Burger King - statistics & facts
It may have the crown, but Burger King is not the reigning king of fast food. That title is more commonly held by McDonald’s, which, at almost 43 billion U.S. dollars, had the highest brand value of any restaurant chain worldwide in 2026. Meanwhile, Burger King did not make it into the top 10 brands in the ranking. This is certainly not for lack of trying – the company has targeted McDonald’s in its marketing campaigns since the 1980s. This includes the Whopper Detour, which used mobile geofencing to redirect customers away from McDonald’s to promote Burger King’s redesigned app.
How successful is Burger King’s parent company?
Although Burger King was originally founded in the United States, the chain’s current parent company, Restaurant Brands International (RBI), is headquartered in Canada. While RBI was one of the global food and drink service companies with the highest sales in 2025, its sales of around 8.4 billion U.S. dollars ranked low on the list. Comparatively, McDonald’s generated over three times this amount. However, RBI has focused heavily on expansion lately, with the number of Burger King restaurants worldwide reaching almost 20,000 in 2025.
Despite having undergone five changes of ownership since its founding, Burger King has retained a strong brand identity. This was highlighted during a 2025 Statista survey where Burger King ranked third, slightly behind McDonald’s and KFC, in a list of restaurant chains with the highest brand awareness in the United States.
Burger King’s new strategy for success: customer is king
During the 2026 Academy Awards broadcast, Burger King launched a new ad campaign titled “There’s a New King and It’s You” in which it officially retired its King mascot and handed the crown to the customers. In the 90-second clip, the company’s U.S. and Canada President, Tom Curtis, admitted the brand’s recent struggles and laid the foundations of its new strategy for success: investing in restaurant modernization, improving operations, and placing greater value on customer feedback.
Through initiatives like developing a version of the Whopper based on customer input and inviting guests to share their Burger King experiences, the company aims to better connect with its customer base, improving loyalty and satisfaction. While Burger King’s American Customer Satisfaction Index score of 77 out of 100 was significantly higher than that of McDonald’s in 2025, it remained below the quick service restaurant industry’s average. That said, the steady increase in Burger King’s revenue in the United States and Canada over the past five years already suggests that the chain has not only acknowledged its problems but has also actively started to address them.
