Few fast-food brands are as profitable and productive as burger giant McDonald’s. Revenue for the company, one of the three most popular fast-food chains in the United States, surpassed $20 billion in 12 months in September, according to Macrotrends. In its third-quarter 2025 earnings report, McDonald’s even saw sales increase by nearly 4% at a time when beef prices and consumer prices overall were at decade highs. But surprisingly, the company that’s arguably best known for its burgers sells its fries the most.
French fries have played a real role in McDonald’s success, with the company supplying 1.6 billion pounds of potatoes annually, according to a 2022 report from the fast-food giant. That equates to about 3.6 billion orders, far more than the number of burgers and chicken nuggets sold annually combined. Sales of French fries are part of the reason for the brand’s success, and when you compare the price of raw potatoes to the sales price of French fries, French fries equate to huge profit margins.
Read more: McDonald’s Happy Meal toys worth a lot of money
As prices continue to rise across the country, McDonald’s is working to make its food more accessible, with the goal of delivering even greater savings to consumers by 2025. The company is leveraging its fries as an easy complement for customers, offering free Fry Fridays and free medium fries with every purchase on its app. These prices have been very successful, with Freetrade calculating that by 2021 the chip will have a profit margin of 75-90%. However, the price of French fries is regional, with cheaper places around the world offering lower prices, including lively cosmopolitan cities like Budapest, Hungary.
McDonald’s fries do come with a social cost. The company’s exact recipe is protected as a trade secret, but information on the fries’ ingredients is available. That means the fast-food chain has the right to be the sole seller of its mouth-watering fries. Meanwhile, U.S. potato prices soared in 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. These costs have been passed on to consumers. McDonald’s reportedly cuts these costs by contracting with potato suppliers such as RD Offutt Farms. A 2019 study by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency found that the company, one of the nation’s largest potato producers, had polluted several local streams. Ultimately, McDonald’s continues to make money from its fries, although the cost of those fries also comes at a cost to some consumers.