This is the most popular fast-food chain in SC. It’s not McDonald’s

McDonald’s is the most popular fast food chain in the country overall but not so among South Carolinians, a new study shows.

Restaurant.eatapp.co based its study on Google searches and found that in 22 states, McDonald’s tops the list with 14.8 million searches on average each month.

In South Carolina, it’s Chick-fil-A, which is the third most searched nationally.

You might think that’s because Chick-fil-A is not in every state, but you’d be almost wrong. Due to rapid expansion, the Atlanta-based restaurant has locations in 48 states — Vermont and Alaska are the only two without Chick-Fil-A.

Chick-Fil-A has restaurants now in Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and Canada as well.

There are just over 100 in South Carolina among the chain’s 3,000 locations. Texas has the most and Chick-fil-A is listed as the most popular there, too.

And the iconic chain did its home state of Georgia proud as No. 1 most searched. Other states that chose Chick-fil-A are North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Delaware.

Restaurant.eatapp.co based its study on regional average monthly search volume over the last 12 months among the highest-earning fast-food restaurants in the country.

South Carolina’s second and third most popular are McDonald’s and Dominos.

“While Chick-fil-A ranks third nationwide for popularity, South Carolina residents show a strong preference for chicken sandwiches over burgers and pizza,” Restaurant.eatapp.co said.

McDonald’s and its 13,515 locations were most popular in states such as Arizona, Maryland, New Jersey and Hawaii, which by the way just recently got its first two Chick-fil-A locations.

Domino’s, with 11.6 million monthly average searches, was the second most popular fast-food restaurant. Folks in Louisiana, Vermont, and Wyoming and 11 other states like them best.

Starbucks, with 10.6 million monthly average searches, came in fourth with folks in California, New York, and Washington searching them out.

Three other states searched for Starbucks the most — Nevada, Washington, D.C. and Colorado. Starbucks has 15,966 stores.

Pizza Hut’s 9.1 million monthly average searches makes them fifth and Papa John’s with 5.4 million monthly average searches landed them in sixth place.

Pizza Hut has 6,862 restaurants, Papa John’s 3,122.

Who likes Pizza Hunt best? People in Kentucky. Kansas residents opt for Papa John’s.