The Poppable McDonald's Fish Item That Disappeared Almost Instantly

Even though McDonald's is known worldwide as a burger restaurant, it has carved a niche with both chicken and fish. Chicken McNuggets are a customer favorite, but it's hard to overlook the popularity of the Filet-O-Fish as well. McDonald's sells 300 million of these fish sandwiches every year, so it clearly has a fanbase. It's no wonder then that McDonald's had tried to introduce seafood to the menu at other times. Unfortunately for the chain, its Chicken McNugget-esque Fish McBites didn't have staying power.

If you have never heard of Fish McBites, you're not alone. These little battered and fried bits of Alaskan pollock are one of those discontinued McDonald's menu items we don't miss. Fish McBites were introduced in February 2013 in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Filet-O-Fish. They even came with their own commercial featuring a Fish McBite dancing to the "Fishy Fishy" song. Surprisingly, this wasn't sufficient to draw in enough fans to keep the Fish McBites on the menu.

Just one month after their debut, CBS News reported that Fish McBites were suffering poor sales. A few weeks later, at the very end of the month, news broke that the Fish McBites were being discontinued entirely. They lasted less than three months.

Why did the McBites fail? McDonald's was dealing with a lull in sales at the time and the McBites needed to become popular fast, which they just couldn't do. People made fun of the singing fish marketing campaign and some fans of the Filet-O-Fish pointed out that the McBites had an unusual taste.

For a company as big as McDonald's that has been around for so long, it's not surprising that it has had a few failures. The Fish McBites are just one drop in the ocean of mistakes and experiments the chain has tried. Most people have heard of things like the McPizza, McSpaghetti, and the Hula Burger, but there are so many more items that stumbled out of the McGate.

Sticking with seafood, McDonald's axed its McLobster roll as a widespread menu item due to a number of concerns that included issues with supplying, storing, and handling fresh lobster meat. Additionally, it was a niche item most people didn't really want from a fast food restaurant.

Other short-lived items have included Muffin Toppers, which seemed to have been inspired by a Seinfeld joke. They were just the tops of muffins without the stump. McDonald's tried these in 2018, but by 2019 they were nowhere to be found. In 2015, the chain tried to offer mozzarella sticks that failed so spectacularly they resulted in a lawsuit. One customer alleged in legal filings that the mozzarella sticks didn't actually include cheese. The case was settled for a small amount of money and the cheese sticks were discontinued.

Many items McDonald's introduces are meant to be available for a limited time. They are released to test the waters. If customers really like them, maybe they get added to the menu. If not, then they were never a permanent addition in the first place. This saves the company from another Fish McBites problem in the future.