The Best-Selling Chicken Chain In 2026 Makes 4X More Than Popeyes

There's a lot of competition among fried chicken restaurants in America. But when it comes to actual sales, one chain still clucks far louder and longer than the rest. In the QSR Magazine ranking of the top 50 U.S. fast food chains in 2026 based on last year's sales, Chick-fil-A took the number three spot — and its towering lead over Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen was enormous. Chick-fil-A had an estimated $24 billion in systemwide sales in 2025, while Popeyes has just under $6 billion. That means that Chick-fil-A took in about four times as much revenue as Popeyes did — or roughly $18 billion more. 

What makes that large gap even more surprising is that Chick-fil-A doesn't have four times as many restaurants; the unit counts of the two chains are notably close. QSR counted just over 3287 Chick-fil-A locations and 3196 Popeyes locations at the end of 2025 — a difference of just 91 restaurants. But the disparity in total sales figures gets a bit easier to understand when you look at the average sales-per-unit figures: Chick-fil-A restaurants averaged about $8 million per store, while Popeyes' unit sales averaged about $2 million. 

While Chick-fil-A's sales numbers certainly indicate popularity among fast food devotees, other data confirms Chick-fil-A rules the roost. Yelp named Chick-fil-A America's favorite fast food chicken sandwich, placing it at number one in the 2025 ranking of the top 20 chicken sandwich chains, based on reviews. 

Chick-fil-A also gets a lot of love for satisfying customer cravings. It topped the 2025 American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) for quick-service restaurants overall, earning that spot for 11 years in a row. However, that streak ended when Jersey Mike's overthrew Chick-fil-A in 2026. But Chick-fil-A came in just one point lower and remained the highest-rated chicken chain. 

Of course, which fast food chicken chain is the best will vary from person to person. In fact, Tasting Table's taste tester conducted a very detailed review to determine which chain makes the better chicken sandwich: Chick-fil-A or Popeye's. The result might surprise you.