The fast-food industry moves fast. While customers line up for their usual orders, major chains are quietly reshuffling their menus behind the scenes, introducing new items and retiring old favorites without much fanfare. In 2025, one of the biggest trends in fast food is bringing back value menus. Chains are rolling out cheaper options to help people save money. McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s kickstarted the value meal wars back in May 2024 as a way to cater to consumers concerned about inflation and higher food prices. Well, inflation hasn’t been vanquished from the economic menu, so value meals have become a mainstay.
Industry analysts are tracking these subtle shifts more closely than ever. What they’re finding reveals a fascinating transformation happening across the sector, driven by changing consumer demands and competitive pressures.
McDonald’s Rolls Out Its Biggest Menu Overhaul Since 2018
This week it launched the “McValue” menu, a new permanent category representing the chain’s biggest change since the 2018 launch of its $1-$2-$3 menu. In addition to the popular $5 meal, the McValue menu has buy-one, get-one-for-$1 options, as well as app-exclusive offers and food and drink deals organized by its franchisees. The move comes after the success of their limited-time value offerings last year.
McDonald’s, for example, just announced the launch of their McValue™ menu with deals like ‘Buy One, Add One for $1’, the popular $5 Meal Deal, plus special discounts on their digital loyalty programs app. This isn’t just about temporary promotions anymore. The golden arches have committed to making affordability a permanent fixture.
The timing isn’t coincidental. And with the first few months of the year typically the slowest for fast food chains, there’s extra pressure to get people to order. Next month begins a fresh tranche of earnings from the publicly traded chains giving investors a look into whether their efforts are succeeding.
Taco Bell Expands Its Luxe Cravings Strategy
The Mexican-inspired fast food chain recently expanded its Luxe Cravings Boxes lineup by adding $5 and $9 options to the original $7 combo meal deal launched in August 2024. Each of the meals has multiple menu items and a medium drink. The expansion demonstrates how successful these bundled deals have become.
The taco chain is having so much success with its $7 “Luxe Cravings Box” that it’s expanding it with two new price points at $5 and $9. Aimed at “post-holiday budget-savvy fans,” a press release highlighted that the new options all have Taco Bell staples like burritos, tacos and cinnamon twists. The new options land on menus January 16 and last through early June.
What’s particularly interesting is Taco Bell’s nostalgic menu revival. In October 2024, Taco Bell announced that it would be relaunching five of its most popular menu items from the company’s first five decades of operation as a limited-time offer. These items included the Tostada (1960s), Green Sauce Burrito (1970s), Meximelt (1980s), and Gordita Supreme (1990s), all of which were launched on October 31. Meanwhile, the ’00s Caramel Apple Empanada was added to the menu on November 21, with each of these offerings available for under USD 3. This kind of menu engineering creates buzz while testing customer preferences for potential permanent additions.
Subway Switches Daily Specials After Previous Value Struggles
Subway’s added a new “Meal of the Day” menu that changes daily. Priced at $6.99 for a specific six-inch sub or $9.99 for a footlong, all meals include a small drink and two cookies or a bag of chips. Subway is hoping that this pivot will be more successful than its last attempt at a value meal. A $6.99 meal last year that included any six-inch sub with a drink and cookies or chips ended earlier than planned because of lackluster sales.
The sandwich giant isn’t just changing pricing structures. After serving Coca-Cola drinks at its restaurants for close to two decades, Subway announced a new 10-year agreement with PepsiCo that will start in 2025 (Coca-Cola products will still be available at Subway locations for the rest of the year). In addition to drinks, the sandwich brand also extended its agreement with Frito-Lay (a subsidiary of PepsiCo) through 2030. Once the new deal begins, Subway locations will offer customers various PepsiCo beverages such as Pepsi, Pepsi Zero Sugar, Mountain Dew, Starry, Tropicana, Lipton, Aquafina, and Gatorade.
Menu innovation continues with new signature items. According to Subway, Baja Chipotle sauce is among its most ordered sauce selections (which also include peppercorn ranch, creamy sriracha, parmesan vinaigrette, BBQ, and others). Accordingly, it makes perfect sense that Subway would create two new sandwiches that feature the flavorful condiment front and center. The Baja Bliss collection pairs Baja Chipotle sauce with chicken or turkey, Italian bread, vegetables, and SubKrunch, a crunchy, corn chip-like topping created to add a bit of texture.
Wendy’s Doubles Down on Mix-and-Match Value
Wendy’s rolled out a new “2 for $7” limited-time offer that lets customers choose from four options, including a spicy or classic chicken sandwich, a hamburger or 10-piece nuggets, giving people 16 different ways to mix and match. The new category joins other deals on the menu: the $5 “Biggie Bag” and 2 for $3 breakfast bundles. The 2 for $7 deal is on sale until early March.
The breakfast expansion represents a significant focus for Wendy’s. Earlier this year, the chain announced it would be investing $55 million in North America on breakfast marketing efforts in 2024 and 2025, but now Wendy’s has decided to extend its investment into 2026. Wendy’s CEO Tanner reportedly called breakfast “a tailwind in our business right now” that is “growing faster than the rest of our business.”
Beyond value offerings, Wendy’s has embraced flavor innovation. Suffice to say, the classic menu items aren’t going anywhere, but the burger chain has also been especially open-minded this year about incorporating exciting and unusual new menu items and flavor profiles. Back in June, Wendy’s rolled out an ambitious new nationwide chicken nugget promotion, offering customers their choice of seven distinct flavors of Saucy Nuggs: Honey BBQ, Garlic Parmesian, and other creative combinations that helped differentiate the brand in an increasingly crowded market.
Burger King Tests Strategic Menu Refreshes
Taco Bell apparently thinks mid-December is a great time to roll out chicken nuggets, and Burger King has seen fit to reprise its melts. The timing of these menu additions reflects careful market analysis rather than random innovation.
Burger King’s $5 Your Way Meal offers a choice of Whopper Jr., Chicken Jr. or Bacon Cheeseburger along with four-piece Chicken Nuggets, french fries and a soft drink. The deal has been so profitable that the chain extended the offer through Oct. 7. The success of value offerings has become a core part of Burger King’s strategy.
The brand continues testing new combinations while maintaining its value positioning. These quiet updates often become permanent fixtures if they resonate with customers during test periods.
