Pokémon cards return to the Happy Meal. McDonald's promotion set for November

Pokémon cards are coming back to the Happy Meal. The McDonald's x Pokémon TCG promotion is reported to launch in the United States on 5 November and run until 9 December 2026, with a rollout to further countries expected after the US start.

An important caveat up front: this is not an official announcement. The information comes from PokeBeach, a reliable industry source for years, which itself notes that the details are preliminary and subject to change. Neither McDonald's nor The Pokémon Company has confirmed anything so far.

What the packs should contain

The format is expected to be the same as in previous years:

Element	Details
Cards in the set	15, all of them reprints
Contents of one pack	4 cards: 1 holographic and 3 standard
Holo variants	around 6 cards in a confetti holo finish
Toy option	Pokémon Essential Handbook or a card display

Confetti holo is a holographic finish made of fine, scattered particles that does not appear in regular expansions. It is the signature of the McDonald's collaborations and what drives collector demand, because the cards are technically reprints yet arrive in a finish available only through this promotion.

Among fans there is lingering hope for a Western release of the exclusive illustrated Pikachu promo card previously available only in Japan. Nothing confirms it so far.

Why November of all months

2026 is the thirtieth anniversary year of the Pokémon brand. Red and Green launched in Japan in February 1996, and the trading card game followed in October of the same year.

Collectors had expected the promotion in February, timed to Pokémon Day, as happened for the 25th anniversary in 2021. It did not materialise: McDonald's ran Changeables in the US from 27 January to 8 March instead, followed by All American Basketball. The November window means the chain is aiming at the Christmas trading season, the strongest sales period of the year.

The shadow of the last edition

Hanging over this promotion is what happened in Japan in August 2025. The campaign launched on 9 August and was cut short after three days.

The mechanics were simple and merciless: a Happy Meal cost around 3.50 dollars while a card pack went for roughly 13 dollars on the secondary market. A limit of five meals per customer failed, because resellers simply came back repeatedly. Piles of untouched food were left outside restaurants, and photographs of discarded burgers went round the Japanese media.

If the November edition is confirmed, the question of safeguards against bulk buying will matter more than the card list.

Is it worth collecting

This is where expectations deserve cooling, because secondary market figures tell a different story from the hype.

The most famous set, the 25th anniversary release from 2021, is today the cheapest of all McDonald's sets. The reason is simple: more of it was printed than of any other, because interest was at a record high. The highest valued card is the 2019 Pikachu at around 34 dollars apiece, while the 2021 version reaches 23 dollars.

The conclusion for collectors: cards from anniversary sets rarely gain value, precisely because everybody buys them. What genuinely rises in price are older, less celebrated releases from 2011 and 2012, which nobody was putting aside at the time.

McDonald's has released thirteen Pokémon card sets so far, from 2011 to 2024, with a gap in 2020. Since 2021 the same format has applied: a four-card pack and fifteen cards per set.

Where to buy Pokémon cards with cashback

The Happy Meal promotion produces promo cards, not a regular expansion. Anyone building a deck or collecting seriously buys boosters elsewhere anyway.

• The Game Collection boosters, elite trainer boxes and single cards
• GAME card sets, accessories and collectables

Going into a store through Soleback adds cashback to every order. Current rates are shown in the store list, and live campaigns sit in the offers section. The browser extension helps by reminding you to activate it, and new accounts get a welcome bonus.

What happens next

No dates have been given for the UK or the rest of Europe. On previous editions the promotion reached European markets weeks or months behind the US, with a card list that was often identical.

Until an official statement from McDonald's or The Pokémon Company, treat the above as a well-documented leak rather than an announcement.