Applebee's $200 Date Night Pass Broke The Internet

The Applebee's promotion sold out within one minute.

Retail Photographer/Shutterstock
By  Dennis Lee

Applebee's recently announced the release of a special promotion, the Date Night Pass. For a one-time cost of $200, the pass holder would be entitled to $30 worth of food and non-alcoholic beverages per week at Applebee's, for a full year. That amounts to $1,560 worth of food and drink, which is a pretty great return on investment—and apparently, way too many people agreed with that assessment. When the $200 Date Night Pass went on sale earlier this week, demand was so high that it sold out in 60 seconds.

Applebee’s Date Night Pass sold out within one minute

Yes, the Date Night Pass dropped on January 22, at 12 p.m. Eastern, and sold out within one minute. An Applebee's spokesperson confirmed to The Takeout that there "were nearly 100,000 guests waiting to try and snag a Date Night Pass."

The passes ended up in the hands of customers in 41 states across the country. Thus, the vast majority of the almost 100,000 people who wanted to get their hands on one could not. So, naturally, many expressed their frustration about it on the internet.

One user on X said, "Applebees date night pass went on sale at 12pmEST. Website crashed the first few minutes. By the time I got in, sold out."

The sentiment about the website's load capacity was echoed by other users. "Absolute TERRIBLE handling of @Applebees new roll out of the Date Night Pass card," said another X user. "It seems no one was able to get on and even get a chance to buy it because the website kept crashing."

An Applebee's representative later informed me that despite what users were saying, the site itself hadn't crashed—the pass simply sold out that fast. The company never disclosed how many passes were available to begin with, so we don't know just how many were shelled out, but the company certainly got plenty of social media chatter out of the stunt.

Whoever ends up with the cards will break even if they visit Applebee's seven times within the 52 weeks that the card is active. What's interesting is that I previously confirmed that the pass could also be used for catering orders, which means that even if you don't have someone to visit with, you could still take home a tray of salad for meal prep.

There's no word on whether the Applebee's Date Night Pass will be released again in the future, but if it happens again, I'm sure the same thing will happen to the website. It's just too good a deal to pass up, provided you don't get tired of Applebee's food once a week.

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