McDonald’s has scrapped its annual Monopoly promotion for 2026 after running it for two decades in the UK.
The fast-food chain confirmed this week that the peelable-sticker contest, which began in Britain back in 2005, will not return this year despite its usual autumn launch window. A spokesperson for the company delivered the news in a statement, framing the decision around a broader shift in promotional strategy.
“We know how much our customers love our promotions, from the brand-new launch of CARDS in March, to our first-ever XBOX partnership as part of the Side Missions launch,” the spokesperson said. “We’re always looking for new ways to surprise and delight our customers, and while Monopoly won’t feature in 2026, we’ll continue listening closely to what they enjoy most as we shape future promotions.”
The CARDS promotion referenced by the company launched in March and offered a similar prize structure to Monopoly, with cash awards, free meals and other gifts up for grabs. That initiative appears to have replaced Monopoly in the company’s UK marketing calendar rather than merely supplementing it.
McDonald’s gave no indication whether the Monopoly hiatus will extend beyond this year or if the promotion might return in 2027. The original US version of the game predates the British launch by nearly two decades, having first appeared in America in 1987 before spreading to multiple countries.
The UK format typically ran for several weeks and attached game pieces to select menu items, with past prize pools including cash jackpots, Jet2 holidays, televisions, cinema tickets, gadgets, discount vouchers and the coveted McDonald’s Gold Card. That particular reward granted winners one free medium meal per week for a full year.
Savvy customers developed various methods to maximize their odds over the promotion’s twenty-year run. Some diners learned which menu items carried stickers and which did not, with the standard Big Mac notably excluded unless ordered with chicken. Others practiced “wombling,” a term for scavenging discarded packaging from bins to collect unpeeled stickers that previous customers had overlooked.
The company had encouraged digital participation by urging customers to register their physical stickers through the McDonald’s app, though the promotion remained fundamentally tied to in-restaurant purchases.
McDonald’s Monopoly became a fixture of British fast-food culture after its 2005 debut, outlasting numerous other marketing campaigns in the competitive quick-service restaurant sector. The decision to pause it now signals a notable break from one of the chain’s most recognizable recurring events.
The XBOX partnership mentioned alongside CARDS represents another first for the brand’s UK operations, suggesting McDonald’s is prioritizing gaming-themed collaborations over its legacy board-game tie-in. No further details about upcoming promotions beyond the existing CARDS and Side Missions initiatives were disclosed.