Founded in 1940, McDonald’s has grown into a global brand that has nearly 40,000 restaurants around the world today. Not only that, but by a wide margin, McDonald’s also has the largest overall social media following of any fast-food chain out there, with more than 90 million fans and followers on their U.S.-based brand social media accounts alone.
This report from How to Cook Recipes ranks 50 of the most popular fast-food chains out there by their total social media following, factoring in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. The data does not include support social media accounts or international social media accounts, only factoring in the main United States-based brand accounts.
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Which Fast-Food Restaurants Have the Most Social Media Followers?
Out of every fast-food chain globally, no company has more social media followers than McDonald’s does. As of March 2022, McDonald’s boasted a massive community of 92,531,000 fans, which includes 4.5 million followers on Twitter, 81 million fans on Facebook, 4.3 million followers on Instagram, 2.1 million TikTok followers, and 631,000 subscribers on YouTube.
When factoring in Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, only five fast-food chains around the world have communities that exceed 25 million total users: McDonald’s, Starbucks, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Subway. Here are the ten fast-food chains that collectively have the most followers on social media:
- McDonald’s: 92.5 million social media followers
- Starbucks: 66.8 million social media followers
- KFC: 60.8 million social media followers
- Pizza Hut: 35.6 million social media followers
- Subway: 27.1 million social media followers
- Domino’s: 24.6 million social media followers
- Dunkin’: 22.4 million social media followers
- Taco Bell: 15.1 million social media followers
- Wendy’s: 14.4 million social media followers
- Dairy Queen: 13.1 million social media followers
It launched in 2004, but today, Facebook is the most popular social media platform globally, with 2.797 billion active users monthly. Here are the five fast-food chains that have the most followers on Facebook as of March 2022:
- McDonald’s: 81 million Facebook followers
- KFC: 57 million Facebook followers
- Starbucks: 36 million Facebook followers
- Pizza Hut: 32 million Facebook followers
- Domino’s: 21 million Facebook followers
Over the past few years, no fast-food chain in the world has made more waves on Twitter than Wendy’s. With their sometimes controversial, often hilarious tweets, Wendy’s has quickly ascended into the top five fast-food chains in terms of the most Twitter followers.
- Starbucks: 11 million Twitter followers
- McDonald’s: 4.5 million Twitter followers
- Wendy’s: 3.8 million Twitter followers
- Subway: 2.2 million Twitter followers
- Burger King: 1.9 million Twitter followers
On Instagram, Starbucks dominates every other fast-food chain. Not only does Starbucks have the highest number of followers, 17.7 million, but their follower base on Instagram is more than four times that of McDonald’s, which has the second most followers with 4.3 million. Here are the five fast-food chains with the most Instagram followers:
- Starbucks: 17.7 million Instagram followers
- McDonald’s: 4.3 million Instagram followers
- Dunkin’: 2.2 million Instagram followers
- Burger King and Chik-fil-A: 1.8 million Instagram followers each
YouTube is not only the second most popular search engine out there behind Google, but it’s also the second most popular social media platform, only behind Facebook. Today, YouTube has an estimated 2.291 billion active monthly users, and fast-food chains have built audiences on this platform, too. But as of March 2022, none of the major fast-food chains had hit the milestone of one million subscribers on YouTube.
- McDonald’s: 631,000 YouTube subscribers
- Starbucks: 350,000 YouTube subscribers
- Domino’s: 331,000 YouTube subscribers
- Wendy’s: 132,000 YouTube subscribers
- Taco Bell: 123,000 YouTube subscribers
TikTok is becoming more popular than ever as one of the top social media platforms. These are the five fast-food chains that have the most followers on the platform as of March 2022:
- Dunkin’: 3 million TikTok followers
- McDonald’s: 2.1 million TikTok followers
- Starbucks: 1.8 million TikTok followers
- Chipotle and Taco Bell: 1.7 million TikTok followers each
The Fast Food Chains With the Most Total Followers
| Rank | Chain | Social Media Following | ||||||
| Twitter Handle | TikTok | YouTube | Total Following | |||||
| 1 | McDonald’s | @McDonalds | 4,500,000 | 81,000,000 | 4,300,000 | 2,100,000 | 631,000 | 92,531,000 |
| 2 | Starbucks | @Starbucks | 11,000,000 | 36,000,000 | 17,700,000 | 1,800,000 | 350,000 | 66,850,000 |
| 3 | KFC | @kfc | 1,500,000 | 57,000,000 | 1,600,000 | 794,100 | n/a | 60,894,100 |
| 4 | Pizza Hut | @pizzahut | 1,600,000 | 32,000,000 | 1,700,000 | 240,800 | 85,100 | 35,625,900 |
| 5 | Subway | @SUBWAY | 2,200,000 | 23,000,000 | 1,300,000 | 533,300 | 91,400 | 27,124,700 |
| 6 | Domino’s | @dominos | 1,400,000 | 21,000,000 | 1,700,000 | 195,200 | 331,000 | 24,626,200 |
| 7 | Dunkin’ | @dunkindonuts | 1,200,000 | 16,000,000 | 2,200,000 | 3,000,000 | 46,600 | 22,446,600 |
| 8 | Taco Bell | @tacobell | 1,900,000 | 10,000,000 | 1,400,000 | 1,700,000 | 123,000 | 15,123,000 |
| 9 | Wendy’s | @Wendys | 3,800,000 | 8,200,000 | 1,000,000 | 1,300,000 | 132,000 | 14,432,000 |
| 10 | Dairy Queen | @DairyQueen | 533,500 | 11,900,000 | 646,000 | 64,100 | 17,500 | 13,161,100 |
| 11 | Burger King | @BurgerKing | 1,900,000 | 8,600,000 | 1,800,000 | 638,700 | 108,000 | 13,046,700 |
| 12 | Chick-fil-A | @ChickfilA | 1,100,000 | 7,900,000 | 1,800,000 | 819,100 | 55,200 | 11,674,300 |
| 13 | Baskin-Robbins | @BaskinRobbins | 194,100 | 9,600,000 | 787,000 | 16,200 | 6,700 | 10,604,000 |
| 14 | Papa John’s | @PapaJohns | 646,400 | 6,600,000 | 601,000 | 40,700 | Not Public | 7,888,100 |
| 15 | Chipotle | @ChipotleTweets | 1,000,000 | 3,300,000 | 1,100,000 | 1,700,000 | 97,400 | 7,197,400 |
| 16 | Little Caesars | @littlecaesars | 359,000 | 4,700,000 | 473,000 | 272,500 | 22,800 | 5,827,300 |
| 17 | Sonic | @sonicdrivein | 387,200 | 4,500,000 | 605,000 | 120,500 | 48,900 | 5,661,600 |
| 18 | Arby’s | @Arbys | 847,200 | 3,100,000 | 390,000 | 680,600 | 30,000 | 5,047,800 |
| 19 | Tim Hortons | @TimHortons | 661,300 | 3,400,000 | 452,000 | 102,900 | 30,200 | 4,646,400 |
| 20 | Steak ‘n Shake | @SteaknShake | 405,800 | 3,700,000 | 248,000 | 8,900 | 1,300 | 4,364,000 |
| 21 | Panera Bread | @panerabread | 447,000 | 3,000,000 | 503,000 | 183,300 | 11,800 | 4,145,100 |
| 22 | Jimmy John’s | @jimmyjohns | 446,100 | 3,300,000 | 152,000 | 28,400 | 6,900 | 3,933,400 |
| 23 | Whataburger | @Whataburger | 1,200,000 | 2,100,000 | 478,000 | 142,200 | 5,500 | 3,925,700 |
| 24 | Wingstop | @wingstop | 266,600 | 2,700,000 | 313,000 | 154,700 | 2,700 | 3,437,000 |
| 25 | In-N-Out Burger | @innoutburger (Not Verified) | 51,100 | 2,700,000 | 634,000 | 13,500 | n/a | 3,398,600 |
| 26 | Panda Express | @PandaExpress | 62,700 | 3,000,000 | 251,000 | 4,000 | 14,500 | 3,332,200 |
| 27 | Culver’s | @culvers | 52,800 | 2,200,000 | 113,000 | 56,000 | 7,400 | 2,429,200 |
| 28 | Jack in the Box | @JackBox | 122,800 | 1,200,000 | 245,000 | 676,100 | 25,800 | 2,269,700 |
| 29 | Raising Cane’s | @raisingcanes | 82,800 | 717,000 | 811,000 | 475,600 | 6,100 | 2,092,500 |
| 30 | Carl’s Jr. | @CarlsJr | 107,800 | 1,300,000 | 199,000 | 171,700 | 69,000 | 1,847,500 |
| 31 | Firehouse Subs | @FirehouseSubs | 55,700 | 1,400,000 | 54,300 | 34 | Not Public | 1,510,034 |
| 32 | Popeyes | @Popeyes | 255,600 | 940,000 | 447,000 | 38,700 | 14,200 | 1,695,500 |
| 33 | Five Guys | @FiveGuys | 93,300 | 1,200,000 | 351,000 | 4,137 | n/a | 1,648,437 |
| 34 | Zaxby’s | @Zaxbys | 101,800 | 1,300,000 | 128,000 | 56,600 | 5,000 | 1,591,400 |
| 35 | Shake Shack | @shakeshack | 97,000 | 423,000 | 810,000 | 89,900 | 3,200 | 1,423,100 |
| 36 | Church’s Chicken | @ChurchsChicken | 93,300 | 1,200,000 | 93,400 | 1,000 | 900 | 1,388,600 |
| 37 | Hardee’s | @Hardees | 75,400 | 1,200,000 | 76,000 | 2,207 | 12,800 | 1,366,407 |
| 38 | Auntie Anne’s | @AuntieAnnes | 65,400 | 1,000,000 | 174,000 | 103,300 | 5,100 | 1,347,800 |
| 39 | Jersey Mike’s | @jerseymikes | 89,700 | 1,000,000 | 131,000 | 484 | 4,200 | 1,225,384 |
| 40 | Papa Murphy’s | @papamurphys | 12,100 | 1,000,000 | 35,400 | 900 | n/a | 1,048,400 |
| 41 | Moe’s | @Moes_HQ | 88,700 | 651,000 | 69,300 | 38,600 | 2,200 | 849,800 |
| 42 | McAlister’s Deli | @McAlistersDeli | 43,200 | 648,000 | 37,100 | 1,200 | Not Public | 729,500 |
| 43 | Del Taco | @DelTaco | 34,600 | 583,000 | 77,900 | 17,200 | 3,600 | 716,300 |
| 44 | El Pollo Loco | @ElPolloLoco | 23,400 | 441,000 | 62,700 | 109,000 | 2,000 | 638,100 |
| 45 | Checkers/Rally’s | @CheckersRallys | 27,800 | 491,000 | 88,200 | 13,600 | 3,900 | 624,500 |
| 46 | Bojangles | @Bojangles | 84,000 | 401,000 | 65,900 | 4,100 | 1,600 | 556,600 |
| 47 | QDOBA | @qdoba | 49,400 | 449,000 | 41,100 | n/a | 3,600 | 543,100 |
| 48 | Tropical Smoothie Café | @TSmoothieCafe | 18,400 | 423,000 | 69,100 | 5,300 | 1,700 | 517,500 |
| 49 | Marco’s Pizza | @MarcosPizza | 18,200 | 308,000 | 26,900 | 17,700 | 500 | 371,300 |
| 50 | Jason’s Deli | @jasonsdeli (Not Verified) | 15,800 | 117,000 | 12,800 | n/a | 575 | 146,175 |
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This page was last updated by Megan Miller