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Chick-fil-A Loses Fast-Food Crown after Nine Years

Chick-fil-A Loses Fast-Food Crown after Nine Years

After spending nine years in the top spot, Chick-fil-A was dethroned as the top fast-food chain in the United States. According to Faithwire, Chick-fil-A was moved to third place after Mexican chain Del Taco took number 1 and KFC number 2. 

As reported by USA Today, the top 10 fast food restaurants in the United States are Del Taco, KFC, Chick-fil-A, In-N-Out Burger, Hardee’s, Captain D’s, Taco Bell, Popeyes, Zaxby’s, and Arby’s.

“It takes a tremendous amount of hard work and preparation to deliver that sort of speed, quality, and scale,” a description by USA Today reads, noting each of the restaurants on its top-10 list was “voted by readers as the best in the nation.”

Over the past nine years, Chick-fil-A was ranked as the top fast-food chain in the nation. In April, it was announced that the chicken sandwich chain made $21 billion in sales in 2023, a 14.7 percent increase from the previous year.

As reported by WRKC-TV, Del Taco has just 600 locations across 16 states, Chick-fil-A has 3,000 restaurants, and KFC has 25,000 locations worldwide.

According to Del Taco’s website, the restaurant first opened in Yermo, CA, in 1964 by Ed Hackbarth and David Jameson.

“With a menu of 19¢ tacos, tostadas, fries and 24¢ cheeseburgers, Del Taco brought in $169 in sales on its first day in business - the equivalent of 900 tacos. Things were off to a bold start, the website states.

The restaurant saw success in the 1970s, with 50 restaurants in 1970 and 100 in 1978. By 2008, Del Taco opened its 500th restaurant.

Del Taco also celebrated the achievement on social media and announced several offers to customers.

“Celebrate National Drive-Thru Day with us because we’ve been voted USA TODAY 10 BEST Best Fast Food Restaurant & Best Fast Food Fries!! 🏆🍟 We’re hooking you up with TWO offers! Now thru Tuesday, 7/30 only in the app or http://deltaco.com.” the restaurant wrote on X.

Related Article: Chick-fil-A Leads ‘Favorite Restaurant’ for 10th Straight Year, Despite Closing Sundays

Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Justin Sullivan/Staff

Milton QuintanillaMilton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.