The difficult operating environment isn’t stopping Chick-fil-A, but it is not leaving the chain completely unscathed.
The fast-food chicken-sandwich chain continued to grow last year, largely by opening new locations. But its total rate of growth remained muted, at least according to its historic levels, amid a difficult industry backdrop and growing competition in the chicken business.
U.S. system sales at the Atlanta-based chain rose 5.2% to $23.9 billion, according to data from Restaurant Business sister company Technomic and Chick-fil-A’s recently filed franchise disclosure document.
That represented a slight slowdown from the 5.4% growth the chain recorded in 2024, when Chick-fil-A experienced its slowest rate of growth in two decades.
Much of that slowdown has been driven by Chick-fil-A’s average unit volumes, which appear to have hit a ceiling, at least in its stand-alone restaurants.
A traditional, stand-alone Chick-fil-A in 2025 generated just under $9.2 million on average, according to the document, which franchise systems must compile every year to sell franchises. That was down 1.7% compared with 2024.
Mall locations, on the other hand, generated an average volume of just under $4.6 million, up 1.4%.
Overall, Chick-fil-A’s locations average $7.48 million in sales per year, down slightly from 2024.
Chick-fil-A added 178 net new locations last year and now operates 3,287 restaurants in the U.S., including 2,863 company and franchised locations and another 424 licensed units, according to the FDD.
The states where Chick-fil-A added the most locations in 2025 include Texas, where it opened 36 restaurants, according to the document. It added 25 restaurants in Florida, 23 in California and 22 in Georgia.
The company’s highest-volume location now generates more than $20 million in sales per year. Its highest-volume mall location did $14.4 million last year.
Chick-fil-A is the nation’s third-largest restaurant chain, behind McDonald’s and Starbucks.
The company uses a model in which it keeps unit expansion relatively moderate, relying on high-volume restaurants run by operating partners. Those stand-alone locations have grown increasingly sophisticated, with multi-lane drive-thrus and shelters for outside order-takers when the weather grows too foul.
Much of Chick-fil-A’s success over the years has been rooted in its ability to attract higher-income consumers than many other fast-food restaurants. The median household income for Chick-fil-A customers last year was $80,700 per year, according to data from Placer.ai.
By comparison, the median household income of quick-service restaurant customers was $71,300. For fast-casual restaurants it was $83,900.
Yet until last year, Chick-fil-A both added new locations and generated strong sales growth per location, which fueled annual system sales increases in the double digits just about every year. Last year’s 5.4% sales increase was the first time that the company reported single-digit growth since 2013.
Customers have been slowing their visits to limited-service restaurants over the past two-plus years. Consumers have been squeezed by inflation, which has hurt traffic at a broad array of chains, from companies like Wendy’s to Chipotle and Sweetgreen.
At the same time, Chick-fil-A has faced a growing number of competitors as new chicken chains emerge and grow and others add more sophisticated chicken items to their menus.
Brands such as Raising Cane’s and Dave’s Hot Chicken have generated strong sales growth while companies like Taco Bell, Wendy’s, McDonald’s and others have introduced new chicken offerings or upgraded their existing products.
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