How McDonald's makes money

Customers spent $129.7B in 2025 at McDonald's restaurants run by franchisees. That money isn't McDonald's revenue: it's the franchisees' sales. What McDonald's takes is a slice, $16.5B in rent, royalties and fees, about 12.8% of every dollar. In the US the slice was about 14.2%.

The rest pays for the franchisee's food, crew and running costs, and whatever's left is the franchisee's own profit. So McDonald's does best when its franchisees sell more.

McDonald's also runs some restaurants itself, and there it sells the meals and pays for everything: $9.7B of sales in 2025.

In a classic McDonald's franchise, McDonald's provides the land and the building, and the franchisee pays to fit it out and run it. In its main markets McDonald's owns about 56% of the land and 80% of the buildings under its restaurants. The property it rents to franchisees was worth $22.8B on its books at the end of 2025, $7.1B of it land.

Rent is a set minimum plus a share of sales, so it rises when sales do. Under deals already signed, franchisees owe at least $31.5B of minimum rent in the years ahead. A deal usually runs 20 years, and when it ends, McDonald's still owns or leases the site.

From a franchised restaurant, McDonald's collects less money but keeps most of it. From a restaurant it runs itself, it collects every dollar but pays for the food, the crew and the building. Franchised restaurants made about 90% of McDonald's restaurant margin dollars in 2025.

So why run any at all? McDonald's runs about 4.5% of its restaurants itself. Its report says they're where it trains people and tests new ideas and prices, and that running some is part of being a credible franchisor.