Every year in October, streets fill with superheroes, spooky creatures, and pop culture icons. Over the past decade, Halloween costumes have reflected the biggest movies, viral trends, and internet obsessions. Let’s take a look back at the costumes that defined each Halloween from 2014 to 2024.
In 2014, the most popular Halloween costume was Frozen characters. There were many family costumes with the characters as children were obsessed with Elsa and her snow powers. Over 3 million Anna and/or Elsa dresses were bought in the Disney store alone, most likely millions more across other stores like Spirit Halloween.
In 2015 and 2016, Harley Quinn was a popular costume seen on the streets. Other costumes were more superheroes like Batman, Superman and even Wonder Woman. Some people dressed up as characters from Star Wars as well. Like Frozen, millions of people chose to dress as these movie icons in 2015.
Similar to the past years, in 2017, Wonder Woman, Pennywise from the new movie IT, and some Stranger Things characters were popular. The trend through the last few years has clearly been dictated by new movies or shows.
In 2018, dressing as a princess gained the top spot in children's popularity. Followed closely by superheroes. Elsa kept her top spot with many costumes of her and other characters from her movie. Ariel and Jasmine were a close second and third. While these were the most popular princesses, Spiderman, Black Panther and Wonder Woman were some of the common superhero costumes seen.
In 2019, Pennywise stayed in the top spot again for the third year. Most of these costumes were bought at Spirit Halloween along with Amazon and other online stores.
In 2020 and 2021, the most popular costume was a witch. Since the Covid-19 epidemic was rampant during these years, not many people went out and so parents resorted to putting together more simple and easy costumes at home. Covid-19 did not stop people, they got creative with PVC pipes and other hollow tubes attached to railings as a socially distanced candy delivery.
In 2022, some popular costumes for kids were Stranger Things as the fourth season had come out that summer. Witches became popular again because of Hocus Pocus 2. The kids follow the movie trends and use that as their costumes, keeping everything creative each year!
In 2023, the most popular costume was Barbie by a landslide. In this year alone, over 2 million people chose Barbie as their costume, and even more continue to dress up as her as the years go on.
Finally, in 2024, the most popular costume was Shrunken Head Bob from the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice movie that had come out in early September that year. Bob was a fan favorite in both movies, so his character got a lot of attention on Halloween from Beetlejuice lovers.
Through the years, Halloween costumes have changed as children got older, but they have always stayed rooted to the same things: popular movies and shows. From Frozen to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Halloween costumes will change every year on.
