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Animated: The Most Valuable Brands From 2000–2022

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The Most Valuable Brands From 2000–2022

How much money is a brand truly worth?

For some companies, a brand is something that helps slightly boost customer engagement and sales. But for others, including some of the largest companies in the world, a strong brand is one of their most valuable assets.

This animated graphic by James Eagle uses the annual brand rankings from Interbrand to track the world’s most valuable brands from 2000 to 2022.

Measuring Brand Value

One of the difficulties of brand valuation is its subjectivity.

In accounting, the value of a brand is sometimes represented as an intangible asset called goodwill on the balance sheet. That’s because the brand power associated with a company (i.e. brand recognition, brand loyalty, customer base, reputation, etc.) often makes a company more valuable than just the sum of its tangible assets like land, buildings, or product inventory.

This works for accounting purposes but is still a rough estimation, and doesn’t precisely quantify a brand’s true value.

For Interbrand’s studies, a consistent formula for brand strength was utilized which is based on a company’s financial forecast, brand role, and brand strength. It uses estimates of the present value of earnings a brand is forecasted to generate in the future.

The Top 10 Most Valuable Brands Since 2000

When the 2000s started, the internet was top-of-mind in terms of both markets and customer perception. The Dotcom bubble was driving the world’s largest companies, and brand value at the time reflected tech’s popularity:

RankBrandValue (2000)Industry
1Coca-Cola$72.5BBeverages
2Microsoft$70.2BTech
3IBM$53.2BTech
4Intel$39.1BTech
5Nokia$38.5BTech
6General Electric$38.1BEnergy
7Ford$36.4BAutomotive
8Disney$33.6BMedia
9McDonald's$27.9BRestaurants
10AT&T$25.6BTelecom

Half of the top 10 most valuable brands at the time were in tech or telecom, including Microsoft, IBM, and Nokia.

Others were classic American brands and companies at the top of their fields, including Coca-Cola, General Electric, Ford, and McDonald’s.

But over the next 20 years, much of the old guard was replaced by new and rising brands. By 2022, only three of the top 10 most valuable brands from 2000 remained at the top:

RankBrandValue (2022)Industry
1Apple$482.2BTech
2Microsoft$278.3BTech
3Amazon$274.8BConsumer
4Google$251.8BTech
5Samsung$87.7BTech
6Toyota$59.8BAutomotive
7Coca-Cola$57.5BBeverages
8Mercedes-Benz$56.1BAutomotive
9Disney$50.3BMedia
10Nike$50.3BConsumer

Apple’s brand is now worth an estimated $482 billion, even though the company didn’t even crack the top 10 list back in the year 2000.

In fact, four of the top five brands on the 2022 list are directly in tech, and even Amazon (#3) is often considered a tech giant. Not surprisingly, brand value in the top 10 has grown almost across the board, though Coca-Cola is a notable exception, dropping $15 billion in estimated brand value over 22 years.

How will the most valuable brands continue to evolve over the coming decades?

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This article was published as a part of Visual Capitalist's Creator Program, which features data-driven visuals from some of our favorite Creators around the world.

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Brands

Ranked: Fast Food Brands with the Most U.S. Locations

An overview of America’s fast food landscape, as of 2022, visualizing the top fast food brands with the most stores in the country.

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A cropped bar chart visualizing the top fast food brands with the most stores in the country.

Ranked: Fast Food Brands with the Most U.S. Locations

The fast food industry has become a behemoth in the U.S. from humble beginnings in Wichita a century ago, when the first White Castle store opened. Now, nearly 200,000 U.S. fast food brands make up an industry worth more than $300 billion.

We provide an overview of America’s fast food landscape, visualizing the top 15 companies with the most stores in the country. In this graphic, we use data from QSR Magazine, an industry magazine that focuses on the quick-service segment of the restaurant industry.

Which Fast Food Brands Have the Most Stores?

Ranked first, Subway is the only fast food brand with over 20,000 locations, even after a net reduction of 576 stores in 2022.

The previously family-run business is now owned by Roark Capital (which has substantial stake in other familiar names on this list including Arby’s and Sonic), and is mid-transformation, with 3,600 stores being remodeled in 2023.

Here’s the full breakdown of the top 50 fast food brands by number of U.S. locations in 2022.

RankCompanyLocationsChange in Locations (YoY)
1Subway*20,576-571
2Starbucks*15,873+429
3McDonald's13,444+6
4Dunkin'9,370+126
5Taco Bell7,198+196
6Burger King7,043-61
7Domino's6,686+126
8Pizza Hut6,561+13
9Wendy's5,994+56
10Dairy Queen4,307-32
11Little Caesars*4,173-14
12KFC3,918-35
13Sonic Drive-In3,546-6
14Arby's3,415+6
15Papa Johns3,376+37
16Chipotle3,129+211
17Popeyes
Louisiana Kitchen
2,946+169
18Chick-fil-A*2,837+153
19Jimmy John's2,637-26
20Jersey Mike's2,397+297
21Panda Express2,393+87
22Baskin-Robbins2,253-54
23Jack In The Box2,180-38
24Panera Bread*2,102-33
25Wingstop1,721+187
26Hardee's1,707+45
27Five Guys1,409+19
28Tropical
Smoothie Café
1,198+159
29Firehouse Subs1,187+23
30Papa Murphy's1,168-72
31Carl's Jr.1,068+1
32Marco's Pizza1,067+65
33Whataburger925+52
34Zaxby's922+11
35Culver's892+56
36Church's Chicken812-91
37Checkers/Rally's806+28
38Bojangles788+15
39Qdoba728-11
40Crumbl Cookies688+363
41Dutch Bros671+133
42Raising Cane's646+79
43Moe's637-21
44Del Taco591-9
45McAlister's Deli525+20
46El Pollo Loco490+10
47Freddy's Frozen
Custard &
Steakburgers
456+36
48In-N-Out Burger*379+12
49Krispy Kreme*352+44
50Shake Shack*287+44

*Figures estimated by QSR and Circana.

At second place, Starbucks has nearly 16,000 locations around the country, with California alone accounting for nearly 3,000 of them. The coffee chain is also going through a major shift as a result of post-pandemic trends. This includes a greater focus on drive-thru locations and overall speed and efficiency.

Ranked third, McDonald’s, grew its U.S. footprint for the first time in eight years, after adding six new locations. The brand has grown its global sales by nearly $20 billion since the beginning of the pandemic, even after exiting Russia in 2022.

Dunkin’ (dropped the “Donuts” in 2019) and Taco Bell round out the top-five with more than 9,000 and 7,000 locations respectively.

Notably there was only one ranking shift in the top 20 since last year, with Jersey Mike’s, a sandwich chain, moving past Panda Express to claim 20th place.

However the same list looks a little different when ordering by revenue earned in 2022.

Ranked: Fast Food Brands by 2022 Revenue

The Golden Arches take the golden crown for most revenue earned in 2022, easily beating out the competition. McDonald’s made nearly $48 billion in sales last year, 74% more than the next big brand.

Here’s the full ranking of most revenue earned by fast food brands in 2022.

Revenue RankCompanyRevenue (USD millions)Change from
Locations Rank
1McDonald's$48,734+2
2Starbucks*$28,1000
3Chick-fil-A*$18,814+15
4Taco Bell$13,850+1
5Wendy's$11,694+4
6Dunkin'$11,279-2
7Subway*$10,372-6
8Burger King$10,278-2
9Domino's$8,752-2
10Chipotle$8,600+6
11Panera Bread*$6,787+13
12Pizza Hut$5,500-4
13Sonic Drive-In$5,4990
14Panda Express$5,149+7
15KFC$5,100-3
16Popeyes
Louisiana Kitchen
$5,001+1
17Dairy Queen$4,5790
18Arby's$4,535-4
19Jack in the Box$4,111+4
20Papa John's$3,698-5
21Little Caesars*$3,520-10
22Whataburger$3,340+11
23Raising Cane's$3,118+19
24Culver's$2,830+11
25Jersey Mike's$2,680-5
26Wingstop$2,382-1
27Zaxby's$2,380+7
28Jimmy John's$2,364-9
29Five Guys$2,204-2
30Hardee's$2,020-4
31Bojangles$1,600+7
32Carl's Jr.$1,555-1
33Dutch Bros$1,163+8
34Firehouse Subs$1,154-5
35In-N-Out Burger*$1,125+13
36Tropical
Smoothie Café
$1,075-8
37El Pollo Loco$1,039+9
38Crumbl Cookies$1,004+2
39Qdoba$1,0020
40Shake Shack*$994+10
41Krispy Kreme*$991+8
42Marco's Pizza$968-10
43Del Taco$957+1
44McAlister's Deli$956+1
45Checkers/Rally's$858-8
46Freddy's Frozen
Custard &
Steakburgers
$808+1
47Church's Chicken$765-11
48Papa Murphy's$753-18
49Moe's$705-6
50Baskin-Robbins$685-28

*Figures estimated by QSR and Circana.

Starbucks holds on to the second spot, but Chick-fil-A shoots up 18 positions to third place by revenue, despite being closed on Sundays.

Raising Cane’s, which specializes in chicken fingers and Panera Bread, a bakery competitor to Starbucks, see similar upward trajectories, climbing 19 and 13 spots respectively on the revenue rankings.

On the other hand, Papa Murphy’s and Baskin Robbins have seen a steep drop, making between $600–700 million in 2022, putting them at the bottom of the sales rankings.

What’s Next for Fast Food?

QSR Magazine signals that automation is transforming the restaurant industry as businesses leverage robotics to ease staffing challenges that surged during the pandemic.

Some changes—increasing drive-thrus and apps for example—have already become commonplace but robot cooks and automated delivery vans may also soon proliferate.

With nearly eight out of 100 people in the American workforce involved in the food industry, these changes may cause significant shifts in employment patterns, potentially requiring upskilling for workers in this evolving landscape.

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