Here’s The Most Popular (And Least Popular) Halloween Candy In Every State

Halloween is right around the corner, and it’s time to stock up on Halloween candy. There’s no question that each trick-or-treater (and every trick-or-treaters’ parent) has a preferred Halloween candy to put in their bucket, but do states have overall favorite (and least favorite) that differ regionally?

My Telescope researched the most searched for candy brands by state, specifically focusing on chocolate candies. Based on Google search volumes, which are then ranked using Share of Search, they found that Snickers is the preferred candy in 23 out of 50 states. KitKat and Hershey came in second, with 6 states loving KitKats and 5 States loving Hershey’s chocolate bars.

Other interesting takeaways:

Indiana is the only state loving Butterfingers, and Baby Ruth is the least searched for chocolate by state.

Tootsie Rolls were popular in a number of states (for some reason), including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

Milky Ways were coveted the most in Colorado, Connecticut, and Idaho.

Kentucky and Louisiana both went for 3 Musketeers bars. Huh.

The least popular candy searches included Baby Ruth, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, 100 Grands, Crunch Bars, Almond Joys, Hershey’s Kisses, Pay Days, and Baby Ruths. Don’t be surprised if that’s why you might find a bunch of those bars at the bottom of your kid’s trick-or-treat bag this year.

The full list of each states’ most and least preferred candy can be found here.

So if chocolate candy dominates when it comes to people’s preferences, where does all other candy rank?

According to Rite Aid sales data, there were over 2.8 million pounds of candy sold at Rite Aid alone for the holiday season. SKITTLES®, Tootsie Pops, and HARIBO Trick-or-Treat Gummies are the three most popular non-chocolate candies. But chocolate still rules, taking about two-thirds of Halloween candy sales. The most popular chocolate choices? Reeses, Milky Way, and M&Ms. Someone tell them about Snickers!

The “love it or hate it” candy also knows as candy corn is also (surprisingly) a top performer in stores with more than 138,000 pounds of it sold around the holiday. Someone’s got to fill grandma’s candy dishes.

And according to Rite Aid, people take their time before purchasing candy for trick-or-treaters are ringing doorbells. 45% of all bagged candy purchases happened the week leading up to the holiday in 2021.

I think the inference can be made that most people don’t trust themselves with an entire bag of candy in their home for over a week for obvious reasons which would lead to procrastination of Halloween candy shopping.