Is this the end of Monopoly? McDonald’s announces a card game

In a packed hall at the London Card Show at Sandown Park Racecourse this weekend, Deputy Editor Andy White and I were lucky enough to have work and hobby collide when we visited a McDonald’s site, where the fast food giant was on a mission to unveil something exciting.

McDonald’s is introducing a new gamued-with-a-meal offering in the form of CARDS, a trading card game that inspires an enduring cultural obsession with the Pokémon TCG.

From 17 March 2026customers will receive a pack of four random trading cards along with their meal. These cards are divided into four levels of rarity – Character Cards, Fan Cards, Retro Cards and Legendary Cards – and you will use them to play a simple card game and win prizes.

Here’s everything we know so far about McDonald’s CARDS.

Why does McDonald’s make trading cards?

For the uninitiated, the TCG (Trading Card Game) market is currently calling for an estimate $7-8 billionwith IPs like Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering and One Piece fueling phenomenal growth. Even Disney is in on the action with its TCG, Lorcana, which seems to be very popular.

I’ve been a fan of the Pokémon TCG since childhood, but the landscape today is totally unremarkable. The popularity has reached a fever pitch in the past few years, and as demand rises, scalpers and serial investors choke the supply by buying up stock faster than the Pokémon Company can produce it.

As a result, prices are higher than ever: for reference, that Charizard in a box in your attic can be worth over £300,000.

McDonald’s has traditionally partnered with The Pokémon Company to produce limited edition cards that are often offered with Happy Meals, but today’s announcement is a clear indication that the fast food behemoth wants a bigger slice of the proverbial pie (burger?).

What do McDonald’s CARDS look like?

Here’s a closer look at five cards we saw on Sunday at the London Card Show at Esher. Attendees were also able to get their hands on these cards by playing a stick-or-twist game at the McDonald’s stand.

A rare lower class is Character cardfeaturing colorful pictures of all the McDonald’s characters. We saw cards featuring Fry Girl and Grimace, although the latter was only available to VIP attendees:

The following is Fan cardsfeaturing iconic moments and menu items familiar to anyone with a Macies obsession. We spotted a card with the divisive Milkshake Dip – that is, the inexplicably bad act of dipping a chip into your milkshake:

Then there are the cards from the second category, the Retro cards. These are my personal favorites: they feature fixtures, appliances, design choices and menu items from the McDonald’s archives, including the Cheeseburger Chair pictured on this promo card:

And finally, ultra-rare Fairy Cards. It seems that these can include letters, objects, menu items and much more besides – we saw a Multimixer card, finished with a beautiful silver foil, but we were also told that Ronald McDonald and the Golden Arches were also shown on cards of this rarity. We’ve also heard talk of a special metal card being thrown into the mix. This will probably be the “grail” for collectors.

McDonald’s explained that these designs were not the final ones, but I personally don’t care about them – the black background and edges are probably the least attractive feature. These black borders show the white very clearly, so you’ll want to be extra careful when opening your packets if you intend to send them to PSA or Beckett (if indeed, these grading companies plan to accept McDonald’s CARDS).

Unfortunately, I can’t talk about the nature of the card game itself – but if it’s anything like the much-loved McDonald’s Monopoly collaboration, it’ll be a thinly veiled excuse to give out fun prizes to lucky customers. And that’s fine with me.

What I can say, however, is that within ten minutes of arriving at Sandown, we heard the brokers calmly discussing CARDS. I have no doubt that the limited time use of such a small number of collectible trading cards will create a huge amount of buzz in the community, so whether you’re an avid investor or an interested newcomer, get yourself down to McDonald’s next month (maybe just once – I’m not advocating bad habits here) to try your luck.

Also, this new food giveaway continues live 17 March 2026 – you can pick up a pack of four cards with your order at all participating stores.