McDonald's (MCD) FY2025 results: revenue $26.9 billion, up 3.7% on the year

McDonald's franchises and also owns and operates McDonald's restaurants, serving a locally set menu in more than 100 countries. There were 45,356 restaurants at the end of 2025 and approximately 95 percent of them were franchised. What the company takes in is therefore two things: sales at the restaurants it runs itself, and fees from the restaurants other people run. Reportable segments are the United States, International Operated Markets, and International Developmental Licensed Markets and Corporate, which holds over 75 countries plus corporate activities. Its offices are at 110 North Carpenter Street, Chicago.

Three ways a restaurant can be owned

A franchised restaurant runs under one of three structures, chosen for a restaurant, trading area or country according to whether people with the right experience and money are available and what local law allows on property ownership and franchising. Under a conventional franchise the company generally owns the land and building or holds a long lease on them, and the franchisee pays for equipment, signs, seating and décor; the company then collects rent and royalties set as a percentage of sales, with minimum rent payments, plus an initial fee when a restaurant opens or a franchise is granted. Under a developmental licence the licensee provides all the capital, including the real estate, and the company takes a royalty on a percentage of sales and an initial fee, investing no restaurant capital of its own. Affiliate arrangements work the same way as developmental licences but are used in a few foreign markets, primarily China and Japan, where the company also holds an equity stake and books its share of the results. Franchise and licence agreements generally run 20 years.

Why it still runs restaurants itself

The filing states that directly operating restaurants is what makes the company a credible franchisor: the experience from company-run restaurants is used to improve operations everywhere, franchisee innovations are tested there before being rolled out, and company restaurants are where operations staff are trained and where standards, marketing concepts and pricing are worked out. Franchisees keep control of employment, marketing and pricing decisions in their own restaurants, and are responsible for reinvesting capital over time; the company may co-invest with them to speed up particular improvements.

The menu

The company names World Famous Fries, the Big Mac, the Quarter Pounder and Chicken McNuggets among seventeen separate billion-dollar brands. Best Burger is a set of operational and recipe changes to the core burgers, which the company says it plans to have in nearly all markets by the end of 2026. The McCrispy chicken sandwich reached nearly all major markets by the end of 2025 and the brand has been extended into strips and wraps in several markets. Menu items are tested continuously.

Digital, delivery, drive thru

Loyalty programmes run in 70 markets. Ready on Arrival, which lets crew start assembling a mobile order before the customer arrives, was in the top six markets by the end of 2025. Delivery is offered from nearly 41,000 restaurants across approximately 100 markets, about 90 percent of the estate, with mobile-app delivery ordering live in five of the largest markets and long-term partnerships with delivery providers. The company reports the most drive thru locations of anyone, nearly 29,000 worldwide, including over 95 percent of the approximately 13,700 restaurants in the United States.

Opening more

The company says it plans to open approximately 2,600 restaurants gross in 2026, a little over 4.5 percent net unit growth after closures, and to reach 50,000 restaurants by the end of 2027, which it describes as the fastest period of unit growth in its history.

Suppliers and competitors

The company and its franchisees buy food, packaging, equipment and other goods from many independent suppliers. Standards are enforced through product reviews, supplier visits, third-party verification, periodic third-party food safety audits and unannounced Good Manufacturing Practices audits for higher-risk foods, with sensory evaluations and calibration training used to keep the core menu consistent. A Food Safety Advisory Council of internal experts, suppliers and outsiders oversees the work, and a Supplier Code of Conduct applies to every supplier. Competition is measured against the informal eating out segment, which takes in quick-service restaurants but also delivery-only operators, convenience stores, street stalls and kiosks, cafés, coffee shops, self-service cafeterias and juice bars, and the company says it competes on price, convenience, service, experience, menu variety and product quality.

From McDonald's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025. The filing carries no Item 1 or Item 7 heading in its body, using a cross-reference index at the back instead, so nothing here was located by section name. The filing

Written from the 10-K filed 24 February 2026: read the full 10-K.