In total, there are about 40,275 McDonald’s locations worldwide, which serve nearly 70 million customers daily. As a result, most people know that the company brings in a lot of revenue. However, you may be wondering, “How much money does McDonald’s make in a day?” If so, here’s what you need to know.
How Much Money Does McDonald’s Make in a Day?
In 2024, the McDonalds corporation made between $70.56 million and $37.9 million per day, depending on how you count taxes.
While there aren’t exact figures showing how much McDonald’s makes in any specific day of the year, you can get a solid estimate by reviewing the companies stock market filing data.
In 2024, McDonald’s had about $25.76 billion in revenue (per Yahoo Finance). By dividing that number by 365 (reflecting the number of days in a year), you can estimate the daily revenue. Based on those numbers, McDonald’s makes approximately $70.56 million each day before taxes.
Now, it’s essential to understand that revenue and profits are two different things. Revenue reflects all income generated by the company, while profits are what remains after any expenses, debts, and operating costs are removed from total revenue.
For example, McDonald’s ran a “Free Fries Friday” promotion from October 27th through December 31st in 2023. Although this promo likely boosted sales, it had associated costs that must be deducted from sales figures to arrive at gross profit. Additionally, revenue and sales aren’t the same. Sales mainly focus on consumer purchases, which is part of the revenue figure. However, McDonald’s may also earn revenue from other sources, such as licensing deals with third-party product manufacturers, or from financing activities.
After factoring in expenses, taxes and other costs, known as Earnings Before Interest, Deductions and Taxes (EBIDTA), McDonalds has a profit of $13.86 billion, or $37.9 Million dollars per day.
How Much Do McDonald’s Franchises Make?
McDonalds franchises can make a significant amount of money, but are expensive and time consuming to manage.
While McDonald’s corporate franchise documents say little about average returns to franchise owners, some third party summaries suggest that individual restaurants can generate up to $2.9 Million dollars per year in cash. This is because many items – such as coffee – are inexpensive to produce but can be sold for high markups (investopedia). As a result, many franchise owners draw salaries of between $150,000 and $250,000 (here).
However, running a franchise is notoriously time consuming. First, new franchisees are required to attend 6 to 12 months of classroom and practical training. Franchisee are also subject to income and experience requirements, and must contribute large amounts of capital to acquiring their restaurant.
According to the Restaurant Finance Monitor, the McDonald’s corporation only owns about 5% of McDonalds restaurants —the rest are franchises. North America has more McDonald’s franchises than anywhere else in the world. McDonald’s generates a large portion of its revenue from its franchised restaurants by collecting fees like rent and royalties. In 2023, $15,436 Billion of McDonald’s revenue was derived from franchises alone (here).
What Are McDonald’s Bestselling Items?
If wondering how much McDonald’s makes in a day, you may also be curious to know what the most popular menu items are. Unsurprisingly, french fries are ordered most often, topping the list.
Fun fact: McDonald’s sells about 9 million pounds of french fries daily. Not far behind french fries is the iconic Big Mac. It’s estimated that McDonald’s sells 80 hamburgers every single minute.
Check out the full list of the top 5 most popular menu items below:
- French Fries
- Big Mac
- Snack Wraps
- Happy Meal
- Egg McMuffin
Does McDonald’s Make More Than Other Fast Food Companies?
McDonald’s was the top fast food restaurant by sales in both 2022 and 2023 due to the success of its transformation plan. The chain focused on digital sales growth and creating unique marketing campaigns to draw in customers, some of which have gone viral.
New McDonald’s menus like the Grimace shake and McCrispy chicken sandwich proved to be popular and helped boost sales. McDonald’s also implemented price increases in 2024 to maximize revenue.
Here are the other fast-food chains that hit the top five for total sales in 2023:
- Starbucks
- Chick-fil-A
- Taco Bell
- Wendy’s
Are you surprised by how much money McDonald’s makes in a day? Did you assume that the figure was higher or lower than what’s listed above? Do you think McDonald’s should take specific actions based on how much it brings in daily? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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Tamila McDonald is a U.S. Army veteran with 20 years of service, including five years as a military financial advisor. After retiring from the Army, she spent eight years as an AFCPE-certified personal financial advisor for wounded warriors and their families. Now she writes about personal finance and benefits programs for numerous financial websites.
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