McDonald’s announces CARDS, a new trading card game

1 / 9

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 took a tour of the McDonald’s stand, where the fast food giant was in the process of revealing something rather exciting.

McDonald’s is rolling out a new gamified gift-with-meal in the form of CARDS, a trading card game that leverages the enduring cultural obsession with Pokémon TCG.

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

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

Why is McDonald’s doing trading cards?

For the blissfully unaware, the TCG (Trading Card Game) market is currently worth an estimated $7-8 billion, with IPs such as Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering and One Piece driving extraordinary growth. Even Disney is in on the act with its own TCG, Lorcana, proving increasingly popular.

9 / 9

I’ve been a fan of the Pokémon TCG since childhood, but the landscape today is utterly unrecognisable. Popularity reached a fever pitch in the last few years, and as demand rose, scalpers and serial investors choked supply by buying up stock far faster than The Pokémon Company could produce it.

As a result, prices are at an all-time high: for reference, that Charizard in a box in your attic could be worth over £300,000.

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

What do McDonald’s CARDS look like?

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

The lowest rarity tier is the Character Card, featuring colourful images of the entire cast of McDonald’s characters. We saw cards featuring Fry Girl and Grimace, though the latter was only available to VIP attendees:

2 / 9

Next up is Fan Cards, which depict iconic moments and menu items familiar to anyone with a penchant for a cheeky Maccies. We saw a card featuring the divisive Milkshake Dip – that is, the unspeakably vile act of dunking a chip in your milkshake:

4 / 9

Then there are the second-tier rarity cards, the Retro Cards. These are my personal favourites: they depict fixtures, appliances, design choices and menu items from the McDonald’s archive, including the Cheeseburger Chair pictured on this promo card:

5 / 9

And finally, the ultra-rare Legendary Cards. It seems that these can feature characters, objects, menu items and much more besides – we saw the Multimixer card, finished with a nice silver foil, but were also told that Ronald McDonald and the Golden Arches are also depicted on cards of this rarity. We also heard talk of an extra-special metallic card being thrown into the mix. This will likely be the “grail” for collectors.

6 / 9

McDonald’s explained that these designs were not final, but I personally don’t mind them – the black rear and edges being perhaps the least visually appealing aspect. These black borders show whitening pretty clearly, so you’ll want to be very cautious when opening your packs if you intend to send them off to PSA or Beckett (if indeed, these grading companies plan to accept McDonald’s CARDS).

Unfortunately, I can’t speak to 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 hand out some fun prizes to lucky customers. And that’s absolutely fine by me.

What I can say, however, is that within ten minutes of our arrival at Sandown, we overheard some resellers discussing the CARDS in hushed tones. I have absolutely no doubt that a limited-time run of such a small number of collectible trading cards is going to generate a huge amount of buzz from the community, so whether you’re an avid investor or an interested newcomer, get yourself down to a McDonald’s next month (maybe just once – I’m not promoting bad habits here) to try your luck.

Once more, this new gift-with-meal goes live on 17 March 2026 – you can pick up a pack of four cards with your order at all participating stores.

Written By

Will Georgiadis Author

Since 2018, Will has been the engine of the Expert Reviews production team as sub-editor, senior sub-editor, and now production editor. Will is responsible for making sure that the content Expert Reviews publishes is of the highest quality; he also keeps the team’s vast workflow running smoothly and maintains the ancient and revered Expert Reviews style guide. With five years of experience behind him and thousands of articles edited, sub-edited and triple-checked, Will is confident that you won’t find a single mistake on the site – and if you think you have, you’re wrong.

More about