McDonald’s is giving away free Egg McMuffins to counter Wendy’s breakfast menu launch

Get the free sandwich on Monday by ordering it via the McDonald’s app

McDonald’s is giving away free Egg McMuffins to counter Wendy’s breakfast menu launch 1

McDonald’s Egg McMuffin is turning 50 this year, and to celebrate the special occasion, the fast-food chain is giving away free Egg McMuffins on Monday, which has been declared as National Egg McMuffin Day.

To get the free sandwich, customers will have to order it through the McDonald’s app and is only valid from 6 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. local time at participating locations across the country. The freebie is also limited to one Egg McMuffin per registered user.

Of course, it isn’t coincidence that McDonald’s National Egg McMuffin Day is set to take place on the same day Wendy’s breakfast menu is launching nationwide. With Wendy’s spending more than $80 million this year to promote its breakfast menu, Morningstar analyst R.J. Hottovy told CNN that McDonald’s move to offer free Egg McMuffins will keep the chain on the top of customers’ minds when it comes to breakfast. “It’s more of a defensive move rather than an offensive move,” Hottovy said of the promotion.

Serving breakfast since 2015, McDonalds considers itself as the leader in the highly competitive category. “We win at breakfast,” Linda VanGosen, vice president of menu innovation at McDonald’s, told CNN in January. “We’re frequently innovating and adding new breakfast offerings.”

In fact, in the same month, McDonalds added two chicken breakfast sandwiches to its breakfast menu: the Chicken McGriddles and the McChicken Biscuit.

Despite all that, Wendy’s remains pretty confident that it could change the breakfast game forever. McDonald’s holiday on Monday “is the day that the Egg McMuffin and other old breakfasts are laid to rest. No longer will people have to suffer stale, tired, old sandwiches with folded eggs and microwaved bacon,” Carl Loredo, Wendy’s chief marketing officer, told CNN.

Wendy’s breakfast menu consists of nine sandwiches: including a morning version of its famed Baconator and the new Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit, which is aimed to compete with Popeye’s and Chick-fil-A chicken sandwiches.