While both brands have invested heavily in their chicken offerings in recent years, McDonald’s and Burger King still treat burgers, the Big Mac and the Whopper, respectively, as their signature product.
Burger King has heavily invested in the Whopper, offering new limited-time-offer variations and basing much of its marketing around the signature sandwich.
CEO Josh Kobza cited the Whopper during his comments during Restaurant Brands International’s fourth-quarter earnings call alongside the company’s $5 Duos and $7 Trios value offerings.
“In a year when there was significant noise across the industry around value, this dependable platform allowed us to focus our marketing behind Whopper-led innovation and family partnerships that attracted new guests to the brand,” he said.
McDonald’s has not leaned as heavily on the Big Mac, but it recently added the Big Arch, a new premium burger that leans into the ongoing trend to offer protein-heavy menu choices.
Both chains, however, face a major challenge, as a new study from Datassential shows that beef prices have climbed much faster than burger prices.
Beef prices are up 32%
New data from Datassential’s Burger Price Index shows burger menu prices have increased approximately 14% since January 2023, while beef production costs have surged roughly 32% during the same period. Over that same time frame, federal Food Away From Home inflation rose about 13%, meaning burger prices have tracked closely with overall restaurant inflation, even as beef costs have risen much more sharply.
That creates a challenge for chains, including McDonald’s and Burger King, especially given the current market pressure to keep prices down.
“Operators can’t simply pass every cost increase directly to the consumer,” said Jim Emling, CEO of Datassential. “The data shows just how carefully restaurants are managing pricing on high-visibility items like burgers while balancing costs across the rest of the menu.”
Burger prices have not risen to cover the added cost of beef.
“By December 2025, burger prices were just 0.4% higher year-over-year, a slowdown compared with earlier inflation cycles. Limited-service restaurants (LSRs) increased burger prices more aggressively overall, with prices rising roughly 16% since 2023, compared to 12% at full-service restaurants (FSRs),” the data showed.
McDonald’s and Burger King face menu choices
In the past, when beef prices have climbed, McDonald’s has brought back the McRib (which is pork-based), and both chains have offered promotions around chicken.
“The margins you can get from pork and poultry are advantageous, especially versus beef. The markets are more stable. And you get higher profit,” DeWayne Dove, vice president of risk management for Denver-based food buying cooperative SpenDifference, said during a similar beef pricing crisis.
The beef pricing problem will not go away anytime soon, Bill Lapp, president of Omaha, Neb.-based Advanced Economic Solutions, told the National Restaurant Association (NRA).
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“Right now, there is a tightness in the U.S. protein supply, especially where beef is concerned, due to reduced cattle herds that could go on for years before they’re replenished,” he said. “Some ground beef cuts are now at record levels, and chicken breast prices, while higher than anticipated, are still lower than the costs associated with beef.”
He expects chains to pivot to offering more chicken items.
“The hope is that they’ll take away some of the pain that higher beef prices are causing,” he added.
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Fast-food customers want value
During the chain’s second-quarter earnings call, McDonald’s CEO Christopher Kempczinski addressed the need for his chain to be seen as a value leader.
“We recognize that consumers’ value perceptions are most influenced by our core menu pricing. We’re working closely and collaboratively with our U.S. franchisees on this opportunity, and we’re developing ideas for how we might address this as an entire system,” he said.
Those efforts come at a time when more Americans see fast food as a luxury item, not a value offering, according to a survey of 2,000 Americans from Lending Tree.
- Half of Americans say they view fast food as a luxury because they’re struggling financially.
- Three in four Americans typically eat fast food at least once a week, but the majority (62%) say they’re eating it less due to rising prices. In fact, 65% of Americans have been shocked by the high price of a fast-food bill in the past six months.
- More than three-quarters (78%) of consumers view fast food as a luxury because it’s become increasingly expensive.
As fast-food prices rise, consumers may stay home, or they may visit a sit-down chain like Chili’s or Applebee’s, which have promoted value in their television ads.
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