Burger King is an American multinational chain of fast-food restaurants that is headquartered in Miami, Florida. The first Burger King restaurant, then known as Insta-Burger King, was opened in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1953 by Keith Cramer and his stepfather Matthew Burns. Burger King Worldwide merged with the Canadian coffee chain Tim Hortons in 2014. This precipitated the formation of parent company Restaurant Brands International, which is part-owned by former Burger King owner 3G Capital.
McDonaldโs has a divisional organizational structure where each division โ based on geographical location โ is assigned operational responsibilities and strategic objectives. The main geographical divisions are the US, internationally operated markets, and international developmental licensed markets. And on the other hand, the hierarchical leadership structure is organized around regional and functional divisions.
Franchising is a business model where the owner (franchisor) of a product, service, or method utilizes the distribution services of an affiliated dealer (franchisee). Usually, the franchisee pays a royalty to the franchisor to be using the brand, process, and product. And the franchisor instead supports the franchisee in starting up the activity and providing a set of services as part of the franchising agreement. Franchising models can be heavy-franchised, heavy-chained, or hybrid (franchained).
Coca-Cola follows a business strategy (implemented since 2006) where through its operating arm – the Bottling Investment Group – it invests initially in bottling partners operations. As they take off, Coca-Cola divests its equity stakes, and it establishes a franchising model, as long-term growth and distributionstrategy.
Coca-Cola’s Purpose is to “refresh the world. make a difference.” Its vision and mission are to “craft the brands and choice of drinks that people love, to refresh them in body & spirit. And done in ways that create a more sustainable business and better-shared future that makes a difference in peopleโs lives, communities, and our planet.”
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
