State laws in some places make franchises a better worse deal. I invest in one[unnamed] company that has a few franchises, but they are regional and the state laws where they are makes running franchises not a good deal so they are no longer doing that and looking to buy bake the existing ones. They are looking to expand to new states though where the laws are different and so they may start selling franchises there.

I left McDonalds 25 years ago and I have no idea what is current. Back then about 25% of all stores were owned by the company with the other 75% franchises. The corporate owned stores were for sale if you wanted a franchise (assuming you qualify), and were in a known location so fairly low risk. The company would also buy out your franchise a good deal when you were ready to retire.