When Pokemon Cards Will Return To McDonald's Happy Meals

Pokemon Cards To Return To McDonald's Happy Meals Despite Prior Problems Published Sep 28, 2026, 5:20 AM EDT Josh Coulson is an editor at TheGamer covering breaking news on everything from colorful platformers to the latest Lego sets. Primarily a news writer since 2018, Josh has covered just about every major game from the past decade. Now an editor, their focus has shifted to being the leading affiliate expert at the site, building relationships between TheGamer and global brands including Mattel, Funko, and The Pokemon Company. Sign in to your TheGamer account Pokemon has been putting limited-edition cards in McDonald’s Happy Meals for years, but recent, escalating issues with how far people will go to get Pokemon TCG products might have led some to assume those days were over. Well, apparently not, as the dates of the next Pokemon TCG McDonald’s crossover have been revealed. Promotional Pokemon cards will once again be given away for free with McDonald’s Happy Meals starting on November 5, 2026. That’s according to Pokebeach, which also notes that the next Pokemon promotion will run until December 9, 2026, giving you a little over a month to collect all of the new cards. None of the designs that will be a part of the promotion have been revealed. However, we do know that there will be 15 cards to collect, six of which will be holofoils. Most of the cards are typically reprints you can find in other sets; however, they all carry a unique McDonald’s badge, and the holofoils will have a confetti effect like previous McDonald’s sets. Each Happy Meal booster pack will include four cards, and naturally some cards will be rarer than others. It also seems customers will have the option of choosing between a Pokemon toy or a Pokemon Essential Handbook. It’s believed the toy might be a display that can be used for showing off your cards, though that is yet to be confirmed. Although McDonald’s Pokemon cards are typically reprints, last year, when the promotion last hit Japan, an exclusive new card was given away. It features Pikachu reaching up towards a burger on a table. There’s a hope an English version of that card will be a part of the upcoming US promotion, although due to the chaos surrounding the last time McDonald’s gave away Pokemon cards in Japan, it seems unlikely that there will be an exclusive card for scalpers to target. People in Japan bought Happy Meals in bulk during the most recent TCG promotion. They then proceeded to discard everything in the streets, including the food, and then left with the only thing they bought the meals for - the cards. The promotion ended early and was replaced with a new one where actual fans could get Pokemon toys in their Happy Meals instead of cards. Issues haven’t escalated quite that far when it comes to the same promotions outside of Japan, and there has actually been some good news on the scalping front following the release of the Pokemon TCG’s anniversary expansion. The pull rates for the set have been so good that scalpers are struggling to sell products at inflated prices, leading them to have hissy fits about it on their special forums, with one deluded reseller claiming they plan to sue The Pokemon Company. Franchise Pokemon Original Release Date October 20, 1996 Player Count 2 Age Recommendation 6+ Length per Game Variable Franchise Name Pokemon