Gross revenue of the Big Four accounting/audit firms in the U.S. 2023

Deloitte generated the largest revenue of the Big Four accounting firms in the United States in 2023, earning approximately 10 billion U.S dollars more than their nearest competitor, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The ranking mirrored the revenue of the Big Four firms worldwide, as Deloitte and PwC again competed for the top two positions.

Deloitte’s operations in the Americas

Deloitte reported revenue figures of almost 36 billion U.S dollars for North and South America combined in 2022, of which approximately 32.7 billion U.S. dollars came from the United States. In recent years, the performance of Deloitte in the United States improved, with its revenue increasing steadily since 2010. The growing number of employees at Deloitte provides another indication of the firm’s stature throughout North and South America. Deloitte employed roughly 250,000 staff members across the Americas in 2023, the highest number among the leading accounting firms in the United States.

The Big Eight of the Eighties

There are four major accounting firms in the world today: Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Ernst and Young (EY), and Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler (KPMG). However, the professional accounting landscape was far different for much of the 20th century, with eight firms competing for the same major clients. The growth of multinational clients in a global economy changed the industry during the 1980s. In order to gain a strong foothold in the new international market, two mega mergers took place in 1989 that involved four of the Big Eight firms: Ernst and Whinney merged with Arthur Young to form Ernst and Young, and Deloitte Haskins and Sells merged with Touche Ross to form Deloitte and Touche. This was the start of the Big Eight gradually being reduced to the Big Four.