McDonald’s, Starbucks or Subway are the biggest QSR chains in the world, right?
Nope. The Chinese ice cream and bubble tea chain Mixue has overtaken those fast food operators in terms of the number of stores worldwide, according to the Asian data service provider Momentum Works.
Sixteen:Nine’s German language content partner invidis came across data from last fall that indicates as of September 30, 2024, Mixue operated 45,302 restaurants worldwide, the majority of them in China. The previous world market leader McDonald’s and the coffee house chain Starbucks are now behind Mixue with over 40,000 restaurants each.
McDonald’s has around 43,000 restaurants and Starbucks had 40,199 stores as of last fall, while Subway has 37,000 or so. Mixue is opening locations at a blistering pace, jumped from 4th place to first place worldwide in a year. The chain operates in China and 11 other Asian countries.
Most of those stores are franchised operations, and as the photo up top suggests, opening a bubble tea store is much less involved than a McDonald’s or Starbucks, or even a Subway with its ovens. Also, no drive-thrus or parking lots.
It LOOKS like stores have digital menu boards. Or at least this one does.