The Most Popular Halloween Candy in Every U.S. State

National candy sales figures tend to flatten out a lot of interesting detail, since a handful of mega-brands always come out on top once every state gets averaged together. Zoom into individual states instead, and the picture looks a lot less predictable.

Recent nationwide ordering data covering all fifty states, pulled from October trick-or-treat purchases, shows some genuinely regional patterns rather than one candy running the table everywhere.

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups Wins More States Than Anything Else

Reese’s came out on top in more states than any other single candy, claiming the favorite spot across a wide stretch of the Mid-Atlantic, the Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Virginia, and Washington. Fifteen states in total landed on Reese’s as their clear favorite.

That spread makes sense given how broadly peanut butter and chocolate appeals across very different regional tastes. Unlike a lot of the candies further down this list, Reese’s popularity doesn’t seem tied to any particular climate or regional habit, it just wins on the strength of the combination itself.

Sweet Smiles Candy Has Quietly Taken Over the South

A less nationally famous name, Sweet Smiles Candy, topped the list across a cluster of Southern states, including Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee. That’s a notably strong regional showing for a brand that doesn’t carry the same household recognition as Reese’s or Snickers.

Its dominance across so many neighboring Southern states, rather than scattered randomly across the map, suggests a genuinely regional purchasing habit rather than a coincidence. Seven states in that part of the country landed on the same favorite, which is a tighter regional cluster than almost anything else in the data.

SweeTarts Rules Much of the Mountain West and Plains

SweeTarts topped the list in Idaho, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Oregon, an unusually wide stretch running from the Mountain West into the Plains. That tart, chewy-tablet format stands apart from the chocolate bars dominating much of the rest of the country.

Five states favoring the same sour-leaning candy across that much geographic distance points to something beyond pure coincidence, even if the exact reason isn’t obvious from the sales data alone. It’s one of the clearest examples in this list of a less mainstream candy actually beating out the usual chocolate favorites in its region.

Laffy Taffy Owns the Upper Midwest

Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Wisconsin all landed on Laffy Taffy as their top pick, forming a fairly tight cluster across the Upper Midwest and northern Plains. That’s a notably chewy, fruit-flavored choice for a region not otherwise known for favoring anything outside mainstream chocolate.

Four neighboring states sharing the same favorite, especially one that isn’t a top seller nationally, reinforces just how much regional taste can diverge from what sells best overall. It also stands as one of the more surprising results in the entire dataset.

Kinder Bueno Is the Surprise Favorite in the Northeast

Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island all favored Kinder Bueno, a wafer-and-hazelnut-cream bar that’s more associated with European chocolate aisles than with a typical American candy bowl.

Its strong showing across three neighboring Northeastern states stands out against the more predictable chocolate bars topping most other regions.

That regional clustering suggests something close to a genuine local trend rather than a random blip in the ordering data. A relatively niche import outperforming Reese’s, Snickers, and M&M’s across three states in the same corner of the country is one of the more unexpected results in this entire list.

A Handful of Regional Favorites Round Out the Rest of the Map

The remaining states split across a mix of candies that each won just one or two states apiece. Twizzlers topped Missouri, South Dakota, and Wyoming, while Red Vines led in Arizona and California, giving licorice-style candy a real foothold across a scattered but real stretch of the country.

Airheads won out in Florida and Texas, Sour Patch Kids topped Connecticut and Illinois, and Snickers edged out the competition in Maryland and Nevada. Alaska and Hawaii, the two states geographically cut off from the mainland, both landed on Lindt, while North Carolina, Colorado, and Minnesota each favored a single standout of their own in Hershey’s Bar, Haribo, and Mike & Ike respectively.