Is the Steve Easterbrook miracle over?

After improving customer traffic in each of his first three years as chief executive of McDonald’s, the 51-year-old fast food executive has stumbled in the first half of 2018.

Guest counts, a proxy for customer traffic, declined in the first six months of the year, the company said Thursday, as rivals like Burger King grabbed market share from the Golden Arches because they got better at offering more value.

Thanks in large part to the 2016 introduction of all-day breakfast, customer traffic was up 1 percent in 2017, McDonald’s first uptick in four years.

For Easterbrook, the formula for turning around the once-stumbling chain, with 14,000 restaurants across the US, included a generous dose of modernizing its outdated eateries and adding healthier menu items.

That plan seemed to be working — until it wasn’t.

McDonald’s is losing customers in the US compared with a year ago, in part, because more people are going elsewhere for breakfast, Easterbrook said on an investor call on Thursday.

Total revenue declined 11 percent, to $5.35 billion, in the second quarter. Same-store sales were up 4 percent globally and 2.6 percent in the US — but only because McDonald’s was able to wring out price increases.

“We are not where we need to be,” Easterbrook said. “We’ve seen more competitive activity in the area of value.”

Most of McDonald’s breakfast sales come via drive-thrus, which have slowed down considerably over the past year, according to Richard Adams, a former McDonald’s franchisee who runs Franchise Equity Group.

“The service just isn’t fast anymore,” Adams said, blaming understaffed eateries and a more complicated menu for the traffic jams.

Easterbrook blamed the addition of fresh beef burgers this year for some of the slowdown at the drive-thrus.

McDonald’s has also lost customers to competitors like Burger King which has been offering a 2 for $6 mix-and-match deal, according to restaurant analyst Mark Kalinowski.

Next month, McDonald’s will answer the promotion with its own version, a 2 for $5 mix-and-match deal, the company said.

“We need to give our [deal-seeking] customers reason to visit us more frequently,” said Chief Financial Officer Kevin Ozan.

McDonald’s shares closed down 1.7 percent, to $156.14.