6 Ways To Increase Your Chances Of Winning McDonald’s Monopoly 2022 In The U.K.
The McDonald’s Monopoly game first appeared in the U.S. in 1987. It has since become loved by people all across the world, from South Korea to South Africa, and from Romania to Brazil.
Over in the U.K. the game was first launched in 2005 and has become an iconic yearly event.
Many people are now familiar with the competition and play regularly with the hopes of winning big, although a frequent consolation prize in the form of some free food isn’t too bad either.
McDonald’s has announced the return of the Monopoly to the U.K. this fall.
Although the exact dates have yet to be released it is thought to be occurring over September and October, lasting for around six weeks as per previous games.
McDonald’s Monopoly is completely random, meaning there is no method of guaranteeing success.
However, there are a few techniques which many players believe can help maximize the opportunity to win, whether it be the highly sought-after cash prizes, or a bunch of free chicken nuggets.
How McDonald’s Monopoly Works
The McDonald’s Monopoly game is a highly successful marketing campaign wherein players collect game pieces – in the form of stickers – from certain McDonald’s products.
These game pieces are themed around the traditional Monopoly properties and stations, e.g. Marylebone Station.
To win a prize players must collect a full set of properties.
For example, winning one of the largest prizes requires a complete dark blue set, by collecting both the Mayfair and Park Lane game pieces.
One of each set is usually a rare sticker and finding it is therefore the key to completing the set and winning a prize.
The 2022 prize list has not yet been announced. However, in the 2021 edition, prizes included a hot tub (red set), holidays to Ibiza (green set), and a £100,000 cash prize (ultra-rare dark blue set).
There are also ‘Instant Win’ stickers, which are prizes that can be claimed without the need to collect other game pieces.
These can usually be redeemed in-store and most commonly take the form of free McDonald’s food, although there are other prizes up for grabs too.
Every sticker also contains a 12-digit code which can be entered online or via the McDonald’s app.
By submitting this code, you automatically enter the digital prize draw, where two cash prizes – ranging from £5-100 – are won every minute.
6 Ways To Improve Your Chances Of Winning
Below you’ll find a number of tips and tricks that many players believe give them an edge.
1. Create A Team
The best way to maximize your chances of winning in the McDonald’s Monopoly is quite simple: Buy more McDonald’s products so you have access to more game tokens.
But this can be both expensive and time-consuming.
An alternative is joining together with a team of friends and pooling your resources to boost your chances of completing a set.
Any cash prize can then be split equally between team members.
Of course, dividing a hot tub or other prizes between your group would be a struggle.
We’d suggest sorting out who gets to keep which prize before entering the competition together.
2. Order Healthier Options For The Most Game Pieces
Not all products at McDonald’s are created equal when it comes to Monopoly, with some items containing more game pieces – and therefore more opportunities to win – than others.
All menu items during the Monopoly promotion will contain either three, two, or no stickers.
Due to backlash in previous years, healthier choices such as fruit and vegetable bags have three stickers, whilst other sides like fries will only contain two.
All soft drinks will provide three stickers, as will many burgers and wraps.
The highest number of game pieces you can get per order is nine, so it’s worth tweaking your order to maximize your chances.
The the last thing you want to do is order something that doesn’t have any game pieces, so it might be worth swapping something for a healthier side or adding a soft drink.
3. Enter The Digital Draw During Non-Peak Times
Whilst collecting a full set of properties and winning a big prize should be the goal of every serious McDonald’s Monopoly player, the digital cash prize draw shouldn’t be sniffed at either.
Although significantly smaller than what you’d get for a full property set, winning a digital cash prize can be a much more straightforward process thanks to the volume of prizes – two are won every single minute without fail.
It’s the same number of prizes regardless of how many people have entered, which means that the best way to maximize your chances of winning the digital prize draw is to enter when there is the least amount of competition.
As such, entering the digital prize draw outside of lunch and dinner times – when McDonald’s is busiest – is a sure fire way of improving your chances of winning.
Some players go even further, and enter at extremely obscure times, such as late at night and early in the morning, to ensure they enter when the least number of other people are playing.
5. Try Scooping Prizes Off People Who Don’t Want Them
A lot of McDonald’s customers don’t play or won’t bother to check the Monopoly prizes attached to their meals, meaning ultra-rare game pieces may be being lost to the trash.
Empty bottles and packaging therefore offer a golden, cost-free means of improving your chances of finding a highly sought-after game piece, winning digital code, or instant claim prizes.
Of course, there’s also nothing stopping you from asking other customers in the restaurant whether you can have their unused game pieces.
However, be aware that whilst completely legal, it can be frowned upon by McDonald employees.
5. Keep Hold Of Any Rare Stickers
In each set of McDonald’s Monopoly property sets there are a high volume of common game pieces and one that is significantly rarer.
For example, during the 2021 promotion there was an abundance of Park Lane stickers.
However, in order to complete the dark blue set and claim a £100,000 cash prize, individuals also needed to collect a Mayfair sticker, of which there were only four printed.
As such, it’s vitally important to know which stickers are rare, because these are the ones that can shape the rest of your playing strategy.
If you were lucky enough to come across a Mayfair sticker first, it would be advisable to buy McDonald’s products until you find the relatively common Park Lane sticker.
However, if you come across the Park Lane sticker first, it probably isn’t wise to adopt the same approach in an attempt to find the ultra-rare Mayfair game piece.
This is the full list of rare stickers for 2022. If you find yourself with one of these, it’s sensible to focus on completing that set:
- Dark blue: Mayfair
- Train stations: Liverpool St Station
- Red: Strand
- Yellow: Coventry Street
- Green: Bond Street
- Orange: Marlborough Street
- Light blue: Euston Road
- Pink: Northumberland Avenue
- Brown: Old Kent Road
6. Prepare To Swap Stickers
With different players working on completing a range of property sets, there develops a natural market for game piece trading. This can take the simple form of swapping stickers with friends and family.
However, there are a number of ways strangers also seek to swap game pieces with each other, like through public Facebook groups.
There are also even reports of some people attempting to sell desirable game pieces on eBay.
Of course, trading with people you don’t know comes with a risk.
The stickers could already have been used, be from previous years and thus invalid, or be fakes altogether.
Consequently, it’s advisable to only trade with people who you know and trust.
There are some bad folks out there. Remember over 20 years ago when an ex-cop rigged the game and stole millions?
Nothing Is More Important Than Luck
At the end of the day, the McDonald’s Monopoly is a promotion run by the company to boost its sales and profits.
As such, the chances of winning big are extremely small and it’s therefore wise to not commit too much time or money in trying to win.
Ultimately the deciding factor in this type of competition will always be luck.
However, if Lady Luck does happen to be on your side, these tips might just give you the edge you need to snag yourself a top prize.
Lead image: Brett Jordan via Unsplash
