Dive Brief:
- The Cheesecake Factory, Texas Roadhouse and Chick-fil-A have the highest average unit volumes of major restaurant brands, with AUVs of $12.8 million, $7.9 million and $7.2 million, respectively, according to Circana’s 2026 Definitive U.S. Restaurant Rankings.
- Raising Cane’s ($6.3 million) and Olive Garden ($5.8 million) round out the top five restaurant brands in the rankings list, which measures key performance metrics across 50 major brands.
- High unit volumes in 2025 were strongly concentrated in casual dining and mid-scale dining and in QSR chicken, with only one concept outside of those segments — McDonald’s — in the top 10.
Dive Insight:
The explanations for this strong, sectorally specific performance are, to some degree, self-evident. Casual and mid-scale chains tend to have larger floor areas and kitchens and bigger tickets, and often serve alcohol and premium items. Some high performers like Chili’s also offer value items that are price-point competitive with QSRs.
Chicken chains, meanwhile, tend to have simpler menus and operations, making it easy to optimize for rapid throughput. They may also benefit from lower supply chain costs than competitors who serve multiple kinds of proteins. Raising Cane’s menu, for example, is built around a single core item from one protein source: the chicken finger.
The brands with lower AUVs tend to be concentrated in specific sectors. Jersey Mike’s (#43), Jimmy John’s (#46), and Subway (#50) formed one such cluster in the sandwich market. Pizza was another low-performing category, with Domino’s ranking at #35, Papa Johns at #44, Pizza Hut at #45 and Little Caesars at #48.
Concepts oriented around peripheral occasions, like coffee, snacks and desserts, also tended to have lower unit volumes, with Starbucks at #32, Dunkin’ at #38, Dairy Queen at #42, and Tropical Smoothie Cafe at #47. Dutch Bros, which is optimized for high-throughput drive-thru operations, was an exception to this trend — its $2.1 million AUV put it smack in the middle at #25.
Brands with industry-leading AUVs can require significant real estate — Chick-fil-A’s restaurants tend to be about 5,000 square feet to 6,500 square feet, according to Nation’s Restaurant News. The Cheesecake Factory often looks for spots in the 6,500-square-foot to 10,000-square-foot range, according to its most recent earnings call. Texas Roadhouse locations tend to be between 7,500 and 8,000 square feet, according to a 2023 brand fact sheet. These large footprints can limit the lots and units suitable for development and can necessitate higher construction costs relative to smaller buildings.
Industry-leading AUVs do not insulate restaurant brands from market downturns. Cheesecake Factory, for instance, saw its same-store sales drop 2.2% in Q4 2025, per its earnings call, while competitors like IHOP, Chili’s, Olive Garden and First Watch posted comps growth in the same period.
