McDonald's Pokémon Cards 2026: 15 Cards, Two per Happy Meal

The McDonald's Pokémon cards 2026 set puts two of its 15 cards in each US Happy Meal from November 10, so don't buy extra meals to finish it. Two is half the four-card pack of the last three promotions, and one of every card from each of those three sets had a TCGplayer market price of $14.60 to $19.67 on November 1, 2026.

That's the figure to weigh when a kid asks for one more Happy Meal. This page is for parents and collectors who want to know what the 2026 cards are, how many meals a full set takes, and what to keep.

Pokémon's October 29 announcement says each meal comes in a Pikachu, Umbreon or Torchic box with one of 15 mini Happy Meal box toys and "two Pokémon Trading Card Game cards." It adds: "There are 15 total cards to discover, including seven foil cards." McDonald's US menu page puts the start at November 10 at participating restaurants. Australia, Canada, Fiji, France, New Zealand and Spain also get it in November, dozens of countries follow in December and January, and the UK and Ireland come last, in February 2027. No country in East or Southeast Asia is on Pokémon's schedule, so there's no date for the Philippines or Singapore. Quebec gets no toy; fans there get a sticker and a four-card booster instead.

Exact start dates outside the US aren't official. Keep Collecting, citing PokeBeach, lists Canada from November 3 and Australia from November 5, and a US run ending December 14.

The 2026 set is 15 cards coded M26, and all 15 copy cards worth under 30 cents

Card images via pokemon.com

Every card on Pokémon's page reads M26 EN in the bottom corner and carries a number out of 015. We matched each one against TCGplayer's catalog. All 15 copy a card from a main English set, with the same HP, damage and attack effects; on Chandelure, Lucario and Metagross, one attack name differs from TCGplayer's listing of the original. Each original had a market price between 12 and 29 cents on November 1.

TCGplayer market price of each original's cheapest printing, Near Mint, read Nov 1, 2026. The Palafin, Hawlucha, Tyranitar and Zoroark originals were printed only as holos, so those are holo prices; the rest are non-holo.

To tell a Happy Meal copy from the original, read the bottom-left corner. The McDonald's card shows the M26 EN code and a number out of 015, and there's no rarity symbol after the number. The regulation letter beside the code (G, H or I) matches the original's, so don't use it to tell them apart. Our guide to finding which set a card is from walks through that corner, and the rarity symbols guide covers what a missing symbol means for price.

Pokémon doesn't say which seven are foil. Jirachi is one: the first Happy Meal pull we found on Reddit, on October 31, was a foil Jirachi. Pikachu and Eevee are the only two Pokémon that are both a card and a toy.

If you've seen a different list with a Bulbasaur and a new Squirtle on it, that's a set coded M27. Rolling Out reported that Pokémon's first post showed those cards and was deleted: "The cards it listed carried the code M27, which points to a 2027 McDonald's release." PokeGuardian wrote that "2 different sets of 15 cards have been revealed." Pokémon's page showed only the M26 cards when we read it on November 1.

Two cards a meal means about 25 Happy Meals for all 15, not 13

In 2022, 2023 and early 2025, every US Happy Meal came with a four-card pack. Pokémon's 2022 page listed a "4-Card Booster (each booster pack contains 1 foil card)", and its 2023 and 2025 pages describe the same four-card pack. McDonald's own 2025 release put it as "four of 15 available Pokémon TCG cards." The 2026 meal halves that, so even perfect luck needs eight meals instead of four.

We worked out the full spread of meals it takes to own all 15, assuming every card turns up equally often, which neither company has said. On that model, eight meals finish the set for about 1 collector in 42,000.

Chart: SetPulls model. Source: card counts from Pokémon and McDonald's; each card in a meal independent and equally likely.

At two cards a meal, half of collectors would finish within 23 meals, and it takes 37 before 9 in 10 are done. Thirteen meals, about the four-card average, finish the set only 3% of the time at two cards; at four cards it was 64%. If you only want the Pikachu, the odds of seeing it within five meals are 50%, against 75% with a four-card pack.

Those figures are a floor. In 2022 the one-foil-per-pack rule made each of the six foils turn up half as often as each non-foil. If the 2026 foils are scarcer in the same way, a full set takes more meals than our chart shows.

The last three McDonald's sets sell for $14.60 to $19.67 whole

We priced every card of the last four US McDonald's sets on TCGplayer on November 1, foil and non-foil printings separately. TCGplayer had no 2026 cards listed yet, so the older sets are the best guide to where these end up.

TCGplayer market prices, Near Mint, read November 1, 2026. Run dates from Pokémon's announcements of August 16, 2022, September 19, 2023 and January 21, 2025; the 2022 and 2023 pages give only an end date. The 2024 set is the dragon set US Happy Meals carried from January 2025.

Chart: SetPulls. Source: TCGplayer search and price-point APIs, read Nov 1, 2026.

The 2021 25th Anniversary set is the exception. Its 25 cards came in holo and non-holo, and the holos cost far more: Pikachu 025/025 had a market price of $24.46 as a holo and $3.66 without, and all 25 holos came to $98.09. The three sets since then have no card above $10.38.

A sealed four-card pack from those sets runs $7.16 to $8.90, about half a full set. TCGplayer had only 14 to 19 listings of each, so treat those prices as thin. The 2026 meal has no four-card pack in the US anyway.

Chart: SetPulls. Source: TCGplayer price-point API, read Nov 1, 2026.

Foil on its own doesn't make a McDonald's card worth much. In the 2024 set the non-foil Charizard, at $2.75, beats five of the seven foils, which sell for 46 to 90 cents. Pikachu does better: the foil Pikachu was the top card in 2022 and 2023 and second in 2024. If you're pricing a stack from older meals, our guide to checking a card's value shows where to look.

Collectors call the art reused, and the first cards turned up early

The first 2026 pull we found came from u/Drummers_Beat on r/PokemonTCG, a foil Jirachi posted on October 31 (214 points as of November 1): "I know it's reused art but the holo really adds to Jirachi specifically." When another user said they thought the cards weren't out until November 5, they explained that "there was some in the box along with a squirtle figure," adding: "This is in Canada. East coast."

That was three days before the November 3 start Keep Collecting reported for Canada, so at least one restaurant handed them out early. The same thread had the complaint you'd expect. u/THOTYOTA (13 points as of November 1) wrote: "I said I was disappointed they were all reprints." They'd hoped for the "burgerchu" and added: "Its the 30th anniversary with pikachu being the mascot and the last mcdonalds collaboration of the year, they could have included it." Another commenter replied (-3 points as of November 1) that the Burgerchu won't come out in English. The reprint point holds: all 15 copy cards you can buy for under 30 cents, so the only new things are the M26 numbering and, on the foils, the foil pattern.

In a second thread, u/Silverbarber_03 argued the other side: "These are not meant for collectors though. These are specifically designed for kids to have an entry point to Pokemon cards." The prices agree. If a Happy Meal is how a kid starts, our collecting guide for 2026 covers what to buy next.

Our call: eat the meals you'd buy anyway, then buy the missing cards

Don't buy Happy Meals to finish the set. Two cards a meal makes 25 meals the average for all 15, and each of the last three McDonald's sets sells for under $20 whole on TCGplayer. Keep what the meals you'd buy anyway give you, and once the 2026 cards are listed, buy the gaps as singles.

Look after the Pikachu and the foils. Pikachu was the top or second card in each of the last three sets, and 9 of the 12 cards above $1 in those sets are foils. A penny sleeve and a binder are plenty; our storage guide prices each layer per card. We wouldn't pay to grade one; check the grading fees against a card that sells for a few dollars first. If you sell, remember that 10 to 12 of every 15 cards in those sets sell for under $1; our guide to selling Pokémon cards shows when a lot beats single listings.

We'd expect the full 2026 set to land near the $15 to $20 of the last three, because all 15 of its cards copy originals that sell for under 30 cents. That's judgement, not data. What would change our mind: one of every 2026 card costing more than $30 on TCGplayer a month after the US run ends, or Pokémon saying the seven foils are much scarcer than the rest. The meals start four days after Delta Reign's November 6 release; our release calendar has the rest of the dates.

Related Reading

• 30th Celebration Pikachu Cards: All 30 for $24 or 120 Packs
• How to Get the Delta Reign Promo Cards From November 6
• Pokemon Blister Pack vs Booster Pack: What the Promo Costs

References

1. Pokémon, Pokémon Happy Meals Are Coming to McDonald's in an Exciting New Way, Oct 29, 2026, read Nov 1, 2026; earlier Happy Meal pages from Aug 16, 2022, Sep 19, 2023 and Jan 21, 2025.
2. McDonald's, USA Menu Spotter, Pokémon Happy Meal entry, read Nov 1, 2026; McDonald's Launches Dragon-type Pokémon-themed Happy Meal, Jan 21, 2025.
3. Rolling Out, the M27 card list, Oct 30, 2026; PokeGuardian, Happy Meal 2026/2027 with 15 cards, Oct 29, 2026.
4. Keep Collecting, McDonald's Pokémon cards, November 2026, updated Oct 30, 2026.
5. TCGplayer, McDonald's Promos 2021 to 2024 and main-set cards, including Pikachu 25th Anniversary, Pikachu 2023 and Dragonite 2024, read Nov 1, 2026.
6. Reddit, r/PokemonTCG, "The McDonalds Jirachi is absolutely gorgeous!", Oct 31, 2026, and a thread on the cards' design, Nov 1, 2026.