Fast Food in America: Each State's Favorite Fast Food Chain

Fast food is part of the fabric of life in the U.S., but certain chains are more popular than others in different parts of the country. To get a handle on the state of fast food in America, our team at FinanceBuzz collected popularity data using metrics like search volume and number of restaurant locations for nearly 70 major fast-food chains throughout the country. Find out which restaurant chain is the favorite in your state.

Key findings

• Wendy’s and Sonic were the favorite chain in five states each, tied for the most of any chain restaurant.
• Subway and Jimmy John’s were the only other restaurants that were the favorites in more than two states.
• 17 different restaurants were the favorite in the state in which the chain was founded.

The top fast food restaurant in each state

Across the country, 30 different restaurants took the top spot in at least one state, showing a diversity of tastes when it comes to fast food.

No single fast-food chain dominated the results, but a pair of restaurants did just enough to claim top honors overall. Both Wendy’s and Sonic were the favorite fast-food chain in five different states — the most of any chain.

While 11 more restaurants took the top spot in multiple states, a pair of sandwich shops — Jimmy John’s and Subway — are the only chains other than Wendy’s and Sonic to be named the favorite in at least three different states.

Notably absent from the results is perhaps the most ubiquitous fast-food chain in the world: McDonald’s. Despite not taking the top overall spot in any state, the Golden Arches was in the top five to 10 spots in many states by both search popularity and locations per capita. But McDonald’s was rarely at the very top.

Homemade favorites

Certain restaurants are beloved and omnipresent in the states where they originated. All told, 17 different restaurants were the favorite fast-food spots in the state where the chain started. (A factor that likely helps them finish ahead of McDonald’s on our list.)

Additionally, two states that host the corporate headquarters for fast-food chains saw those chains take the top spots, even though the restaurants started somewhere else. That includes Papa John’s, which won Kentucky despite being founded in Indiana. Plus Hardee’s, which won Tennessee even though it was founded in neighboring North Carolina.

Most of these chains have expanded beyond the state where they started, but these results show that they’ve maintained high levels of popularity in their home states and regions as well.

Full state-by-state results

Bottom line

No matter where you eat, it’s possible to save money while enjoying fast food. Here are some of our top tips for saving money while you eat out at your favorite spots:

• Eat and drink your way to rewards. Some credit cards offer specific rewards if you use them to pay your restaurant bill. Use one of the best credit cards for dining out every time you’re at a fast food chain to get the most out of your purchase.
• Choose a credit card that rewards your experiences. If you’re someone who enjoys performances and dining out, choose a card that offers cash back. A cash back credit card with no annual fee could help you earn money back on the experiences you love, such as dinner and drinks.

Methodology

FinanceBuzz pulled the Google Trends score for each fast-food restaurant and multiplied it by the number of locations per 100,000 people in every state to determine each state’s favorite fast-food chain. Certain manual calculation adjustments were made to a handful of chains to normalize data and account for outliers related to the number of locations. Data was collected in March of 2024.

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