Is McDonald's Grimace Shake Returning in 2024? Here's What We Know
From the Chicken Big Mac to the sizable Big Arch burger, McDonald's has released a plethora of buzzworthy new menu items over the past year to keep things fresh and exciting for its customers. However, none have achieved quite as much viral fame as the famous Grimace Shake—a limited-edition purple dessert that became the focal point of a bizarre TikTok trend last year.
McDonald's customers have understandably been wondering if the Grimace Shake will make another appearance on menus following its massively successful run in 2023. But is the iconic item actually slated to come back in 2024? Here's everything we know right now.
What Is the Grimace Shake?
The shake initially hit menus in June 2023 as part of a Grimace Birthday Meal meant to celebrate the fuzzy purple McDonald's mascot. While the chain was intentionally vague about the flavor of the limited-edition shake, some customers said it tasted of vanilla with notes of berry flavor.
Soon after the shake debuted, it began skyrocketing in fame thanks to a strange TikTok trend in which creators would pretend to suffer horror movie-like deaths after taking a sip. The trend was so big that some of the TikTok videos garnered millions of likes and views, and celebrities such as Courtney Cox even joined in on the viral moment.
McDonald's gave a nod to the trend in a June 27 X post with a picture of Grimace captioned: "meee pretending i don't see the grimace shake trendd." Guillaume Huin, the social media director for brand content and engagement at McDonald's USA, later admitted that the company debated whether to acknowledge the videos at first since it "took us a bit of time to process what was happening."
But after devoting time to watching the videos and reading comments from fans, McDonald's was able to understand the "brilliant creativity, unfiltered fun," and "peak absurdist Gen Z humor" of the Grimace Shake trend, Huin said in an X post.
The Grimace Shake Worldwide
While the Grimace Shake hasn't been seen in the United States since 2023, it has made appearances at McDonald's stores in other parts of the world in 2024. It launched in Canada in May 2024, only sticking around for a limited time before going back into retirement again.
Then, in late August, customers overseas got the chance to try the Grimace Shake when it launched for just one week in the United Kingdom. The limited-time debut was in celebration of McDonald's 50th anniversary in Britain.
Most recently, McDonald's brought the Grimace Shake to Australia for a limited time starting in early October. It's available a la carte or as part of a Grimace Meal that comes with fries (320 calories per medium order) and the customer's choice of either a Big Mac (590 calories) or 10-piece Chicken McNuggets (410 calories).
Is the Grimace Shake Returning to the U.S. in 2024?
Though the Grimace Shake has been popping up in some of McDonald's international markets this year, the company has not announced any plans to bring the item back to the United States in 2024. Eat This, Not That! reached out to the chain for comment on whether the shake will return to American menus this year, but did not hear back by publication time.
So, Grimace Shake fans in the States will have to crave the treat from afar for now and keep their fingers crossed for a relaunch in the future. In the meantime, they should keep their eyes peeled for several exciting new arrivals at American McDonald's restaurants, such as the seasonal Boo Buckets and returning Pumpkin and Crème Pie (280 calories).
Nutrition information has been included when available.
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