Mixue overtakes McDonald's in global store count, eyes rapid expansion

Mixue’s store total moved past McDonald’s by late 2024, but the more important question for McDonald’s crews and operators is what kind of business can grow that fast. The Chinese bubble tea chain reported 45,302 stores worldwide as of Sept. 30, 2024, while McDonald’s reported 43,477 systemwide restaurants at year-end 2024. That gap says less about brand dominance than about operating model: Mixue built a low-cost, franchise-heavy network around drinks and desserts priced at about US$1.

For workers, that matters because a concept built on cheap beverages and a narrow menu usually needs simpler training, less kitchen complexity and lighter store labor than a full-service burger system. Mixue’s expansion was concentrated in mainland China, where it had about 40,000 stores, with roughly 4,800 outside China spread across 11 overseas markets including Southeast Asia, Australia, Japan and South Korea. McDonald’s, by contrast, still operated in 114 countries, with a much broader global footprint and a much larger revenue base, including more than $139 billion in systemwide sales in 2025.

Mixue’s rise began in 1997, when Zhang Hongchao founded the company in Zhengzhou. Zhang Hongfu later became chief executive while Zhang Hongchao became chairman, and the chain leaned hard into a franchise model that let it open stores quickly without carrying the same level of corporate labor cost and store-level operating burden that comes with company-run growth. That is the real comparison for McDonald’s managers: not whether a tea chain can replace burgers, but whether a leaner store model can expand faster by keeping each unit simpler and cheaper to run.

Investors noticed. Mixue’s Hong Kong listing in March 2025 was more than 5,200 times oversubscribed in Hong Kong and more than 35 times oversubscribed internationally, raising HK$3.45 billion. Its shares jumped more than 40% on debut. Analyst Longdley Zephirin said investors were “warming up” to the bubble tea market again, but Mixue still faces a tougher test as it pushes beyond lower-tier Chinese cities and tries to win more premium urban customers, then build in Europe and the United States.

McDonald’s has its own scale advantages, and its February 2026 results showed global comparable sales rose 5.7% in the fourth quarter of 2025. Even so, Mixue’s store-count lead is a reminder that the fastest-growing food businesses are not always the ones with the biggest kitchens or the most complex workforces. Sometimes the winning formula is a cheaper menu, simpler labor design and a franchise engine built to multiply units quickly.