What America Is Wearing Tonight: Google's Frightgeist Puts a Horror-Movie Unicorn Atop the Halloween Costume Charts
Google Trends' annual Frightgeist list is led by Buddy the Unicorn, a stress ball and a horror-film heroine — while the classics hold their ground: witches, vampires and Spider-Man still fill the streets.
If the costumes at San Antonio doors tonight feel stranger than usual, Google saw it coming. The search company's annual Frightgeist report, built from trending costume searches across the United States, puts Buddy the Unicorn — the bright-orange star of the horror film "Buddy" — at No. 1 for 2026, ahead of Needoh, the stress-ball toy, at No. 2 and Nikki, from the horror film "Obsession," at No. 3.
The classics are not going anywhere. National Retail Federation estimates put witches at roughly 4.8 million adults and vampires at 4.2 million, with Batman at about 2 million, while Spider-Man leads children's costumes at an estimated 4.6 million kids. On Google's trending lists, Dolly Parton is the No. 1 kids' costume, the Centipede leads pet costumes, Disco Scooby and Shaggy top the couples' searches, and searches for Michael Jackson's "Thriller" look have reached a 10-year high.
The trend watch runs past the costume rack. An Innerbody analysis of Google Trends data puts Sour Patch Kids, candy corn, Snickers, Twix and Skittles atop the most-searched Halloween candies in the weeks before tonight. Google says "witches brew punch" is the top trending Halloween drink, search interest in "cauldron crock pot" is at an all-time high, "where can I buy dry ice" is spiking on its usual October schedule, and searches for "nostalgic halloween movies" have increased every year since 2019 — a fair preview of what the city's porches and party tables look like tonight.
