While most Americans likely think of Burger King as the Pepsi to McDonald’s Coca-Cola, Wendy’s actually holds the number two spot in the fast-food burger space.
(QSR Magazine’s QSR 50 2025: Top Fast-Food Burger Chains, Ranked by Sales shows Wendy’s as holding the number two spot)
McDonald’s, however, stands as the leader in the space.
“Despite occupying essentially the same space in the fast-food industry in terms of product, it is clear that the two brands market themselves very differently. McDonalds’ iconic golden arches are a symbol recognized the world over. For many McDonald’s is seen as the original fast food of a generation and Burger King as the contender, and this may also be the case in terms of brand value and actual market share,” Finn Partners shared.
Burger King has embraced the challenger role and its chairman, Patrick Doyle, the man who led Domino’s to the top spot in the pizza wars over once-dominant Pizza Hut, believes the number three chain can ascend to the to spot.
Burger King wants to be the burger king
Doyle has never been shy about his aspirations and he has installed his former Domino’s colleague Tom Curtis as the president of Burger King U.S. Curtis made it clear during Burger King’s recent Investor’s Day that he wanted to overtake Wendy’s and McDonald’s to become the top U.S. fast-food burger chain,
“It’s the right aspirational objective for the system,” Curtis said during parent company Restaurant Brands International’s investor day event in late February. “To be number one, you have to do everything better than everybody else. Your assets need to be best-in-class and your menu needs to be best-in-class.”
The chain, he acknowledged, needed a reset.
“Now Burger King was a brand that I grew up loving. The Whopper was and it still is the absolute best burger in the business. and being given a crown was always special. But somewhere along the way, this brand lost its focus,” he said.
Curtis believes that it’s possible to reignite the customer passion for the brand.
” It’s focused on what made it great in the first place, flame-grilling, the Whopper, have it your way. And those things were not being delivered with the consistency, care and hospitality that our guests deserved. But I also knew something else. The love for this brand had never disappeared. It was still there, just waiting to be reignited,” he said.
Burger King still struggles
Burger King’s turnaround may be gaining traction, but its path to No. 1 runs through closing a wide sales and scale gap that neither it nor Wendy’s has meaningfully narrowed against McDonald’s.
“’Reclaim the Flame’ is Burger King’s multiyear turnaround plan started in 2022, backed by a $400 million investment to revive the brand through better operations, increased marketing, and a sweeping restaurant refresher push to lift sales and franchisee profitability,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
The current economy, however, has slowed down Burger King’s efforts to modernize its restaurants.
“While we previously discussed reaching 85% modern image in 2028, the current cost environment is influencing the pace of remodel activity, and as a result, it will take a bit longer to reach that level. This does not change our strategy or the role of remodels in Reclaim the Flame. Remodels continue to deliver compelling uplifts and the team’s out-of-control costs reinforcing our confidence in the program,” Restaurant Brands International’s CEO Joshua Kobza said during the chain’s fourth-quarter earnings call.
Patrick Doyle believes Burger King can overtake McDonald’s
Burger King has a big gap to make up to catch Wendy’s let alone McDonald’s.
“In the U.S., McDonald’s generated about $53.5 billion in systemwide sales in 2024, compared with roughly $12.6 billion for Wendy’s and $11.0 billion for Burger King, showing McDonald’s sales were more than twice the combined total of both rivals,” QSR Magazine reported.
Doyle, who led Domino’s to the top spot in the pizza space, believes that Burger King can take the top spot.
“McDonald’s is a terrific competitor. I have enormous respect for them and particularly their franchisees. They do a really good job of running their restaurants,” Doyle said during his company’s Investors Day. “We have some foundational catching up that we needed to do in the U.S. That foundational catching up for the most part, doesn’t exist in international, which is why the progress is faster.”
More Restaurants
- McDonald’s latest menu missteps could have a major domino effect
- 76-year-old comfort food chain closes most of its restaurants
- Fast food giant is coming for Starbucks with fan-approved launch
He acknowledges that Burger King faces an uphill battle in the U.S.
“We can’t even think about how we’re going to pass McDonald’s in the U.S. if we’ve got restaurants that were built 60 years ago,” he said. “We have to get (those renovations) done. We’ve got to be operating at a higher level. We’ve got foundational work to do here.”
Getty Images
Burger King pulls a Domino’s
The chain has borrowed the Domino’s blueprint and has admitted its past mistakes. (Domino’s, under Doyle famously ran ads that acknowledged that its pizza wasn’t great).
“In the ‘There’s a New King, and It’s You’ spot, Burger King owned up to past mistakes like slow service, burgers that got squished by substandard packaging, and fast food that “fell off.” The company said it had fired its King mascot, reinvested in its restaurants, and improved its decades-old Whopper burger recipe,” Business Insider reported.
Doyle acknowledges that Burger King has a big hill to climb, and he threw out a diss to McDonald’s.
“McDonald’s is 4x or 5x bigger. We’ve got a long way to go,” Doyle said. “But ultimately, how we win is with food. Nobody has ever invited a person over for the evening and fried a hamburger for them. The food carries the day, but we’ve got to get to the point where we’re executing in the U.S.”
Related: McDonald’s makes a big menu shift as beef prices rise