All hail Mickey D's. Your incredibly delicious and amazingly-priced menu items have been the saviour of many a ruined night out, and a "forgot my brown bag at home" lunch hour. Even if you don't worship food from the Golden Arches, you can at least respect the success of the company.
McDonald's sell more than 75 burgers every second, and has 62 million people visit their stores each day (more than the entire population of pasta loving Italy). With our love for their food and these crazy figures in mind, here are the 10 most popular and successful menu items.
10. McGriddle breakfast sandwichThe harmony of sweet pancakes and savory sausages, egg and cheese tastes so good that in its first 12 months of sale, it accounted for 40 percent of McDonald's sale growth in stores. It makes sense as it's the perfect thing to grab from the drive-thru in the morning.
9. Double cheeseburgerWhilst it's sadly not on the Dollar Menu (replaced by the McDouble), the double cheeseburger remains close to the price of $1 and is well worth the buck. This seemingly simple idea is a sales slam dunk, as its simplicity and cheap price are a crowd favourite.
8. Premium saladsUnbelievable that a salad is the eighth-most popular item of all time. This is probably due to the salads of days past, like your Bacon Ranches, your Southwest Salads, and so on. The fact that they were premium salads meant that they came at an equally premium price: more than double the cost of a Big Mac (at around $4.20). Health nuts will probably continue to be dragged to McDonald's (most likely unwillingly) by their friends with the growth of its salad menu.
7. Chicken McNuggetsMcNuggets only coming in so low on the list is a bit of a surprise to me. Debuting in the late '70s, McDonald's was only known as the "burger place" until then. Now, McNuggets are responsible for nearly 20 percent of sales. Despite all Jamie Oliver's valiant efforts.
6. Baked apple pieKim K's favourite McDonald's treat, these pockets of apple goodness are one of McDonald's signatures. When they were first released, they were actually deep fried, but as McDonald's evolved, they had to change their health image and decided to bake the deliciously sinful treats instead.
5. Egg McMuffinThe classic breakfast sandwich, served atop an English muffin, was McDonald's spin on the classic Eggs Benedict breakfast. The original recipe included Canadian bacon, egg and cheese. This menu item aids in the majority of breakfast sales, which account for 15 percent of McDonald's revenue overall.
4. Happy MealAfter the huge success of the Egg McMuffin in the 70s, McDonald's was trying to formulate what item would be their next big hit. At the time, kid's meals were an untapped market, so they devised the infamous happy meal. McDonald's has sold more than 3.6 billion since its inception.
3. Snack wrapSimilar to the McGriddle and the McMuffin, the Snack Wrap was conceived with drive-thru customers in mind. Considered to be on the healthy side of the menu, the wrap packs a punch in one handy (pun intended) flour tortilla. First marketed as snack food, the product sold (and still is selling) big time.
2. Big MacThe poster child of McDonald's, in a lot of people's opinion. The Big Mac was brought to life in the late 60s and was originally sold for just 45 cents. This sandwich has been consumed over 550 million times in the United States alone. That's a lot of cows.
1. French friesAbsolutely no surprises here, when you really think about it. These bad boys are sold nine million times a day at McDonald's everywhere. According to my math, that's 3,285,000,000 pounds of fries annually. That's a terrifying number of spuds.
Of course, it's no surprise French fries are the most popular. I can barely think of a time when I haven't craved a bad boy or two. I look forward to the next time I'm so drunk I fall asleep next to my bag of cold McDonald's and bite into that cold cheeseburger the next morning. Pure bliss.