Every year, Nation’s Restaurant News presents the Top 500 report in collaboration with Datassential, ranking restaurant chains by U.S. systemwide sales.
In 2021, 340 of those 500 restaurants had positive sales growth, up from just 202 in 2020, which was much more severely hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
While many of the restaurants with the highest rate of year-over-year sales growth were full-service chains that struggled earlier in the pandemic, some limited-service chains were able to grow sales by an impressive amount. Focus Brands’ Auntie Anne’s brand grew sales by 64.6% last year, and Crumbl Cookies continued an impressive growth streak with a jump of 71%.
Click through the gallery to see the 10 restaurant chains that grew the most by domestic systemwide sales in 2021. Plus, see which chain was the only one to more than double its sales.