Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are leading America’s Halloween candy race again, at least according to Instacart’s newest seasonal data. The company’s 2026 Halloween Sweet Tooth Report, published September 30, used Instacart orders from October 2025 and found Reese’s was the top candy by ounces sold.
What Instacart’s report says about the top Halloween pick
Instacart said Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups took the No. 1 spot by ounces of candy sold. According to the company, the brand was also the top seller in 40 states and Washington, D.C., giving it a lead that was much wider than most seasonal candy rankings tend to show.
The rest of Instacart’s top five stayed close to classic chocolate aisle staples. Peanut M&M’s ranked second, followed by Hershey’s Milk Chocolate, M&M’s, and Snickers. Martha Stewart, which reported on the release the same day, also noted that non-chocolate candy does not appear until No. 7, where Sour Patch Kids enters the list.
That split matters for families shopping for trick or treat bowls because it suggests chocolate still dominates broad buying patterns, even as sour and fruity candy hold strong pockets of support. If you usually buy based on what disappears first from a bowl, Instacart’s numbers suggest peanut butter and chocolate remain the safest bet for the widest crowd.
The state by state map looks less predictable
Instacart’s national winner was clear, but the state map was not completely uniform. The company said Reese’s led most of the country, while Peanut M&M’s formed a strong cluster through parts of the Plains and Mountain West and out to Hawaii.
Rhode Island stood out as the only state where Sour Patch Kids beat both Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Peanut M&M’s for the top spot, according to Instacart. Martha Stewart’s breakdown of the state map also pointed to smaller clusters for candies such as Skittles, Tootsie Pops, Swedish Fish, HI-CHEW, HARIBO Goldbears, Twizzlers, M&M’s, Hershey’s Milk Chocolate, Kit Kat, and Candy Corn.
Instacart’s report also highlighted some unusually strong regional preferences. Montana bought HI-CHEW at 616 percent above the national share, Louisiana over-indexed on Tootsie Pops by 141 percent, and Rhode Island bought Sour Patch Kids 109 percent more often than the rest of the country. Colorado and Wyoming, meanwhile, were singled out for candy corn.
Where shoppers buy the most candy, and what it means at home
Instacart said the West showed the strongest candy buying overall when measured against the national average. Utah bought candy 67 percent more often than the national average, followed by Idaho at 50 percent and Alaska at 47 percent. Washington and Montana also ranked high in the company’s October candy share data.
At the city level, Instacart said Anchorage, Alaska, Eugene, Oregon, Tacoma, Washington, Vancouver, Washington, and Spokane, Washington, were the top candy buying cities relative to the national average. Martha Stewart similarly reported that the biggest candy buying cities were concentrated in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, while cities in New Jersey and New York landed well below the national rate.
For shoppers, the takeaway is simple. If your usual Halloween bowl is built around whatever feels traditional, this year’s broadest mainstream pick still looks like Reese’s. But the regional splits in Instacart’s data are a reminder that local favorites can be very different, so a mixed bowl with chocolate, sour candy, and at least one fruit-forward option may still be the smartest play for Halloween night.