Is the golden age of the pizza chain over? While the nation’s largest pizza brands had a shining moment during the pandemic as a category uniquely well-equipped to handle the abrupt shift to off-premises dining, pizza has largely lost its momentum over the last few years.

In 2024, the pizza segment struggled significantly, with Technomic’s Top 500 Restaurants data showing 61% of pizza chains experienced declining sales. Only one pizza brand — Fort Worth-based pizza buffet chain, Mr. Gatti’s Pizza — managed to achieve double-digit growth. This downturn in pizza sales contrasted sharply with the super-competitive coffee segment, where 88% of chains saw positive sales growth.

While the big four pizza chains — Domino’s, Pizza Hut, Little Caesars, and Papa Johns — were part of this big picture pizza slowdown, they were by no means the only issue. Both Papa Johns and Domino’s actually performed slightly better in 2024 than in 2023, with Domino’s sales percentage up by 2.2 percentage points year-over-year. This was likely a reflection of both chains’ extensive turnaround strategies — Papa Johns Back to Better 2.0 and Domino’s Hungry for More — which were designed to get the brands back on track.

But the reality is, that even with slight year-over-year improvements, the pizza category remained largely stagnant, as customer attention and wallet share were driven to other categories like beverages, chicken, and desserts.

For a short while, fast-casual pizza was assumed to be the future of the category, with brands like MOD Pizza, &pizza, and Blaze Pizza leading the way in terms of fresh innovation that big box pizza desperately needed. But over the past several years, fast-casual pizza’s sales have nosedived: MOD Pizza almost filed for bankruptcy (but then was sold instead last July to Elite Restaurant Group), &pizza founder Michael Lastoria stepped away from the everyday operations of the chain last March, and Blaze Pizza announced a brand overhaul last July.

All five fast-casual pizza chains had declining sales in 2024, with &pizza ranking last in the entire pizza category with a 15% year-over-year sales drop. That was a steep drop-off for the brand, which had 7.7% sales growth in 2023. Before the pandemic, &pizza was considered one of the hottest and fastest-growing concepts in the industry, though the concept is still trying to make a turnaround under new CEO Mike Burns, and just announced a franchising program in March. MOD Pizza, Donato’s, and Blaze Pizza all swung to a loss between 2023 and 2024, so clearly, fast-casual pizza is not resonating with consumers the way it once was.

So, what’s next for pizza? The industry might look toward Papa Johns, which has simplified its Back to Better strategy under the new leadership of CEO Todd Penegor. According to Penegor, Papa Johns needs to employ a “back to basics” strategy, especially in the kitchen, with more of a focus on improving the core pizza product and not adding additional operational complexities. Some of these changes the company is looking to make include improving the cheese flavor profile, taking a look at the dough recipe, and retraining restaurant staff.

“We’ve made our restaurants really tough to operate,” Penegor said during the ICR conference in January. “We really need to get back to being the best pizzamakers in the business.”

Also, not all pizza chains are experiencing a downturn. Just ask Mountain Mike’s Pizza, which was the third fastest-growing pizza chain in the Top 500 last year and also had positive sales growth. While the Newport Beach, Calif.-based brand identifies as fast-casual, the concept really leans into in-person dining with arcade games and a retro vibe akin to 1990s Pizza Hut.

“For me, the concept is tied with nostalgia,” Jim Metevier, CEO of Mountain Mike’s, told Nation’s Restaurant News in a recent interview. “When I was young, I remember going out with my family, we’d go to the local pizza place and have great memories of pizza and arcade games. Well, that’s what Mountain Mike’s is all about. We talk about bringing families, sports fans and communities together to dine, share and celebrate around pizza the way it ought to be.”