While 2020 was a year of unprecedented difficulties for the restaurant chains industry in the USA, many chains – 198 out of the Top 500 – managed to grow the number of units they had open.
Following the Nation’s Restaurant News report, many of the fastest-growing chains by unit count began with a small number of units — Wahlburgers and Pulp Juice & Smoothie Bar had just 30 stores each in 2019. But some larger restaurant chains also managed to open an impressive number of units in 2020, including Donatos Pizza, Scooter’s Coffeehouse, Chicken Salad Chick, Shake Shack, and Wetzel’s Pretzels, all of which had more than 100 units in 2019 but still managed to grow by at least 21% during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the gallery below, see the 25 restaurant chains that saw the biggest year-over-year domestic unit growth in 2020. See which big chains got bigger, which small chains powered through, and which restaurant tops the list has more than doubled in size.
THE TOP 25 RESTAURANT CHAINS
- 25 – Wetzel’s Pretzels
- 24 – Shake Shack
- 23 – Duck Donuts
- 22 – WNB Factory Wings & Burger
- 21 – Romeo’s Pizza
- 20 – It’s Boba Time
- 19 – Toppers Pizza
- 18 – Saltgrass Steak House
- 17 – Chicken Salad Chick
- 16 – Maple Street Biscuit Company
- 15 – Poke Bros
- 14 – Scooter’s Coffeehouse
- 13 – Human Bean
- 12 – Donatos Pizza
- 11 – Teriyaki Madness
- 10 – Mission BBQ
- 9 – Walk-Ons Bistreaux & Bar
- 8 – Pulp Juice & Smoothie Bar
- 7 – Black Rock Coffee Bar
- 6 – Bubbakoo’s Burritos
- 5 – BB.Q Chicken
- 4 – Sharetea
- 3 – Wahlburgers
- 2 – Sam’s Restaurant
- 1 – Crumbl Cookies
