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McDonald’s has announced the early end of a Happy Meal Pokémon card promotion in Japan, after the chain was swamped by fans buying up dozens of burgers just to extract the packs found within them.
Photos and videos of the ensuing chaos posted to social media show arguments among customers ignoring the chain’s limit of five meals per person, countless untouched Happy Meals dumped by the side of the road, and police even being called when one purchaser discovers the cards have now run out.
McDonald’s promotion began in Japan on Saturday, August 9 and had been due to finish today, Monday, August 11. But late on Saturday, McDonald’s was forced to acknowledge it had already mostly sold out of the cards in less than 24 hours — meaning anyone without them already would now likely miss out.
“Thank you for your continued patronage of McDonald’s,” the chain wrote in an official apology statement. “We would like to inform you that the distribution of Pokémon cards to customers who purchased Pokémon Happy Meals, which was scheduled for three days only from Saturday, August 9th to Monday, August 11th (national holiday), has ended at many stores due to higher-than-expected sales.
“We sincerely apologize for not being able to meet the expectations of our customers who were looking forward to the product due to the early end of distribution. Please refrain from contacting stores regarding stock availability.”
Dozens of posts on social media have expressed shock at the amount of food waste generated by fans during the promotion, as customers bought up dozens of Happy Meals just for their cards — and online listings for the packs began to appear with heavily inflated prices. Numerous photos show discarded Happy Meals, still stacked up in plastic bags, abandoned on the street or left within the McDonald’s restaurant they were bought in.
何の対策もせずに
とりあえず売れれば良いという
腐り切った商魂で
多くの子ども達を泣かせて
外国人転売ヤーを笑顔にする
マクドナルドのハッピーセット pic.twitter.com/VtOmtTFFAB— ベリ (@092ne) August 9, 2025
#マクドナルドハッピーセット #大量破棄#マクドナルド責任追及#マクドナルド不買運動
マクドナルド責任追及すべきでは
繰り返される食べ物をこんな事件
何回か事件あったのに対策しない
中国人転売やーよりマクドナルド責任はある。
本当にマクドナルド不買運動すべき pic.twitter.com/TmaElG5z5k— 国分寺 弥 (@wadaoudanhodou) August 9, 2025
According to NintendoSoup, the following videos show customers arguing over McDonald’s five Happy Meals per patron limit, and then a police officer responding to a report of an argumentative fan upset they had bought a large number of Happy Meals only to find no cards were included (presumably because stock had already run out).
マクドナルドで中国人(と思われる)がハッピーセット1人5セットまでなのに40個買ってる事に対し、店員ではなく日本人の「お客さん」が注意したと話題に
#ハッピーセット
#ポケモンカード
#転売
#転売ヤー pic.twitter.com/f4AhWpyE54— まっつんtype3.0 (@san_san_san333) August 9, 2025
拡散して‼️
大阪のマクドナルドでハッピーセットのおまけのポケカが貰えないから返品させろと要求している外国人転売ヤー‼️💢
中国人だかベトナム人だか知らないが、こんな事で警察の手を煩わせるんじゃねーよ💢
悪質外国人は日本から出てけ‼️
日本の子供達がポケカ貰えなくて悲しんでるだろ💢 pic.twitter.com/aqzvEPahYt— ティトン (@bcfe70bord) August 9, 2025
This is by no means the first popular Pokémon card giveaway at McDonald’s, but it appears to have been one of the most chaotic so far. On social media, onlookers are calling for the chain to enforce stricter checks when selling Happy Meals in future, and limits of just one purchase per customer to cut back on further scalping and waste.
In other Pokémon news, last week The Pokémon Company replaced the art for its Lugia and Ho-Oh cards which had fallen foul to claims they included fan designs.
Image credit: @daihonyaku / @daiyamoto69.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
