KFC is shrinking in the country that made it famous. The fried chicken giant closed 207 U.S. restaurants between January 2025 and March 31, 2026, according to filings from parent company Yum! Brands. That wipes out roughly 5% of its domestic locations in just 15 months.
According to the Miami Herald, which obtained the filings by Yum! Brands on July 16, KFC shuttered 161 restaurants in 2025, followed by another 46 during the first quarter of 2026.
After counting new openings, the chain finished with a net loss of 187 U.S. locations. Some reports put the damage at more than 300 closures, but those estimates used different timelines and public listings that may count relocated restaurants as permanently closed.
KFC isn’t alone in feeling the squeeze. U.S. fast-food traffic inched up only 0.1% year over year during the first quarter of 2026. Customers are paying more—and expecting better food, faster service and a smoother experience. “Fast food is barely affordable anymore,” Franchise Selection Specialists president Joel Libava said. “Combined, these things can’t go on. And it’s why fast-food businesses are closing.”
But KFC isn’t exactly in free fall. It’s looking overseas. While 161 U.S. restaurants closed in 2025, the company added a staggering 2,971 locations internationally. Another 643 opened outside the country during the first quarter of 2026. “Many people from the United States who just know the brand in the U.S. don’t really appreciate how big the brand is across the world,” KFC global CEO Scott Mezvinsky said.
The money tells the same story. KFC generated $36.4 billion in system sales in 2025, up from $34.4 billion in 2024. Just 13% came from the United States, compared with 27% from China. American sales dropped 3% while every other reported international market grew. KFC currently has roughly 34,000 restaurants worldwide, but Mezvinsky believes the chain could eventually hit 75,000.
It’s a sharp turn for a brand that once ruled America with Original Recipe chicken, mashed potatoes, biscuits and those unmistakable red-and-white buckets. Even Colonel Harland Sanders hated some of KFC’s early attempts to evolve, once comparing its revamped gravy to “wallpaper paste.”
