Big Arch
McDonald’s answer to customers who wanted a bigger burger rather than a fancier one. Two Quarter Pounder-weight beef patties, three slices of white Cheddar, raw and crispy onions, lettuce, pickles and a tangy Big Arch sauce of mustard, pickle and sweet tomato, in a poppy and sesame seed bun. At over 1,000 kcal in the UK it is the heaviest burger on the board.
The story
In the early 2020s McDonald’s tried upmarket burger lines such as Signature Crafted and found that size mattered more to customers than fancier ingredients. The result was the Big Arch, trialled in Alberta and Ontario in June 2024 and across Portugal a month later, then launched in the United Kingdom in June 2025, Australia in July and New Zealand in October. It reached the United States and Latvia in 2026. A video of the chain’s CEO taking a notably small bite of it in February 2026 became an online joke that rival chains piled into.
What’s inside
Make it at home
There is no copycat of the Big Arch yet. Until there is, these recipes on the site come closest to it, judged by what goes into the bun.
- Shares beef, crispy onions and cheese
X-Cell-Ent Burger - Shares beef, cheese and a double stack
Whopper (Copycat) - Shares beef, cheese and a double stackThe Mr. Smiley Burger
- Shares beef, cheese and a double stackBig Beef Blopper
Similar burgers at other chains
Built around the same things as the Big Arch.- Ribs & Burgers · beef, crispy onions and cheese
SignatureWagyu Royale - Bastard Burgers · beef, crispy onions, cheese and a double stack
Oklahoma - Peter Pane · beef, crispy onions, cheese and a double stack
SignatureDie Legende - Burgerizzr · beef, crispy onions, cheese and a double stack
SignatureDBL DBL
More from McDonald's
.png.webp)
About McDonald's
Nobody sells more burgers. McDonald’s began as a single drive-in run by Richard and Maurice McDonald in San Bernardino, California, and became a burger machine in 1948, when the brothers threw out most of the menu and rebuilt the kitchen like a production line. Ray Kroc, a salesman who sold them milkshake mixers, started franchising it in 1955 and later bought the brothers out.
More than 40,000 restaurants in over 100 countries.
Not affiliated with McDonald's. Trademarks belong to their owners.