Most Popular Halloween Candy to Please Trick-or-Treaters
Most Americans can think back on childhood and recall the excitement of preparing for Halloween. Carving pumpkins, putting together a costume, and finding a ginormous bag to stuff with candy is just the beginning. Halloween is the one night a year that kids can meander around neighborhoods with a posse of friends, ringing doorbells and collecting a mountain of treats. Remember sorting the candy, hiding it from your siblings, and ultimately popping pieces in your mouth for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the following weeks?
Americans love their candy, generally speaking. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the average American consumes 22 pounds of candy every year. More than 60,000 U.S. citizens earn their living manufacturing treats and sweets. Over 2.2 million metric tons of chocolate are imported to the United States to satisfy our cravings.
To determine the most popular Halloween candy in America, Stacker turned to FiveThirtyEight’s Ultimate Halloween Candy Power Ranking. In this 2017 ranking, FiveThirtyEight used an anonymous online quiz to pit 86 common Halloween treats against each other in randomized, one-on-one matchups for voter preference. After the votes were tallied (over 250,000 votes from 8,371 different IP addresses in total), the percent of matches that each candy won was used to rank the most popular treats. Stacker is including the win percentage and desirable properties of the top 50 candies in this story.
The results were chocolatey, with favorites like M&M's, Milky Ways, Reese’s Cups, and Snickers making the cut. Although candy corn is everywhere come Halloween, you won’t see it in the top 50.