Buddy the Unicorn, the cheerful-looking character from the 2026 horror film Buddy, is the top trending Halloween costume in the United States for 2026, according to Google’s annual Frightgeist report, released on 14 October and reported by DesignTaxi, Bloody Disgusting and iHeartRadio. Halloween falls on Saturday 31 October 2026, giving costume hunters a full weekend to peak. Google’s list tracks searches that spiked in September compared with last year, not costume sales, the reports stress. That is why it reads less like a retail chart and more like a map of the year’s pop culture: horror, games, nostalgia and viral toys competing in the same aisle.
The full top 10
After Buddy comes NeeDoh, the squishy sensory toy, at No. 2, followed by Nikki from Obsession at No. 3, Agamemnon from The Odyssey at No. 4, and Lily Love Braids from Poppy Playtime at No. 5. Musician Oliver Tree lands sixth, followed by Verity from Minecraft, Carl from Dungeon Crawler Carl, Disco Scooby-Doo ninth, and Hazel Hook from Descendants tenth. Further down, Google lists Captain Clark from Backrooms (11), Dolly Parton (12), Thragg from Invincible (13), Kenny Rogers (14) and Bowser Jr. (15). For kids, Dolly Parton leads, while Oliver Tree and Michael Jackson appear on both the kids’ and overall lists — with Michael Jackson costume searches at a 10-year high, according to one roundup.
Why a killer unicorn wins
Buddy’s appeal is deliberately strange: a rainbow-coloured, friendly-looking unicorn from a horror film, perfect for a costume that is instantly recognisable and easy to make scary, silly or both. NeeDoh, by contrast, has no single costume — expect plenty of creative, homemade versions of a squishy toy on Halloween night. Together, they sum up 2026 Halloween: part horror, part internet joke, and entirely searchable.
Related reading: Snickers the Shih Tzu Wins NYC Halloween Dog Parade as Brunson and Halloween Spending Hits $13.5 Billion Record in 2026.
