McDonald's Best-Selling Item Isn't The Big Mac Or McNuggets

When you are one of the most successful restaurant chains in the world like McDonald's is, you are going to have so many best-selling favorites that even iconic options like the Big Mac and Chicken McNuggets won't touch the top three. Between Quarter Pounders, double cheeseburgers, McChicken's, and McFlurrys, almost everyone's ranking of their favorite McDonald's menu items is going to look different. But there is one universally beloved item on McDonald's menu that is so popular it almost gets taken for granted — and that of course is McDonald's french fries.

Fries aren't the centerpiece of any meal, so a lot of people don't realize just how many orders of french fries McDonald's gets. But according to a 2022 report from the company, french fries are the most ordered item in every single state in the country — beating out the basic cheeseburger in second place, and a surprise showing from the McChicken in third. This makes plenty of sense given that any combo meal you get at McDonald's is going to come with fries, but the numbers are still impressive. 

Every year, McDonald's reportedly serves more than 3.6 billion orders of fries in the U.S. alone — the equivalent of more than 255 billion individual fries. That is far, far more than the estimated 550 million Big Macs it sells each year, and well more than the 100 billion burgers of any kind it's estimated to sell in that same period of time. Yet it makes sense people want so many of these fries, because McDonald's makes some of the best fries in fast food.

No matter how you feel about other items at McDonald's, it's hard to argue against the way it has perfected the art of the french fry on such a massive scale. With their perfect ratio of anterior crunch to fluffy potato interior, the thin and crispy golden fries from McDonald's are considered the platonic ideal – even by professional chefs. Part of this is the shape, but some of it is also the fact that McDonald's fries are double fried — once before they are frozen, and again when you order them. This helps give them their extra crisp texture on the outside. It also doesn't hurt the flavor that one of the many ingredients added to McDonald's french fries in the U.S. helps with the crispness and color is a type of sugar known as dextrose.

Then, there is the dirty little secret that many people still don't realize: McDonald's fries aren't vegetarian. They are fried in a mixture of vegetable oil with natural beef flavoring. This is a holdover from when the chain's fries were made with beef tallow, but — in contrast to the 2025 trend of restaurants "RFK-ing" their fries — the tallow was removed in the '90s over concerns about saturated fats. But McDonald's didn't want the taste to change too much, hence the beef flavor. It's the secret ingredient that makes its fries extra-flavorful, and a real bummer for anybody who doesn't eat animal products. McDonald's may have built its name on hamburgers, but customers know what the true star of the menu is — and they're ordering them year after year in staggering numbers.