The 10 most popular Halloween candies in the U.S.

The roster of the most popular Halloween candy in the U.S. has barely shifted in decades. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, M&M's, Snickers and candy corn land near the top of seasonal sales lists and consumer surveys year after year. Newer arrivals such as Sour Patch Kids have widened the field rather than displaced anyone.

That consistency is what makes the category worth understanding. Americans spend billions of dollars on Halloween candy each fall, and most of it goes to brands the adults handing out the candy remember from their own childhoods. Hershey, Mars and Mondelez $MDLZ plan their autumn production and packaging around that predictability. Fun-size, snack-size and multi-pound variety bags ship to stores well before October.

The stakes are practical for anyone stocking a bowl. Retailers order inventory against these patterns. Manufacturers time limited-edition flavors and pumpkin-shaped molds to the weeks leading up to Oct. 31. Households buying in bulk want candy that gets eaten rather than picked over and abandoned. Allergen concerns shape purchases too. Fruit chews such as Skittles, Starburst and Sour Patch Kids are made without peanuts or chocolate, which gives households something to offer visitors who avoid the nut-and-chocolate bars at the center of the aisle.

Chocolate takes the largest share of Halloween candy spending nationwide, but non-chocolate candy holds a durable position, particularly among younger trick-or-treaters who prefer chewy, fruity or sour flavors. Candy corn occupies a category of its own, mocked widely and bought anyway, often for decoration and baking as much as for eating.

The 10 candies below are the names that recur across retail sales tracking, industry data from the National Confectioners Association and the yearly survey rankings compiled by CandyStore.com. The order reflects general sales consistency rather than a single authoritative annual ranking, since figures move between sources and seasons. Each entry covers what the candy is, where it came from and why it keeps earning space in trick-or-treat bags.

Illustration: Quartz

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups rank as the top-selling Halloween candy in the U.S. in most seasonal sales tallies and consumer surveys. CandyStore.com, which publishes a state-by-state ranking each fall, has placed the cups at or near the top of its national list for years. The milk chocolate and salted peanut butter pairing holds across age groups.

The candy traces to H.B. Reese, a former Hershey employee who began making confections in Pennsylvania in the 1920s and introduced the peanut butter cup in 1928. Reese died in 1956, and his company merged with Hershey in 1963. The cup now sells year-round rather than only in the fall.

Format flexibility explains much of the Halloween strength. Reese's comes in miniatures, snack-size cups, standard two-packs and seasonal molds, and the smaller sizes fit the way trick-or-treat candy actually gets handed out — one or two pieces per door.

The pumpkin-shaped version has its own following. Fans argue it carries more peanut butter per bite than the ridged standard cup, a difference that comes down to shape and the ratio of filling to chocolate rather than any confirmed change to the recipe.

The flavor combination is harder to copy than it looks. A peanut butter cup answers a chocolate craving and a salty one in the same bite, and no rival version has matched Reese's shelf space in U.S. stores during the season.

Brand recognition does the rest. A household buying three or four pounds of candy in a single trip tends to reach for a name it already knows, and Reese's fills bulk bins and bagged assortments in grocery, drugstore and warehouse chains through September and October.

One practical point for anyone filling a bowl: the cups contain peanuts. Households expecting trick-or-treaters with nut allergies usually set out a fruit-chew or hard-candy option alongside them, or keep a separate bowl of non-chocolate pieces by the door.

Illustration: Quartz

M&M's rank among the best-selling Halloween candies in the U.S. in both plain milk chocolate and peanut form. The reason is partly structural. A hard sugar shell keeps the chocolate intact in a warm hand, a pillowcase or a bowl left out on a porch for hours.

Mars began producing M&M's in 1941. The name comes from Forrest Mars Sr. and Bruce Murrie. The candy-coated design let chocolate hold its shape in heat without melting. Much of the early production went to U.S. troops during World War II, and the format proved itself there before it reached the general public.

Peanut M&M's arrived in 1954 and widened the brand beyond plain chocolate buyers by adding crunch and a savory note. Mars has since extended the line into peanut butter, almond, crispy, caramel and dark chocolate versions. Plain and peanut still take up most of the fall shelf space.

Color has done a great deal of work for the brand's visibility. Red was pulled from the mix in 1976 amid consumer concern over Red Dye No. 2, a dye the candy never contained, and it returned in 1987. Blue joined the lineup in 1995 after a public vote. Mars has run comparable color and flavor campaigns since, which keeps the candy in conversation outside October.

For Halloween, the appeal is logistical as much as sentimental. Fun-size pouches ship in multi-pound bags built for high-volume handouts, and each pouch holds enough pieces to register as a real handful rather than a single bite. The sealed packaging also travels well, which matters to parents who check bags at the end of the night.

The slogan "melts in your mouth, not in your hands" has run in some form since the 1950s, and it states the practical case for the candy directly. Durability, portion control and bulk availability explain why the brand holds its spot in October displays year after year.

Illustration: Quartz

Candy corn is the most divisive item in the Halloween aisle and still one of the top-selling sugar candies of the season. The tri-colored kernels date to the 1880s, which makes them older than nearly every chocolate bar handed out on Oct. 31.

The candy is generally credited to George Renninger of the Wunderle Candy Company in Philadelphia. The Goelitz Confectionery Company, known today as Jelly Belly, started making it near the end of the 19th century and pushed it toward national distribution. Early batches sold under the name Chicken Feed, a nod to corn as livestock feed rather than dessert. Brach's later grew into the largest producer and remains the brand most shoppers picture.

The formula stays basic: sugar, corn syrup, binders and confectioner's glaze, layered into a kernel of white, orange and yellow. Original production called for warm candy poured by hand into kernel-shaped molds in three passes, one color per pass.

The tie to Halloween runs deeper than it does for most competitors, because the shape and palette were built around harvest imagery first. Chocolate bars were created for year-round sale and later wrapped in orange each September. Candy corn already looked like autumn.

That history explains the gap between sales volume and reputation. The kernels are a fixture of worst-candy lists, and bags of them still clear shelves every fall. Much of that buying is decorative or culinary rather than straight snacking. Candy corn turns up in bark, cookies, popcorn mixes, cupcake toppings and centerpiece jars, where the color scheme does most of the work.

Manufacturers have tried to widen the appeal with spinoffs, including caramel apple, s'mores and chocolate-flavored versions, plus Thanksgiving and Christmas color variants of the same kernel shape. The original flavor still dominates, and the yearly argument over who actually eats it keeps the product in conversation each October.

Illustration: Quartz

Skittles rank among the most widely handed-out non-chocolate candies at Halloween in the U.S., and the appeal skews toward younger trick-or-treaters. The draw is straightforward: a chewy fruit center inside a hard sugar shell, sold in a mix of bright colors, with no chocolate and no nuts.

The brand started in the U.K. in 1974 and reached American shelves as an import in 1979. Domestic production followed in the early 1980s. Mars sells Skittles today through Mars Wrigley, its confectionery division.

The standard red bag holds strawberry, orange, lemon, green apple and grape, a lineup that has shifted only at the edges over the decades. Lime was the original green flavor until green apple replaced it in the U.S. in 2013. Mars returned lime to the original mix in 2021.

"Taste the rainbow," in use since 1994, is one of the longest-running taglines in American candy advertising. Three decades of repetition keep the brand recognizable to parents who grew up with it and now buy it by the pound.

Texture accounts for much of the Halloween demand. A bowl weighted toward chocolate offers one basic mouthfeel, and Skittles break that up with a crack-then-chew bite. The candy also travels well, holding its shape in a pillowcase on a cool October evening rather than softening or blooming the way chocolate can.

Allergen planning drives sales too. Skittles are made without peanuts, tree nuts or chocolate, which makes them a common pick for households expecting trick-or-treaters with nut allergies. Anyone managing a severe allergy should still read the current package label rather than rely on the recipe alone.

Mars supports the season with fun-size pouches sold in large bulk bags. The brand's spinoffs — sour, tropical and wild berry among them — give repeat buyers an alternative to the original mix each fall.

Illustration: Quartz

Snickers is one of the best-selling candy bars in the U.S., and its four-part build sets it apart in a trick-or-treat bag. Peanuts, caramel, nougat and milk chocolate make it one of the more substantial handouts of the night. Mars has made the bar since 1930, naming it after a horse owned by the Mars family rather than after an ingredient.

Inside, whipped nougat forms the base. Caramel and whole roasted peanuts sit on top, and milk chocolate seals the bar. One bite delivers chewy, soft and crunchy textures at once. The nougat is a whipped mix of egg white and sugar, lighter than the fudgier fillings used in some competing bars. The peanuts add protein and fat that sugar-and-chocolate candies lack. That density is why a Snickers eats more like a snack than a sweet.

Mars has built its marketing around that idea. The "you're not you when you're hungry" campaign began in 2010 and positioned the bar as a hunger fix rather than a dessert. Mars has run variations of the line for well over a decade.

The bar also carries a split naming history. In the U.K. and Ireland it sold as Marathon $MPC until 1990. Mars then moved it to the Snickers name already used in the U.S. and most other markets.

Halloween sales run through the fun-size format. Multi-pound bags of miniature bars reach U.S. grocery and warehouse stores by late summer. Snickers also anchors the Mars mixed bags that group it with other brands from the company. The peanuts rule the bar out for households avoiding nut allergens, the one structural limit on its reach on Oct. 31.

Seasonal packaging covers snack-size and share-size options, though the recipe matches the year-round bar sold at checkout counters. Mars sells spin-offs including Snickers Almond and Snickers Peanut Butter Squared, but the original bar is what fills Halloween bags.

Illustration: Quartz

The Hershey's milk chocolate bar sells on familiarity rather than novelty. It holds no caramel, nougat, wafer or nuts — just molded milk chocolate scored into rectangles — and that plainness has kept it in Halloween bowls since Milton Hershey introduced it in 1900.

Hershey built the product around mass production at a time when milk chocolate was still a European luxury. He sold his Lancaster Caramel Company and put the money into a chocolate plant in rural Pennsylvania, close to the dairy farms that supplied the milk. The town that grew up around the factory took the company's name. Hershey, Pennsylvania remains the site of one of the largest chocolate manufacturing operations in North America.

The flavor is distinctive. Hershey's milk chocolate carries a slightly tangy, acidic note that separates it from smoother European-style bars. Generations of American shoppers have come to treat that taste as the default for milk chocolate. On Halloween night, the bar is a known quantity at the door.

For trick-or-treat distribution, the full-size bar gives way to snack-size and miniature formats. Those miniatures are often sold in assortment bags alongside Krackel and Mr. Goodbar, two other Hershey brands. Hershey's Kisses arrive in orange, purple and black foil wrappers for the season, which gives the same chocolate a Halloween-specific look without any change to the recipe.

The bar also earns shelf space because of what people do with it beyond snacking. It is the standard chocolate layer in s'mores, broken along its scored segments to fit a graham cracker. It turns up again in bark, fudge and cookie recipes through the fall and winter holidays.

Few other Halloween candies carry that second life as a baking ingredient. That dual use helps explain why the bar stays stocked in U.S. grocery, drug and convenience stores from September onward. Seasonal novelty shapes and limited-edition flavors rotate off the shelf after October 31. The plain bar does not.

Illustration: Quartz

Starburst is the chewy fruit square that turns up in Halloween bowls alongside chocolate, built on a dense, taffy-like bite and four core flavors: strawberry, cherry, orange and lemon. Mars sells it in individually wrapped pieces, a format suited to handing out candy to dozens of children in one evening.

The candy started in the U.K. in 1960 under the name Opal Fruits and reached the U.S. market as Starburst. The U.K. brand held onto the Opal Fruits name until the late 1990s, which is why older British shoppers still ask for the candy by that name. Mars has owned the brand throughout, and the two markets now share the Starburst label.

Texture separates it from the rest of the fruit candy aisle. A Starburst square is softer than a hard candy and firmer than a gummy, and it loosens further in a warm hand or coat pocket. Each piece lasts longer than most of what else lands in the bag, which matters to a child rationing a pillowcase haul into November.

Mars has sold a long run of variations, including Starburst Tropical, Sour Starburst and the FaveReds mix, which gathers the red flavors into one bag. The original assortment remains the version stocked in fun-size multi-packs sold for Halloween, which hold small sleeves of a few squares rather than the full-size stick sold at checkout.

Allergen profile is part of the appeal for households buying in bulk. The standard recipe contains no peanuts, tree nuts or chocolate, which makes Starburst a common pick for homes serving trick-or-treaters with nut allergies. It carries no allergen-free certification, and manufacturing lines vary, so parents managing severe allergies read the packaging on seasonal bags rather than assuming the recipe matches the standard pack. Households taking part in the Teal Pumpkin Project, which encourages non-food treats for children with food allergies, usually go further and hand out stickers, pencils or small toys instead.

Illustration: Quartz

Sour Patch Kids are among the best-known sour candies handed out at Halloween in the U.S., built on a tart sugar coating over a soft, sweet gummy. The candy took that name in 1985 and has held a steady place in seasonal aisles since.

The product started in Canada under a different name in the 1970s before reaching U.S. shelves. It now sits in the Mondelez $MDLZ International portfolio alongside Swedish Fish and Trident. The core mix comes in red, yellow, green and orange figures shaped like small people, a design that has barely changed in decades.

The sourness comes from the acidic coating rather than the gummy base. That is what the "first they're sour, then they're sweet" line refers to, and it gives the candy a two-stage finish that plain gummies and fruit chews do not have.

Sour flavors have grown into a distinct segment of the non-chocolate candy aisle, and the Sour Patch line has expanded with it. The range now includes watermelon, tropical, berry and extra-sour versions, with trick-or-treat boxes and fun-size pouches made for the fall season.

Retailers shelve those small boxes in the non-chocolate section of Halloween displays, where they compete for space against fruit chews and candy-coated shells. Both the boxes and the pouches are sized as single handouts rather than for sharing. The cardboard also holds up in a trick-or-treat bag and resists the flattening that softer candies suffer by the end of the night.

The recipe contains no chocolate, peanuts or tree nuts, which makes it a workable option for households that want something to offer children with common food allergies. Packaging still carries manufacturing warnings, so families managing serious allergies check labels rather than assume.

Theater concession boxes, brand collaborations and limited-run flavors have kept the name in circulation among teenagers and among adults who ate it as children and now buy it for their own front doors.

Illustration: Quartz

Kit Kat earns its spot in Halloween candy bowls on texture. Crisp wafer layers under a milk chocolate coating give the bar a snap that solid chocolate and soft-centered candies lack, and that contrast keeps it among the chocolate brands most widely handed out in the U.S. each October.

The bar started in England. Rowntree's, based in York, launched it in 1935 as Rowntree's Chocolate Crisp and attached the Kit Kat name two years later. Nestlé bought Rowntree in 1988 and runs the brand across most of the world. Hershey makes and sells Kit Kat domestically under a license dating to 1970. That arrangement explains why an American wrapper reads Hershey and a British one reads Nestlé.

The segmented shape is the brand's signature. A standard bar breaks into four fingers along molded grooves, the format behind the long-running "have a break, have a Kit Kat" line. Each finger snaps off cleanly along the channel. For trick-or-treating, Hershey packages two-finger snack-size bars in bulk bags. The smaller format keeps the wafer-to-chocolate ratio close to the full bar at a size meant to be handed out dozens of times in an evening.

Hershey has widened the American line with dark chocolate, white chocolate and the Duos range, which combines two flavors in one bar, including mint with dark chocolate. Nestlé's Japanese operation sells a far deeper flavor catalog, and those versions draw attention from travelers. Plain milk chocolate still fills most Halloween bags sold in U.S. stores.

The wafer does something practical: it slows the bite down. Chocolate melts, caramel pulls and gummies compress, but a layered crisp fractures. That gives Kit Kat an identity apart from the peanut bars, nougat bars and cookie bars it competes with every fall. Distribution helps too. Grocery, drug and convenience chains stock seasonal bags from early September, so shoppers rarely have to hunt for it.