Have McDonald's PlayPlaces Been Discontinued?

The only thing that tastes better than the Coke at McDonald's is the sweet savor of nostalgia. Who among us doesn't have a cherished memory of the McDonald's PlayPlace? From sugar-fueled birthday parties to epic smackdowns with our siblings in the ball pit, the PlayPlace was absolute fire in the 1990s and 2000s. But then, the great thief called Time crept in and changed everything. Why is there such a shortage of PlayPlaces at our neighborhood McDonald's locations today? Do they even exist anymore? Or have those plastic structures of dubious cleanliness departed with Mayor McCheese and Officer Big Mac to the Elysian Fields of McDonaldland?

The answer is actually rather complicated. COVID-19 sounded the death knell for many PlayPlaces, but the play areas were on the way out for quite a while before that. A few PlayPlaces have come back from the brink of extinction — they are still mentioned on the Golden Arches' website — but they are now noticeably few and far between. The reasons why are multitudinous.

There are a great many McDonald's locations in the world, but the percentage of those with PlayPlaces has taken a nose-dive. The obvious culprit for the decline is the sanitation issue. You thought the onion-related E.coli outbreak involving Quarter Pounders was nasty? With all those misty memories we cherish of ball pits and twisty slides, who doesn't have a horror story involving soda spills or a toddler with a leaky diaper? Keeping the child-sized nooks and crannies of the PlayPlace clean was notoriously difficult for adult-sized employees. During the COVID-19 pandemic, heightened fears about germs were the last nail in the coffin for many restaurants vacillating on maintaining their play structures.

There's also the fact that both children's and parents' habits have changed since the heyday of fast food playgrounds. Nowadays, many kids want to chill on an iPad after downing their Happy Meals. Besides, today's fast food consumers are much more likely to want to hit the drive-thru or even order delivery than eat in the dining room.

With all that said, the PlayPlace hasn't completely gone the way of the dinosaurs. On Reddit, a handful of commenters reported seeing kids playing at their local Golden Arches, giving us hope that a whole new generation of children will have their immune systems strengthened by exposure after chowing down on chicky nugs.