Every year, Nation’s Restaurant News ranks the largest restaurant chains by domestic systemwide sales, giving a detailed look at the biggest players in the industry. This year, we once again partnered with Datassential and its Firefly platform to provide information for 500 chains.
2021 was a course correction for an unprecedented 2020. Full-service companies in particular recovered the sales they’d lost the year before, for the most part, with several even beating their performance in 2019.
Of course, it wasn’t so easy for the whole industry. The triplet monsters of labor, inflation and supply chain reared their heads and suffocated momentum for many restaurants. Traffic still isn’t back to pre-pandemic levels, and some of the sales growth is a mirage, reflecting price hikes that chains were forced to make.
In this gallery, get sales and growth data for restaurant chains ranked No. 50 to No. 1 in the United States in 2021 ranked by domestic systemwide sales. See restaurants from In-N-Out to McDonald’s, which had $45 billion in sales — a 13.8% increase year-over-year.
Restaurant chains in this group saw growth as high as 44.4% year-over-year — that number belonging to Texas Roadhouse. All but four restaurants in this group saw sales growth in 2021.
Here’s a look at the performance of some of the country’s largest restaurant brands.
Read more:
- 2022 Top 500 countdown: Restaurants ranked No. 100 – No. 51
- See the largest restaurant chains in America ranked by sales, units and more
The Top 500 report is presented by Nation’s Restaurant News and Datassential, using insights from Datassential’s proprietary Firefly platform. Datassential’s Firefly is the ultimate strategic tool — No. 1 operator database, lead generator, customer marketing and intelligence platform, all-in-one. Learn more about getting complete access at datassential.com/firefly