Operations

McDonald's Q2 growth driven by 4 D's

Photo: Shutterstock

August 4, 2026

Summarize with

McDonald's Corporation announced in a news release its Q2 earnings results, driven by a 4% increase in revenue to $7.1 billion. Global systemwide sales rose 5%.

Global comparable sales rose 1.3%, including a 0.8% increase in the U.S. and a 1.5% gain in international markets. Comp sales hit below expectations due to inconsistent measures across the system.

Ian Borden, executive vice president and chief financial officer, said during the chains q2 earnings call that comparable sales were slightly negative in April as the company faced difficult year-over-year comparisons against last year's successful A Minecraft Movie promotion. In response, McDonald's enhanced its McValue program in late April with a new Everyday Affordable Price (EDAP) menu offering items under $3. They also added a $4 breakfast meal deal.

"Inconsistent restaurant-level execution of the EDAP menu and consumer awareness levels below target resulted in lower incrementality than we expected. At the same time, the business pulled back on digital offers and removed our buy one, add one for $1 feature to offset the investment behind McValue. In combination, all of these factors negatively impacted visits from some of our most loyal customers," Borden said during the call. "We estimate that these value execution factors accounted for about two thirds of the customer traffic underperformance relative to our expectations for the quarter. The remainder of our underperformance can largely be attributed to our FIFA campaign in June. While the campaign provided a lift to the business and generated excellent system excitement, the campaign underperformed versus our expectations. Importantly, we're taking actions in the near term to address these opportunities."

Chris Kempczinski, McDonald's CEO and Chairman of the Board, said during the Q2 earnings call that growth overall was driven by "doubling down" on the company's four D's: digital, delivery, drive-thru and development.

"In digital, we've built the industry's largest customer platform with nearly 220 million active loyalty users and we're now among the largest loyalty programs in the world. In delivery, we've grown an efficient business with an industry-leading cost structure that generates more than $20 billion in annual systemwide sales. In drive-thru, we've modernized operations and invested in technologies that have improved accuracy and reduced service times," he said during the call.

"And in development, we're well on our way to 50,000 restaurants thanks to the most aggressive expansion of new restaurants in our history, all while keeping our existing restaurant estate among the industry's most modernized. As we've executed against these growth pillars, we've also done the hard work behind the scenes to integrate our systems for a digital-first future. We're now close to having all our major markets on one app, one loyalty program, one pricing engine, one HR system, and one finance system. This will drive cost savings, accelerate innovation, harden security and enhance stability."

McDonald's loyalty program continued to grow, with systemwide sales from loyalty members increasing more than 20% over the past 12 months to $40 billion across 70 markets. Meanwhile, 90-day active loyalty users climbed 13% to nearly 220 million.

McDonald's also announced its McDonald's > NEXT growth strategy, focusing on improving food quality and simplified operations, with plans for significant global expansion to 50,000 restaurants by 2028. The company has appointed Skye Anderson as president of McDonald's USA, replacing Joe Erlinger, as it looks to accelerate growth in its largest market.