Limited-Time Pokémon Cards Accidentally Revealed a Year Early

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Published Nov 2, 2026, 11:11 AM EST

Ashely currently works as a news writer for Polygon. After getting her Translation degree, she was hired as a guide and news writer for GameRant and TheGamer. She enjoyed working as an author for these sites for six years, and in 2026, she started at Polygon, where she is able to continue to do what she loves: writing about video games.

Here's what you can look forward to... next year

pikachu on the ground after being knocked out

Last week, McDonald's and The Pokémon Company confirmed that Pokémon and McDonald's would be coming together yet again for a new promotional event in November. In the reveal post, The Pokémon Company showed the Pokémon trading cards and toys that would be given out with each Happy Meal. However, pictures of the wrong set of cards were accidentally posted, apparently revealing the promotional assets for next year's collaboration.

Each year, Pokémon and McDonald's tend to produce exclusive trading cards as part of a promotional event. Fans all over the world collect them, so it's always exciting to get a look at the upcoming cards. When The Pokémon Company published this year's announcement, eagle-eyed fans immediately noticed that the promotional tag said "M27", indicating that the cards were intended for the 2027 promotion.

The Pokémon Company accidentally reveals 2027 Happy Meal cards

It was clear that these were images of the wrong promotional Pokémon cards. The page was quickly updated with the correct assets, but it was too late, as the 2027 set of cards had already spread among the community.

Next year's Happy Meal offer will include the following Pokémon cards:

Bulbasaur
Rowlet
Sprigatito
Charmander
Torchic
Squirtle
Piplup
Pikachu
Raichu
Clefairy
Slowpoke
Marill
Gengar
Eevee
Snorlax

McDonald's Pokémon cards are widely available, but fans still flood restaurants and order too many meals, causing chaos and food waste. Die-hard fans want to acquire the 15 different cards as soon as possible and buy Happy Meals until they've collected them all. Scalpers spend hundreds of dollars to buy as many limited-time cards as they can to later resell them at exorbitant prices. Facial recognition technology has been installed at Pokémon Centers in Japan to limit purchases, but it's unlikely that McDonald's would implement such measures for an annual promotional event.

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