Burger chain CEOs are competing online — but the sales race isn’t even close
A viral McDonald’s burger clip sparked a social media roast from rivals this week.
This week, America’s three biggest burger chains have been competing over something unusual: how their CEOs eat burgers.
A promotional clip of Chris Kempczinski, CEO of McDonald’s, cautiously nibbling the chain’s new Big Arch burger — originally posted a month ago — suddenly went viral, with social media mocking the tiny bite and his description of the burger as a “product.”
Rivals quickly piled on, with Burger King posting a video on Tuesday of President Tom Curtis enthusiastically devouring a Whopper. The next day, Wendy’s US President Pete Suerken joined in with a video of him eating a burger and dipping fries into a Frosty, with a caption that read, “Lots of chatter this week about burgers.”
But while the internet — and its two rivals — enjoyed roasting McDonald’s, in the actual burger business, the competition hasn’t been nearly as close.
In 2008, the average McDonald’s US restaurant pulled in about $2.3 million in annual sales, roughly 1.8x that of Burger King, according to QSR Magazine. By 2024, that had grown to 2.4x, with the typical US McDonald’s store generating more sales than Wendy’s and Burger King combined.
Much of that divergence traces back to 2015, when McDonald’s then CEO Steve Easterbrook launched a turnaround plan following the worst year for its sales in decades. The chain simplified its menu, rolled out the famous all-day breakfast, and accelerated refranchising — while investing heavily in kiosks, drive-thrus, and an app loyalty program that helped build a digital edge over rivals.
Burger King, meanwhile, spent much of the 2010s struggling with a debt-heavy franchise base, leaving many locations underinvested, before it launched a turnaround plan in 2022. Wendy’s faced its own challenges, with its long-standing premium, higher-quality positioning losing price-sensitive customers to McDonald’s.
And McDonald’s may have scored a smaller win from the latest burger war, too: early Big Arch sales are beating expectations, its spokeswoman told The Wall Street Journal, while Kempczinski’s social media following has jumped 30% since the video was posted.
