McDonald’s sells an insane number of burgers every day

We all know that hamburgers are one of the most popular offerings at McDonald’s, but the actual number of burgers sold at the chain each day is absolutely mind-boggling. 

A study conducted by The Takeout, a website that specializes in food and drink, found that McDonald’s sold almost 6.5 billion burgers back in 2021. 

If we were to chart the number of sales per day, McDonald’s sells 6.48 million burgers in one single day.

To put this into further perspective, this figure means the chain sells approximately 75 hamburgers per second worldwide. There’s even a whole website dedicated to watching McDonald’s sales in real time, where you can check out the popularity of different items per second. 

This means that the chain sell a staggering 2.36 billion burger patties globally over the course of a year. 

Despite these startling statistics, hamburgers aren’t the most popular items sold at the chain. McDonald’s French fries generate the highest demand among consumers, with approximately 9 million pounds of fries sold every day. 

Another item that’s proving to be more popular than the classic hamburger are the chain’s classic chicken nuggets. In July’s WSJ Global Food Forum, Joe Erlinger, the McDonald’s US President revealed that chicken was becoming a fast favorite among consumers. 

“People change what they eat very slowly over time. So yes, we are seeing those slow changes over time. I think some of it’s driven by affordability… we know that chicken is less expensive to produce, so for a consumer that’s looking for more affordable food, chicken is a great option right now.

“Some of this protein consumption change is something that we really will have to watch,” he said. “We’ve seen that shift. We didn’t have a chicken sandwich when we launched our brand in 1955. We sell more chicken today as a brand than we sell beef.”

This is certainly true, as the chain sell 34 million chicken nuggets alone every day, according to a study conducted in 2017. With their rise in popularity in recent years, it’s safe to say that this number would prove even higher today.