McDonald’s Monopoly 2021: When does it start and what are the prizes?

MCDONALD’S Monopoly is back today and there are tonnes of prizes up for grabs – including £100,000 in cash and Ibiza holidays.

The annual competition was cancelled in 2020 because of coronavirus, but the food fan fave has returned.

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McDonald’s initially said it was simply pushing back the start date of the 2020 Monopoly game.

That plan was scrapped altogether and the annual McDonald’s Monopoly did not go ahead at all.

But fans of the prize-winning event will be glad to hear that you can play the game from today – here’s everything you need to know about the competition and the prizes you could win.

When does McDonald’s Monopoly start this year?

McDonald’s Monopoly is starting today (Wednesday August 25).

It will last for six weeks before the game ends.

Normally it occurs around spring time and in 2020 the promotion was due to start shortly before it closed all 1,350 branches on March 23 because of the coronavirus crisis.

How does the McDonald’s Monopoly work?

McDonald’s Monopoly was launched in 2005 and the giveaway works along similar rules to the classic Monopoly board game.

Customers can collect game pieces on qualifying McDonald’s products, including the co-ordinated road names like Mayfair and Fleet Street, just like you would in the board game.

You will find them as stickers which will appear on the packaging of whatever food or drink you buy from the chain.

Each game piece represents a tile on the Monopoly board which you can pick up for free in the restaurant or play along online – when you collect a set, you get a prize.

Prize-seekers should ignore the dates on this year’s game pieces, as they have been reused from last year’s game that did not go ahead.

Pieces which show a “play until” date of May 4, 2021, will actually be valid until October 5, 2021.

The following new expiry dates also apply:

• Collect to win non food prizes: old date June 4, 2021, new date November 11, 2021
• Collect to win food prizes: old date May 18, 2021, new date October 19, 2021
• Instant win non-food prize or discount: old date June 4, 2021, new date November 5, 2021
• Instant win food or Just Eat vouchers: old date May 18, 2021, new date October 19, 2021
• Instant win discount voucher (excluding Just Eat) old date, August 31, 2021 or earlier, new date January 31, 2022
• Online game: old date May, 5, 2021, new date October 15, 2021

Prizes range from free food, such as apple pies and Big Macs, to pricier giveaways like holidays.

Some Monopoly pieces are harder to get than others, as fewer will be made available and these usually make up the bigger, more expensive prizes.

There’s also usually instant win stickers which can be redeemed straight away, and these are typically food items.

You have to be over 16 to take part and the event usually runs for about 41 days.

You can play the game if you head in store to order – McDonald’s has a locator tool you can use to find your closest.

But you won’t be left out if you’re ordering online via Uber Eats or if you’re collecting through the app or drive-thru to take away – you will still receive products with the stickers on when using these services.

What are the prizes on offer including VIP Gold Cards?

McDonald’s has revealed all the prizes up for grabs this year.

The top prizes on offer are £100,000 in cash, Ibiza holidays or UK getaways, Lay-Z-Spa hot tubs, phones, £500 shopping sprees at Missguided or Mennace and loads more.

Wireless headphones, personalised phone cases and TVs are on offer too.

One of the most likely of prizes you could win is a Medium Coca-Cola Zero Sugar or medium milkshake – over 10.9million of these are up for grabs.

However, be warned that McDonald’s has run out of milkshakes and bottled drinks for a whole week due to supply issues.

Over 4million Chicken McNuggets packs or Double Cheeseburgers are available to win, as well as millions of discount voucher prizes.

For example, 500,000 voucher codes to get £4 off when you spend £10 on Just Eat are ready to be won.

You’ll have less chance of winning the higher value prizes – four people will bag the £100k cash prize, while 30 holidays to Ibiza or a UK stay-cation are up for grabs.

You can check out the full list of prizes up for grabs – and how many of each prize is available – in our McDonald’s Monopoly explainer.

Also up for grabs is a McDonald’s VIP Gold Card that will give 1,000 lucky winners a free McDonald’s meal every week for a whole year.

Plus, Maccies has announced that an extra 10 VIP Gold Cards are also up for grabs if you’re a McDonald’s app user.

All you need to do is download the app via Google Play or the App Store – which is free to do.

Once you’ve set up an account, head to the app’s homepage and scroll down until you hit the offer.

Click on the offer to register for the competition – you’ll have to put in your email address and phone number to enter.

How do prizes compare to previous years?

In 2019, the last time McDonald’s ran Monopoly, £100,000 in cash was also the top prize available for four winners.

Like this year, all you had to do was collect both dark blue properties.

One difference this year is that there’s no car up for grabs.

Last time, there was an offer of a Mini Cooper for 20 lucky winners who collected all three green properties.

Plus you could have won £2,000 holiday spending money and a PS4 console.

One of the most likely prizes you might have won in the last game was a £50 voucher for Boohoo as 18,000 were available.

Breakfast items aren’t usually included in the giveaway but you can check out the times the morning service runs with our handy guide.

McDonald’s is rolling out reusable “rented” coffee cups that customers return after drinking to help the environment.

The burger chain’s fans were left disappointed by the new McSpicy burger, slamming its “underwhelming” flavour.

This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk