Last year was a weird year for Halloween and trick-or-treating. No one was vaccinated and there was a fall surge in covid. The uncertainty was even greater then than now. But we do feel like this year Halloween will reach and maybe eclipse it’s former pre-pandemic peak.
Disclaimer: We at CandyStore.com recommend you monitor your local situation and follow health guidelines if you plan to trick-or-treat. Pay attention to local trends and do your own research.
According to the National Retail Federation, Halloween candy spending should hit a whopping $3Billion this year! That’s a 20% increase over last year and 10% over the previous all time high. That’s a big deal.
Overall Halloween spending is predicted to be over $10Billion. That’s up 26% over last year. Bring on Halloween!
The map above reveals the results of our annual data mining, the top 3 most popular Halloween candies in each state. Hover over your state to see the goods. (Apologies, it’s not interactive on mobile devices).
Last year we had a cyberpunk future theme, and this year we went a bit more topical with our prediction of the future. In honor of the simultaneous rise of Terminators from Cyberdine humanoid robots from Tesla and Bitcoin this year, our 2021 map design is something we think HAL 9000 would appreciate.
So, please enjoy the results in the fun map above. Do your state’s choices surprise you? The top Halloween candy in your state are not always what you think they were. Salt water taffy and Hot Tamales performed much better than some expected, for example.
For over 14 years, we’ve been delivering bulk candy around the country. As bulk candy retailers and distributors, we’ve got a lot of candy sales data to comb through. Including some we shipped to New York in recent years…
Hoda and Kathy Lee loved our map!
We have seen a lot of surprising favorites and least favorites over the years. That’s why working with unbiased data is so much fun. We looked at 14 years of sales data (2007-2021), looking in particular at the months leading up to Halloween. We sell nationwide (and to Canada) so we broke down our sales by state. We also have relationships with major candy manufacturers and distributors – all of whom contributed and helped us reach our conclusions.
Then we charted the best sellers in every state for Halloween. And we present it to you in the above futuristic interactive map of the most popular Halloween candy. If you’d like to see the nationwide winners, we made a graphic for that too:
As mentioned above, the National Retail Federation is estimating that shoppers will spend $2.72 billion on Halloween candy.
As you might expect, consumer confidence is still down a bit (-5%) this year, fueled mostly by uncertainty surrounding delta variant and vaccine booster outlook.
Industry research showed in 2015 that online candy sales were increasing by 15 percent. People are realizing they can save time and money – and not risk covid-19 exposure – by skipping the store and purchasing from the comfort of their home. But will you buy the right candy?
Have a look at the candy your state loves. Let us know what you think in the comments below.
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State by State Data Table
| State | Top Candy | Pounds | 2nd Place | Pounds | 3rd Place | Pounds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AL | Starburst | 109827 | Skittles | 103827 | Candy Corn | 89727 |
| AK | Sour Patch Kids | 4782 | Twix | 4572 | Milky Way | 3892 |
| AZ | Hot Tamales | 770928 | Hershey Kisses | 742948 | Snickers | 698271 |
| AR | Jolly Ranchers | 211337 | Butterfinger | 187494 | Skittles | 72474 |
| CA | Reese's Cups | 1209299 | Skittles | 1197262 | M&M's | 1097535 |
| CO | Hershey Kisses | 119050 | Twix | 115797 | Milky Way | 98412 |
| CT | Almond Joy | 2873 | Milky Way | 2198 | M&M's | 1872 |
| DE | Skittles | 19827 | Life Savers | 15628 | Sour Patch Kids | 9827 |
| FL | Reese's Cups | 578292 | Skittles | 510928 | Starburst | 380827 |
| GA | Swedish Fish | 136319 | Jolly Ranchers | 112734 | Reese's Cups | 83787 |
| HI | Hershey's Mini Bars | 25827 | Skittles | 24827 | Butterfinger | 19827 |
| ID | Starburst | 82366 | Snickers | 64838 | Candy Corn | 36833 |
| IL | Sour Patch Kids | 162272 | Kit Kat | 126533 | Starburst | 112073 |
| IN | Starburst | 92026 | Hot Tamales | 90196 | Jolly Ranchers | 69387 |
| IA | M&M's | 64031 | Reese's Cups | 55593 | Candy Corn | 45325 |
| KS | Reese's Cups | 215638 | M&M's | 201837 | Sour Patch Kids | 191020 |
| KY | Reese's Cups | 69826 | Swedish Fish | 54728 | Hot Tamales | 35928 |
| LA | Lemonheads | 115789 | Reese's Cups | 98726 | Blow Pops | 84627 |
| ME | Sour Patch Kids | 58378 | Starburst | 46829 | Candy Corn | 11929 |
| MD | Hershey Kisses | 34827 | Reese's Cups | 33849 | Hershey's Mini Bars | 24817 |
| MA | Sour Patch Kids | 65683 | Butterfinger | 68380 | Dubble Bubble Gum | 44194 |
| MI | Starburst | 110748 | Candy Corn | 98736 | Skittles | 95689 |
| MN | Tootsie Pops | 181827 | Skittles | 168726 | Hot Tamales | 130827 |
| MS | 3 Musketeers | 92736 | Snickers | 89723 | Butterfinger | 76830 |
| MO | Milky Way | 44827 | Almond Joy | 38721 | Hot Tamales | 37643 |
| MT | Dubble Bubble Gum | 28736 | Twix | 24827 | M&M's | 20927 |
| NE | Sour Patch Kids | 92823 | Salt Water Taffy | 81918 | Twix | 32418 |
| NV | Hershey Kisses | 293248 | Hot Tamales | 259565 | Candy Corn | 202645 |
| NH | M&M's | 65782 | Starburst | 55377 | Jolly Ranchers | 33772 |
| NJ | M&M's | 141782 | Tootsie Pops | 137992 | Skittles | 130098 |
| NM | Jolly Ranchers | 75447 | Candy Corn | 70898 | Hershey's Mini Bars | 56230 |
| NY | Sour Patch Kids | 138750 | Hot Tamales | 129337 | Candy Corn | 60508 |
| NC | Reese's Cups | 83928 | Snickers | 78625 | M&M's | 75262 |
| ND | Hot Tamales | 58726 | Jolly Ranchers | 52839 | Candy Corn | 38726 |
| OH | Blow Pops | 157827 | M&M's | 148727 | Starburst | 132890 |
| OK | Skittles | 19232 | Dubble Bubble Gum | 14990 | Snickers | 12109 |
| OR | M&M's | 82842 | Reese's Cups | 75551 | Candy Corn | 55718 |
| PA | Hershey's Mini Bars | 239081 | M&M's | 215637 | Skittles | 199727 |
| RI | Twix | 15627 | M&M's | 13291 | Candy Corn | 9827 |
| SC | Butterfinger | 112879 | Skittles | 108764 | Candy Corn | 80927 |
| SD | Starburst | 23670 | Jolly Ranchers | 22901 | Candy Corn | 12829 |
| TN | Tootsie Pops | 54829 | Skittles | 49837 | Salt Water Taffy | 31082 |
| TX | Starburst | 916491 | Reese's Cups | 880526 | Sour Patch Kids | 610116 |
| UT | Tootsie Pops | 405662 | Jolly Ranchers | 294759 | Candy Corn | 239846 |
| VT | Skittles | 31702 | M&M's | 23292 | Milky Way | 18880 |
| VA | Hot Tamales | 155272 | Snickers | 152839 | Tootsie Pops | 102847 |
| DC | M&M's | 25772 | Tootsie Pops | 22789 | Blow Pops | 17846 |
| WA | Tootsie Pops | 186570 | Salt Water Taffy | 163264 | Skittles | 85315 |
| WV | Hershey's Mini Bars | 35930 | Blow Pops | 34899 | Hershey's Mini Bars | 29822 |
| WI | Butterfinger | 103827 | Starburst | 101827 | Hot Tamales | 78920 |
| WY | Reese's Cups | 24746 | Salt Water Taffy | 22938 | Dubble Bubble Gum | 17820 |
So, what candy do people in your area like? If you get the wrong thing, the consequences could be dire. The inverse of treat is trick, as we all know. Streaming TP from your tree limbs? Ok hopefully kids in your neighborhood wouldn’t do that. But the adults might :|
So how did we do? Did your personal favorite match your state?
Leave a comment and let us know!
For more info or press inquiries contact Ben at: ben@candystore.com
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i like candy corn
me 2
“We sell to all 50 states – plus Canada – so we broke down our sales by state.”
Where’s the breakdown by province?
epic
In some states it’s legal to burn someone’s house to the ground if they hand you candy corn.
Hahaha
nice
Missourians HATE Milky Ways! I don’t agree with this AT ALL!!!!!
Awesome map! I hope you make this an annual thing. I am sharing this to see what my friends in different states will say. :)
Thank you!
I live in Western NC and we also live Dove Chocolate!
Unfortunately Salt Water Taffy is not packaged for Halloween distribution.
Let’s remember ‘most popular’ candy isn’t the same as ‘favorite candy’ because many of these #1’s (I’m looking at your candy corn, Alabama) are candies that are purchased to give out to trick-or-treaters and many are on a budget so they go with the most affordable option to give away. Trust me, every kid in Birmingham would prefer a Reese’s over candy corn. Every. Single. One. LoL
What? No caramel-covered sardines?
Hot Tamales may be the rage for NY City. There is a whole lot more to New York than New York City. I wish they would have done due diligence and surveyed the rest of the state. Then again candy corn is the third place in NY State. Please. Go ahead and give the kiddies candy corn and Hot Tamales. See what happens to your house.
What? No Three Musketeers? Who da thunk it??
Is North Dakota the Misery State because its favorite candy is candy corn?
And also, how is Skittles the most liked candy when only 4 states consider that their favorite candy?
Math, probably. I failed it at school though….
candied beans dipped in liquid nitrogen over a hibachi grill
This list reflects the tastes and spending habits of the buyers rather than the preferences of the kids. We set up a cart covered with a variety of candies from the very large chocolate bars, bags of gummy worms and bears, and this year “mystery bags” filled with a large handful of mixed candies. Each trick or treater no matter what their height gets to choose one treat from the cart. The mystery bags were not a hit. And surprisingly the 8 ounce bags of gummy worms were more popular than the 7 ounce chocolate bars. But the one thing that we ran out of was the large Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. FYI the mystery bags had the individually wrapped Reeses peanut butter cups, tootsie rolls, candy “eye balls”, and other assorted candies.