Faster Food: How QSR Apps are Driving the Digital Dining Revolution

Americans love burgers, pizza, and chicken — in that order. Those are the top three app subgenres within the Fast Food & Fast Casual Restaurants category, and put together, brands in the space spent $3.3 billion on advertising from May 2024 to May 2025. As the pool of new users shrinks (most people already have their go-to apps installed), engagement, platform strategy, and retention matter more than ever. This article offers a high-level snapshot of the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) industry, before diving into the top five downloaded apps — and what we can learn from their successes and failures. 

Where QSR Ad Dollars Go

Sensor Tower tracks nearly 40,000 QSR apps, but the market is highly concentrated; ten brands account for over 50% of the category’s annual digital ad spend. Where is this money going? Mainly to video and social content. One of every four ad dollars was spent on OTT streaming services including Hulu, Peacock, and Tubi. One in five (18%) went to YouTube. All in all, 86% of the creatives produced were videos, underscoring how central sight and sound are to fast food advertising. What’s a fast food commercial without a melty cheese-pull or the crackle of fried chicken? 

Platform Performance: TikTok Up, Facebook Down

Facebook (19%), Instagram (18%), and TikTok (10%) round out the channel strategy, with the latter two providing increasing value. Instagram and TikTok both saw year-over-year (YoY) growth in their impression share, rising 16 and 12%, respectively. It could be that as Gen-Z users age into more active spenders, companies are able to make a bigger splash — or these brands are simply becoming more adept at marketing to younger audiences. Meanwhile, Facebook and Snapchat saw sharp declines — with YoY impression share sinking 17% for Facebook and 35% for Snapchat. The social shakeup shows how quickly platform value can shift, making it critical for QSR marketers to keep pace with audience behavior and optimize for the right mix. 

Top QSR Apps by Downloads

The most-downloaded fast food apps in the world (May 2024 to May 2025) are tried and true favorites:

• McDonald’s  (110.3M; -3.2% YoY)

• KFC (63.8M; +4.2% YoY)

• Domino’s (52.8M; +.6% YoY)

• Burger King (42.3M; +4.9% YoY)

• Starbucks (28.6M; -10.8% YoY)

When Paid Strategy Falls Flat

Each company is a household name, with brand awareness through the roof — but in such a crowded market, not even giants can afford to skip out on effective paid user acquisition strategies. Starbucks leaned most heavily on paid ads to influence app downloads (35% of their downloads came from paid ads). On the other end of the spectrum, KFC downloads were driven primarily through other means — with only 8% of app downloads coming from paid. This divergence reveals key differences in brand strategy and effectiveness — more on that below.

KFC was actually able to increase downloads (+4.2%) even while cutting their yearly ad spend by a hefty 22%, while Starbucks saw the steepest drop (-10.8%) despite the boon provided to them by paid efforts. It appears that a heavy reliance on paid ads for user acquisition doesn’t always pay off; KFC was able to retain better numbers acquiring new users from other channels. Domino’s also outspent McDonald’s — but pulled in fewer downloads. The takeaway? Spend doesn’t always equal acquisition efficiency. 

Engagement Over Acquisition: Falling Downloads, Strong Engagement 

We’ve seen that McDonald’s acquired the most new users (and Starbucks the least) — but are these customers sticking around to use the apps? As an approximation of brand loyalty, we calculated the ratio of each brand’s daily active users (DAUs) to their weekly active users (WAUs); the higher the ratio, the more engaged the audience. Interestingly enough, while Starbucks has suffered declining downloads over the past year, their DAU/WAU was the highest of the bunch, at 0.25. This can be taken to mean that the average Starbucks app user logs on roughly once or twice a week.

Starbucks also had the second highest 10-week retention rate (16%), suggesting that intense brand loyalty among their customer base recoups some of the losses that stem from declining downloads. It makes sense for the category as well, given that the average consumer is likely to purchase coffee more often than they indulge in fast food. 

KFC’s impressive user acquisition didn’t translate to high engagement rates; the chicken joint had the lowest retention rates of the group, with only 11% of users still logging on after ten weeks. This might have something to do with their dismal average iOS rating (2.86 out of 5 compared to Starbucks’ 4.94). In this case, at least, high engagement doesn’t always follow high acquisition — and a poor user experience can lead people to drop off quickly, even if it means foregoing that chicken sandwich combo.

Efficiency vs Output: Who Spent Wisely?

In addition to its high App Store rating, Starbucks also had the most efficient spend-to-impression ratio. The coffee magnate made up 19% of the group’s spend, while driving 25% of impressions. Burger King, on the other hand, contributed 14% of spend and received only 9% of impressions. Domino’s strategy also reveals some shortcomings: the brand accounted for a full third of the group’s spend, but had the lowest DAU/WAU ratio (.19) and didn’t receive outsized impressions. 

Across the board, each brand’s approach came with trade-offs: Starbucks leaned into loyalty and efficient impressions; KFC prioritized cost-effective growth but struggled with retention; Domino’s overspent without delivering standout engagement. These distinct strategies highlight the importance of balancing spend, creative quality, and user experience. 

But Who’s Using These Apps — and Where?

Demographic and geographic insights provide crucial context into who’s using QSR apps, and how those audiences differ across brands. Starbucks by far trended most female, with women making up 70% of the app’s user base. It also has the oldest audience, with an average age of 35 — and only 13% under 25. This more mature age demographic may exhibit higher engagement rates due to increased spending power and established preferences. 

McDonald’s has the youngest audience, with an average age of 33 — but their portion of users under 25 is also 10% higher than Starbucks’. Interestingly enough, each brand analyzed received their highest impression share from California — except for Domino’s, who pulled in a plurality of impressions (9%) from Texas. 

Ultimately the lessons learned from the past year in QSR show marketers that engagement doesn’t always correlate with downloads; that efficient platform targeting truly matters; and that demographic fit is key to performance. Brands should evaluate their own app strategy across acquisition, retention, and media mix to stay competitive in an increasingly saturated market.