It’s the most candyful time of the year. With the packets fun-sizing and miniaturizing so we can eat clear… to the bottom of the bag. After grocery stores tantalizing us with displays up since August, Halloween is at last nearly two weeks away. So the scientists at CandyStore.com have released their National Top 10 list of the most popular Halloween candies for 2026. This is their methodology: CS reviews their own spooky season sales (plus other metrics shared by manufacturers) by state. From this data CS determines the top three candies by state, and then makes numbers-based projections for the current season. (Note: while CS reviews sales going back to 2008, recent years are given more weight. Second Note: CS didn’t publish a list for 2025, so this year’s stats are compared to 2024.) The results/projections are in, and M&M’s have held onto the title of most popular Halloween candy across the country. Claiming a surprise victory as runner up are Sour Patch Kids. Here’s more data to digest:
CandyStore.com’s 2026 national top 10:
1. M&M’s
2. Sour Patch Kids
3. Skittles
4. Reese’s Cups
5. NERDS Gummy Clusters
6. Hot Tamales
7. Starburst
8. Candy Corn
9. Hershey’s Mini Bars
10. ButterfingerA rough year for Reese’s: Reese’s Cups fell from No. 2 to No. 4 in the national sales ranking, losing its top spot in Florida and Wyoming. The candy now holds first place in just two states, Kentucky and New Hampshire. That follows another shake-up in CandyStore.com’s separate survey of the best Halloween candy, where Reese’s lost the No. 1 spot for the first time since the survey began in 2014. In that survey, Snickers took the top spot. So while Reese’s remains a Halloween staple, 2026 is not exactly its year.
M&M’s & Sour Patch Kids top state lists too: M&M’s and Sour Patch Kids are the only candies that win in all four regions of the country. M&M’s take the top spot in 10 states, including California, Oregon, Washington, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Virginia. Sour Patch Kids also win 10 states, including Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Illinois, Nebraska, Delaware, South Carolina, Texas, Alaska and Arizona.
Other state statistics: Candy corn, despite being famously controversial, wins three states: Maryland, North Dakota and Utah. And eight candies win exactly one state each, including NERDS Gummy Clusters in Indiana, Lemonheads in Louisiana, Starburst in Michigan, Tootsie Pops in New Jersey and Salt Water Taffy in Wyoming.
Candy Corn, a complicated story: The Halloween classic ranks No. 8 nationally based on sales and wins three states. But CandyStore.com’s separate survey also named candy corn the worst Halloween candy of 2026. So Americans apparently don’t mind buying it even if they don’t want to admit they like it. That contradiction isn’t new. CandyStore.com’s sales data has consistently shown that candy corn sells, even as surveys regularly put it near the bottom of the popularity rankings.
I, like many, nay most of you, have strong feelings about these results. Before biting into that rich, velvety discussion of what’s inside the wrapper, I have some comments to make about CandyStore.com’s packaging of these materials on their website. It’s a data nerd’s fever dream! At the top of the page is an interactive map where you can click on any state to see its top three, AND the pop up will denote if the #1 candy is a new winner for that state, or if either the second or third candy is a previous #1 winner. Not a fan of ingesting stats cartographically? Not a problem, you can easily opt for a table format! (And even download it as a CSV!) Then as you scroll down the page, there are all sorts of single-issue tables, like the list of 12 states whose #1 candy in 2026 differs from the previous 2024 ranking (and of course they name the 2024 and 2026 winners for each state). Then after those single-issue tables, there’s analysis. Sticking with the same example, CS concludes that the evidence clearly shows those 12 states switching from chocolate to non-chocolate favorite candies.
My larger point is, CS treats (Halloween pun!) their candy research with the same demographic gravitas as polls tracking the midterms! So in that vein, I hereby declare: I demand a recount!! This Top 10 list is NOT representative of my values as a chocolate candy lover! Even factoring in that CS counts “Hershey’s Mini Bars” as the packs that include Krackel and Mr. Goodbar, et al. But Starburst — are you kidding me? No so-called candy that’s a kissing cousin to gum should be cracking the Top 10. Where are my Snickers, my Twix, my Milky Ways, yearning to deliver that decadent chocolate-caramel punch? WHAT ABOUT KITKATS?? Surely the springtime Great Italian KitKat Heist can’t be blamed for this criminal absence? Gimme a break!
PS — I feel there’s another survey of scientific/sociological inquiry to be had regarding the pattern that Americans buy plenty of Candy Corn (excluding yours truly), but are unwilling to admit to liking it.
Photos credit: Pixabay, Alexey K and Charles Parker on Pexels, Behnam Norouzi on Unsplash
I question any survey where peanut butter cups don’t reign supreme and snickers isn’t in the top ten. Candy corn is pure corn syrup horror but it’s a holiday staple, so people love it. It’s Halloween’s version of Christmas fruit cake. I am not a chocolate fan, but I am partial to the peanut butters and coconuts variety, e.g. Almond Joy, Mounds. My favs tend to be old school: Toffifay, Necco Wafers, Red Hots, Atomic Fireballs, Laffy Taffy, Now Laters, and Good & Plenty. I love Halloween!!!! And the holiday falls on Saturday this year! Woo hoo!
Reese’s are forever number one in my heart and tummy, this is slander. I do wonder if it’s because kids these days (TM) aren’t as in to peanut butter. My kids don’t really eat peanut butter or like pb flavored things, their preschool and early years at school everything was nut free.
It means they’re trained to give me all of their Reese’s loot, which I love.
As addicted to sugar as I am it’s surprising that I don’t have a favorite candy. I like them all, or at least most. I’ll easily pass up Sour Patch type candies, but I still like them, I just don’t like how they make my mouth feel. I usually like anything chocolate first but still love me some Skittles. Skittles mixed with M&M’s are good together. It’s like chocolate covered fruit.