The flagship property of Inspire Brands,[6][7] it ranked third in systemwide sales in the United States in the quick-service and fast-casual restaurant industries in 2012, behind Subway and Panera Bread.

[10] The Wendy's Company held a minority stake of 18.5% in Arby's after the acquisition by Roark Capital; that share was reduced to 12.3% upon the purchase of Buffalo Wild Wings, and was sold back to Inspire Brands on August 16, 2018, for $450 million, a 38 percent premium.

[13] There are locations in seven countries outside the United States: Canada, Costa Rica, Egypt, Mexico,[14] Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Turkey.

Arby's was founded in Boardman Township, Ohio, on July 23, 1964, by brothers Forrest (1922–2008)[15] and Leroy Raffel (1927–2023),[16] owners of a restaurant equipment business who thought there was a market opportunity for a fast food franchise based on a dish other than hamburgers.

[17][18][19] Arby's filed for reorganization with the United States bankruptcy court in February 1971, owing to a large number of debts accrued in expansion, as well as a nation-wide recession and relatively high price point compared to other fast-food chains of the time.

Hoping to attract a more upscale clientele, Arby's interior design was purposely more luxurious in appearance than the typical fast food sandwich stand of the day.

[25] It became the first restaurant in the fast food industry to offer a complete "lite" menu in 1991 with several sandwiches and salads under 300 calories and 94 percent fat-free.

[31] Nine years later, with a new owner of DWG Corporation and a new name, Triarc Companies, Inc.,[32] a former PepsiCo executive, Don Pierce, was brought in to "resurrect" Arby's.

[33] With $100 million additional funding, Pierce moved to a new "Roast Town" concept, similar in format to Boston Market, in 1996.

Pierce and his team left the company and it sold all of its 354 company-owned locations to RTM Restaurant Group, an existing Arby's franchise, for $71 million.

[40][41] In November 2002, Access Now filed a lawsuit against RTM, then a franchise of Triarc, that some 800 of their stores did not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA).

[48] The Wendy's/Arby's Group also signed a similar franchise deal in June 2010 with Tab Gida Sanayi ve Ticaret to open dual-branded restaurants in Turkey.

In 2001, Barown Restaurants opened two Arby's franchise locations in Southampton, Hampshire, and Sutton, London, but both were forced to close after operating for a few months.

[55] Despite its cash flow problem, Arby's also reported that it had six months of sales growth at established stores in the United States which it had attributed to its new turnaround plan that it had recently launched.

[58] The malware was placed on point-of-sale systems inside Arby's corporate-owned restaurants, not its locations owned by franchisees, and was active between October 25, 2016, and January 19, 2017.

[59] Eight credit unions and banks from Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Montana have filed suit since early February against Arby's concerning the data breach.

[62][63] In November 2017, Arby's announced it had negotiated a purchase for the restaurant chain Buffalo Wild Wings for $2.4 billion in cash.

[65] In January 2022, Arby's announced launching in Saudi Arabia in an exclusive development agreement with Shahia Foods Limited Company, with the first restaurants expected to open in the capital city of Riyadh in late 2022.

This agreement marks the brand's first-ever entry into Saudi Arabia and largest expansion into the Middle East to-date.

[75] It was announced in August 2017, that Coca-Cola had won a contract to serve Coke products at all its restaurants, ending an almost 11-year association with Pepsi.

[79] The second record, "largest advertising poster", took up approximately 5 acres of land and was placed in Monowi, Nebraska, America's smallest town.

[94] In August 2015, Arby's introduced a series of five small sandwiches called Sliders starting at $1.29, with prices varied by location.

[104] In October 2016, word leaked through social media that Arby's was about to test a venison sandwich, which Arby's confirmed, selecting 17 stores in Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Wisconsin (all major deer hunting states) to offer it during a four-day test during those states' respective hunting seasons.

[109] In October 2017, Arby's announced that three locations in Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming will offer an elk sandwich for a limited time.

There are also Arby's locations for service members in the Kadena Air Base and Camp Foster in Okinawa, Japan.