McDonald’s fans have been seeing alarming headlines about restaurants closing, raising questions about whether the fast-food giant could be disappearing from their area.

The truth is more complicated.

Some individual McDonald’s restaurants do close, usually because of local business conditions, leases, redevelopment, remodeling or other market-specific reasons. A U.S. closure-tracking report currently lists several McDonald’s locations that have closed or are in the process of closing.

But there is no evidence that McDonald’s is shutting down worldwide.

In fact, McDonald’s announced a major new strategy on September 23, 2026, called McDonald’s NEXT, with plans focused on growth, restaurant modernization, improving efficiency and attracting more customers. The company also says it plans to provide billions of dollars in support for restaurant modernization and technology through 2036.

So if you heard that “McDonald’s is closing all its restaurants,” that claim is misleading.

However, individual locations can still disappear from local communities, meaning customers in some areas may genuinely lose their neighborhood McDonald’s.

For millions of people, that familiar golden-arches restaurant has been part of their lives for decades.