Frequency drives fast food growth as 82.5% of Australians already buy in

Around a quarter of the population visits at least weekly, generating most outlet traffic.

More than four-fifths of Australians now buy fast food in an average of six months, research from Roy Morgan shows, with the sector's near-universal reach turning attention towards how often customers return.

Some 19.2 million Australians aged 14 and over, or 82.5%, ate takeaway from fast food outlets in an average of six months in the 12 months to June 2026. That is up 1.2 million, or 6.7%, since 2021 to 2022, when 18 million Australians ate fast food takeaway, although that smaller base represented a higher 85% of the population. 

On average, Australians made 3.8 visits to quick service restaurants in an average of four weeks, up slightly from 3.7 a year ago.

A concentrated group of frequent buyers accounts for much of that activity. Around 2.5 million Australians (10.5%) visit or purchase from fast food outlets 10 or more times in an average four weeks, and almost 4 million (17%) do so five to nine times, a combined 6.4 million or 27.5% eating fast food at least five times every four weeks. A larger 10.3 million (44.4%) eat fast food one to four times in the same period.

Michele Levine, CEO e of Roy Morgan, pointed to the frequent-buyer group as a commercial opening for operators. "There is considerable scope for quick service restaurants that can identify who these people are and find ways to increase engagement to add value to their offering through customer loyalty programs that reward frequent visits," she said.

The research also identified who those customers are. Millennials, born 1980 to 1995 and now aged 30 to 45, are the biggest customer group for the three leading outlets, narrowly ahead of the younger Generation Z. More than 3.4 million Millennials are McDonald's customers in an average of six months, over 3.1 million choose KFC and more than 1.8 million visit Hungry Jack's. Amongst Generation Z, McDonald's has almost 3 million customers, KFC nearly 2.9 million and Hungry Jack's over 1.6 million.

Levine said McDonald's remained the leading choice across all six generations, from the rising Generation Alpha, born in 2011 or later, to the Interwar generation born before 1946, with KFC a clear second and Hungry Jack's third across the different age ranges.

Brand rankings were led by McDonald's and KFC, with 11.3 million (48.7%) and 10.3 million (44.4%) customers respectively. They were followed by Hungry Jack's on 6.3 million, Domino's Pizza on 5.2 million, Subway on over 4.5 million and Guzman y Gomez on 3.6 million. Red Rooster ranked next on 3.3 million, ahead of Grill'd on almost 2.7 million, Pizza Hut on over 1.8 million and Oporto on almost 1.7 million. Nando's and Zambrero were among a further eight outlets with at least one million customers.

The findings draw on Roy Morgan Single Source interviews with 59,959 Australians aged 14 and over conducted between July 2025 and June 2026.