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halloween

This Year’s Hottest Halloween Costumes, According to Google’s Search Data

By
John Patrick Pullen
John Patrick Pullen
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
John Patrick Pullen
John Patrick Pullen
Down Arrow Button Icon
October 23, 2017, 6:06 PM ET

Halloween is just a week away, which means it’s crunch time for figuring out a costume. And when it comes to find the funniest, scariest, and best ones, it makes sense that trick or treaters and adults alike turn to Google. People ‘google’ so much that the search giant’s name has become a verb. Embracing this honorary eponym, Google Trends has released a trove of data that not only reveals 2017’s most popular Halloween costume in the U.S. (Wonder Woman), but also breaks ideas down state by state.

Tracking the best costumes using with up-to-the-minute search results, the Google Frightgeist tool can display the data in several ways. First, there are the top trending costumes, nationally, which as of this writing are:

1. Wonder Woman

2017 New York Comic Con - Day 4
Cosplayer dressed as Wonder Woman attend the 2017 New York Comic Con on October 8, 2017 in New York City. John Lamparski — WireImage/Getty Images
John Lamparski — WireImage/Getty Images

2. Harley Quinn

New York Comic-Con 2015 - General Atmosphere
Comic Con attendees pose as Harley Quinn and Joker during New York Comic-Con 2015 at The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on October 9, 2015 in New York City. Daniel Zuchnik — Getty Images
Daniel Zuchnik — Getty Images

3. Clown

A person dressed in a clown costume stands amongst attendees during the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade in Manhattan, New York, U.S.
A person dressed in a clown costume stands amongst attendees during the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade in Manhattan, New York, U.S., October 31, 2016. Andrew Kelly — Reuters
Andrew Kelly — Reuters

4. Unicorn

Lucky Festival - Super Geek League Portraits
A Unicorn of Super Geek League pose for a portrait backstage during the USC Lucky Festival on March 12, 2016 at The Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington. Mat Hayward — Getty Images
Mat Hayward — Getty Images

5. Rabbit

A dog dressed as Hugh Hefner takes part in the annual halloween dog parade at Manhattan's Tompkins Square Park in New York
A dog dressed as Hugh Hefner takes part in the annual halloween dog parade at Manhattan’s Tompkins Square Park in New York U.S., October 21, 2017. Lucas Jackson — Reuters
Lucas Jackson — Reuters

6. Witch

OR: Spirit of Halloweentown Parade
Witches take part in the the Spirit of Halloweentown parade in St. Helens, Ore., on October 7, 2017. The town was the set for the 1998 [hotlink]Disney[/hotlink] movie Halloweentown. Alex Milan Tracy — Sipa USA via AP
Alex Milan Tracy — Sipa USA via AP

7. Mouse

Four Female Stdents
A group of four female college students dressed in costumes; one student as Minnie Mouse holding a phone taking a selfie, another student dressed in the purple, green, and face paint of the Joker, one student in the back dressed as a Minion, and the student most to the left wearing cat ears and cat makeup; all with smiling facial expressions, Halloween at Peabody Library, Johns Hopkins University, October 31, 2015. Courtesy Eric Chen. JHU Sheridan Libraries/Gado Getty Images
JHU Sheridan Libraries/Gado Getty Images

8. Pirate

A participant wearing a costume of Jack Sparrow during the
A participant wearing a costume of Jack Sparrow during the Torino Comics. It is a convention dedicated to comics, manga and relative merchandising. Daniele Baldi — Pacific Press LightRocket via Getty Images
Daniele Baldi — Pacific Press LightRocket via Getty Images

9. Zombie

Comic-Con International 2017 - Preview Night
Zombie at AMC’s The Walking Dead Booth at Comic-Con International 2017 – Preview Night held at San Diego Convention Center on July 19, 2017 in San Diego, California. Albert L. Ortega — Getty Images
Albert L. Ortega — Getty Images

10. Dinosaur

2016 New York Comic Con - Day 3
A Comic Con attendee poses as a T-Rex during the 2016 New York Comic Con – Day 3 on October 8, 2016 in New York City. Daniel Zuchnik — Getty Images
Daniel Zuchnik — Getty Images

If you’re looking to dress local, however, you can flip a switch on the Frightgeist and find the top five outfits for your area. While the top five in your city may look similar to the national trends (Wonder Woman is in hot this year, after all), you could find a surprise entry for your state.

Curious about costuming in other places? Google has also included a Costume Map mode in Frightgeist, which lets you see which outfits are trending where. Unsurprisingly, with the release of the horror movie It, clowns are big in Stephen King’s home state of Maine. Pirates are popular in the coastal community of Naples, Fla., of course, and then there’s the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which are huge in Glendive, Mont., for reasons unknown.

If all that information still has you undecided, Google has also pulled together a Costume Wizard, which can help you pick an outfit based on a variety of factors, like spookiness level, classic versus modern, or level of uniqueness.

But if you want to be really spooky, you may want to consider being a Google data scientist. After all, it’s scary what search engine data can reveal about us.

About the Author
By John Patrick Pullen
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