Walmart has been number one on the Fortune 500 every year since 2014.
Fortune ranks the largest U.S. companies by total revenue, not by profit, market value, or brand recognition. Walmart’s enormous retail operation—spanning supermarkets, department stores, warehouse clubs, e-commerce, and international businesses—has kept its annual revenue above that of every other listed company.
The wording can cause confusion because the Fortune 500 published in a given year generally reflects companies’ revenue from the previous fiscal year. Exxon, Apple, and Amazon have each appeared near the top, but none has displaced Walmart throughout this period. Amazon did reach No. 2 in recent rankings, while Apple is better known for leading the list by market value or profit rather than revenue.
Walmart’s first Fortune 500 appearance came in 1955, when the company was still a small Arkansas retailer. Its long-running lead reflects scale: hundreds of billions of dollars in annual sales across millions of transactions each day.