The Ridiculous Amount Of Nuggets McDonald's Sells Every Year

There's something undeniably irresistible about the McDonalds chicken McNugget. McDonalds sells a staggering 700 million pounds of McNuggets per year, according to the company website. With each chicken nugget weighing in at about 5.6 oz (based on nutrition facts from the University of Rochester Medical Center), that shakes out to roughly two trillion nuggets consumed by McDonalds customers each year. Fans not only gobble up the McNuggets but also seek to know everything about them — from the ingredients they're made with to how their origin might be unexpectedly connected to Queen Elizabeth II.

We've reported that the reason McDonalds started selling McNuggets back in the 1980s was because the company feared its customers (specifically Americans) might someday fall out of love with the cheeseburger. But as reported by WattPoultry in 2024, McDonalds' chicken category (comprising McNuggets and various chicken sandwiches) had caught up to beef, bringing in $25 billion in annual sales. Thus, it would appear that what started as an emergency fallback product has risen to glory and now sits proudly on its own — taking its rightful throne next to the Big Mac.

Modern fast-food lovers would be hard-pressed to imagine a world without McNuggets, but according to McDonalds itself, the signature handheld product almost never happened. The company states: "McDonald's Chicken McNuggets were a happy accident — the result of a fleeting conversation in the hallways of McDonald's headquarters." In that conversation, the former chairman suggested to the executive chef — who had been developing an onion nugget at the time — to swap out the onion in the center for chicken.

When Chicken McNuggets arrived on the scene in 1983, they were available in three serving sizes with four dipping sauces to choose from. The next year, they spread to Canada, Japan, France, and Germany, and its international fanbase took root. McDonald's claims there have been few updates to the recipe through the decades, such as switching to all white meat in 2003 and removing artificial preservatives, colors, and flavors in 2016.

Reddit users at r/McDonalds frequently bring up their loyalty to McNuggets, as well as their nostalgia for years past when deals could be scored like the 20-piece McNuggets for $5. In another thread at r/confessions, a user claiming to be a former McDonald's employee said they would frequently add extra chicken nuggets into customers' orders (up to 5 bonus nuggets for a 20-piece). Responders praised the poster with one user saying, "You are living proof that there is good in this world."