From candy bowls to costume carts, here's what 2025 Instacart orders reveal about Halloween trends.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Reese's runs the country. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are the No. 1 candy by ounces sold, and the top seller in 40 of 51 states and D.C. 

• Montana has a wildly specific personality. The state buys HI-CHEW at +616% above the national share, the biggest candy over-index anywhere in the country.

• The West fills the biggest bowls. Utah (+67%), Idaho (+50%), and Alaska (+47%) buy the most candy relative to the rest of the country. The Northeast buys the least. No judgment, but also…noted.

• The Pacific Northwest is home to the five cities that take the Candy Capital crown. Anchorage, AK (+56%), Eugene, OR (+53%), Tacoma, WA (+51%), Vancouver, WA (+48%), and Spokane, WA (+47%) lead all cities in the country. 

• Rhode Island is out here doing its own thing. It's the only state where Sour Patch Kids beat both Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Peanut M&M's for the top spot. 

• Banana is the top food costume, and our top-selling item. Among adults shopping for food-related costumes, “Banana” took the crown. Fitting, since bananas are the #1 selling item on Instacart. We love to see it. 🍌

We dug into what millions of Americans put in their Instacart carts throughout October. Read on for the full sugar rush. 🎃

America's Candy Leaderboard: The Crown Goes to Reese's 🍬

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups took the No. 1 spot by ounces of candy sold and it wasn't even close. The top five is a chocolate bloc: Peanut M&M's in second, Hershey's Milk Chocolate in third, M&M's in fourth, and Snickers in fifth. You don't even get to a non-chocolate candy until No. 7, where Sour Patch Kids sneaks into the mix!

One Map, One Winner (Almost) 🍫

State by state, the consensus holds. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are the top seller in 40 of them. A Peanut M&M's corridor sweeps through the Plains and Mountain West and out to Hawaii. And then there's Rhode Island, the lone sour candy holdout in a sea of chocolate, where Sour Patch Kids actually took the top spot. Rhode Island might be a small state, but the data shows it has a big personality.

Now Here's Where It Gets Fun 🎉

The most popular candy in each state tells a simple story. The candy each state buys way more of than everyone else tells a much more nuanced one.

Montana buying HI-CHEW at +616% above the national average is the headline that no prediction market could have gotten right. Louisiana's loyalty to Tootsie Pops (+141%) borders on devotion. The Northeast leans hard into Sour Patch Kids with Rhode Island ordering them +109% more often than the rest of the country. And Colorado and Wyoming? These two states can’t get enough Candy Corn. 

Who Goes All In? 🍭

Set aside any single candy and let’s now look at the full candy aisle: which states devote the biggest slice of their overall cart to candy in October? The answer runs west, decisively.

Utah (+67% above the national average), Idaho (+50%), Alaska (+47%), Washington (+43%), and Montana (+40%) buy candy the most often in the country. The Northeast leads the pack in the other direction: Delaware (-18%), Pennsylvania (-16%), and New York (-15%) are the most restrained. Nobody has a sweet tooth quite like the Mountain West and Pacific Northwest. They really show up for Halloween like no other!

The Candy Capitals 🏆

Zoom to the city level and the Pacific Northwest and Alaska show up once again. Anchorage, AK (+56% above the national average), Eugene, OR (+53%), Tacoma, WA (+51%), Vancouver, WA (+48%), and Spokane, WA (+47%) top the list. The bottom of the rankings is equally clustered: Newark, New York City, and a string of NY, NJ, and PA cities all buying candy well below the national rate.

What's fascinating is how clean the split is. The top cities are almost all Pacific Northwest, while the bottom cities are almost all Northeast. Both regions are up north, both get a proper chill in October, and both have plenty of family-friendly neighborhoods. Bottom line: depending on where you live, Halloween traditions might just look a little different.

Now, About Those Costumes 👻

When it comes to costumes, adults and kids tend to shop classic and spooky: Skeleton and Witch costumes lead the way for adults, while kids go for Ghostface masks (from Scream) with Witch and Skeleton close behind. The accessories aisle runs on hats, jewelry, and gloves, because the right hat can totally make the full costume.

And then there are the food costumes.

Since Instacart is a grocery technology company, we simply had to look. Among adult food costumes, Banana took the top spot. Fitting, since bananas happen to be the #1 selling item on Instacart. We love to see it. 🍌

The Bowl Is Full 🎃

So whether you're filling the candy bowl with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, dressing up to go trick-or-treating (psst, head to the PNW!), or trying to make it through October without eating all the candy before Halloween, Instacart has got all the goods to make your spooky season extra spectacular. Happy Halloween! 🎃