McDonald’s Teams up With Pokemon GO for Limited-Time Restaurant Raid Promotion

McDonald’s is best known for its signature Big Mac, crispy Chicken McNuggets, and iconic shoestring french fries. From a marketing perspective, however, the red-and-yellow brand has never shied away from taking things in new and innovative directions, from celebrity endorsements to its collaboration with the game “Genshin Impact.”

Now, McDonald’s is teaming up with game developer Niantic to launch a promotion featuring the extremely popular Pokemon GO app — a team-up that could leave fast-food fans and gamers hungry for more.

McDonald’s Becomes a Pokemon GO 5-Star Raid Location, One Week at a Time

The promotion features four week-long periods of play wherein McDonald’s locations all become host to featured five-star raid battles, as Sports Illustrated detailed. Each day during the promotional weeks, the Golden Arches will see the events run from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. local time, giving people from coast to coast the opportunity to build up their roster of Pokemon and maybe snag a few rares in the process.

Lure modules will be placed at each McDonald’s location in the U.S., which will ensure that Pokemon are drawn to battle there at a much higher frequency. Sponsored PokeStops and Gyms will also be the main attraction, meaning more resources — and opportunities to fight for better rewards — are right at hand.

The promotional weeks for this partnership are as follows:

• Dec. 16 to Dec. 22, 2024
• Jan. 20 to Jan 26, 2025
• Feb. 10 to Feb. 16, 2025
• Mar. 10 to Mar. 16, 2025

While these sorts of corporate team-ups with Pokemon GO typically feature minor add-ons to the app, such as minigames or other exclusive offerings, no news concerning either of these notions has been released as yet.

McDonald’s Promo Overlaps With Pokemon GO’s Holiday Event Part 2

There may also be an opportunity to earn some extra rewards, according to Game Rant.

Pokemon GO’s Holiday Part 2 event launches on Dec. 22, meaning that on that day, there could be a chance that event bonuses could stack with those offered by the McDonald’s promo.

As part of Holiday Part 2, Pokemon GO players earn double XP from catching Pokemon and 50% more XP from completing raid battles.