McDonald’s over the past three years has embarked on the most ambitious expansion effort in company history, all in a bid to get to 50,000 global locations by 2027. That’s what McDonald’s cited when noting that its development pace will not quite be to the level it had originally planned. The chain has added an average of just under 1,700 restaurants globally over the past three years. The 1,879 restaurants McDonald’s added last year alone was more than the chain opened from 2020 through 2022 combined. McDonald’s added 149 locations in 2025, the most it had opened in 25 years.