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Chicken, Mexican, and Coffee Chains Lead 2025 QSR Trends
This year has posed challenges for limited-service dining chains as inflation and higher prices continued to weigh on consumer traffic. We analyzed visitation trends in 2025 so far across major segments to better understand which categories are holding up – and which may need to adjust strategies.
Coffee, Chicken, and Mexican-Inspired Chains Lead Limited Service Dining
This year brought significant challenges for the limited-service dining industry, as persistent price increases kept many would-be diners at home. Even industry giants like McDonald’s reported declines in same-store sales as lower- and middle-income consumers pulled back spending. Yet several categories, including the ever-impressive chicken segment, managed to buck the trend.
The chart below highlights the differences in YoY foot traffic for major limited service dining concepts in H1 2025. Pizza, burger, and sandwich chains experienced declines, while coffee, chicken, and Mexican-inspired concepts emerged as the growth drivers in terms of overall visit increases.
These segments were likely aided by aggressive unit expansion and consumer preferences shifting toward more affordable, customizable, and protein-forward options. Coffee continues to hold steady as a daily staple, while chicken and Mexican-inspired operators are capturing demand for protein-forward and customizable formats.
However, per-location data tempers this growth narrative. Visits per store declined across every major category – even those with overall visit increases – indicating that expansion may be outpacing underlying demand and pushing the segment toward potential oversaturation.
Softer August Results
Recent summer data underscores the cautionary signals. Year-over-year traffic growth for coffee, chicken, and Mexican-inspired concepts was weaker in July than in the first half of the year. By August, declines had spread across nearly every category – with chicken chains in particular seeing a dip in traffic and an even steeper drop in average visits per location – leaving coffee as the only segment to sustain growth.
This broader slowdown in limited-service dining, combined with persistent economic uncertainty, suggests that consumers may be scaling back restaurant spending – even in categories traditionally viewed as more budget-friendly.
Final Thoughts
While 2025 has been marked by volatility, the underlying consumer appetite for convenient, protein-forward, and customizable dining is helping some limited-service segments stay ahead of the pack. Still, visit per location data suggests that expansion plans may need to be put on ice for the next few quarters.
Instead, operators that focus on menu innovation, building loyalty, and driving higher output per store stand to capture demand when economic pressures ease. As confidence rebounds, concepts that have expanded strategically may be especially well positioned to benefit from renewed consumer traffic.
For the most up-to-date dining data, check out Placer.ai’s free tools.
Placer.ai leverages a panel of tens of millions of devices and utilizes machine learning to make estimations for visits to locations across the US. The data is trusted by thousands of industry leaders who leverage Placer.ai for insights into foot traffic, demographic breakdowns, retail sale predictions, migration trends, site selection, and more.
