How does McDonald’s Monopoly work and what’s the best way to play the game?

MCDONALD'S has launched its popular Monopoly game, giving fast food fans the chance to win huge prizes.

Monopoly starts today Wednesday, September 6 - and here's everything you need to know if you want to take part.

McDonald's first launched the competition in 2005, and it works in a similar way to the classic Monopoly board game.

Players collect stickers from their food packaging that represent train stations or colour co-ordinated road names.

There is also the chance to win some instant prizes.

We've shared all the rules and the best way to play in this handy guide.

How does McDonald's Monopoly work?

Customers collect game pieces when they buy qualifying McDonald's products, such as colour co-ordinated road names or train stations.

You can find these as stickers that appear on the packaging of your food.

If you want to get the biggest wins you'll need to track down the most rare stickers.

Some food and drink have up to three prizes and others have non at all.

You can get three stickers on each of the following food and drink products:

• Chicken and bacon salad
• Chicken salad
• Chicken selects (3 or 5 Pieces)
• McPlant burger
• Big Tasty (with or without Bacon)
• Any Big Flavour Wrap
• Spicy chicken McNuggets (all sizes)
• Fizzy soft drink (medium or large)
• Any McCafé iced drink
• Side salad, veg bag or fruit bag when sold as part of a medium or large meal
• Any drink sold as part of a medium or large meal served after 11am

There is also a double peel feature that allows you to peel another sticker every time you earn yourself a property in the game.

Once you've purchased food and peeled a sticker, you need to head to the McDonald's app and bank a property by scanning the sticker.

This will provide you with an extra virtual sticker - hence the "double peel".

The maximum number of monopoly pieces you can get at once is nine.

What is the best way to play McDonald's Monopoly?

There are a few tips and tricks to follow if you're more likely to win a prize when playing McDonald's Monopoly.

For example, you can increase your chances of winning by swapping your fries for a healthy side.

The sides of salad, veg or fruit bag, which you can have as part of your meal, come with three pieces.

Fries however come with only two game pieces in a meal.

Game pieces come with a code to play games online - but there are times to avoid.

Lunch and dinner time are particularly busy - the more people playing, the less chance there is to win.

There are two cash prizes up for grabs per minute, and non-cash prizes are "allocated across the hours in that day at random subject to due weighting to take account of anticipated rates of game-play at different times of the day" according to the rules.

If you spot empty packets or cups on tables, it's worth checking to see if there's a tile you can use.

This practice is known as "wombling", though it's not always approved by companies, but millions of people do it across the country.

How long does McDonald's Monopoly last?

McDonald's Monopoly will run for six weeks, from today September 6.

This year the popular game is also available on UberEats meaning you could be in with a chance of winning a prize without even leaving the house.

Meanwhile, we explain whether you can play Mcdonald's Monopoly on breakfast items.

And you can also find out when the Monopoly codes expire so that you don't miss out.

Here we reveal the "secret" Monopoly game only certain people are allowed to play.