Fermi question · Business
About how many McDonald’s restaurants were operating worldwide at the end of 2025?
Make a fast, defensible estimate before you reveal the reference answer. Think in factors, not exact recall.
What is your estimate?
Your result will appear here after you submit a guess.
Reference answer
Reveal the reference answer
≈ 45.4 thousand restaurants
Fermi estimates are judged by scale, so a reasonable approximation can still earn a strong score.
One way to estimate it
Estimate from restaurant density across more than 100 countries, led by very large U.S. and international networks.
- Large core marketstens of thousands of restaurants
- Long tail of other countriesmany thousands more
- Estimate≈ 45,000 restaurants
Keep practicing
Try another question, or return to the daily challenge to build your personal sense of scale.