Carved pumpkins

If you want to stand out at your Halloween party, dressing as a vampire will be a big mistake

Vampires have always been cool and popular, just look at True Blood, Twilight and Count von Count on Sesame Street – you’ve got to like a guy who has that much fun counting everyday objects.

With so much of our time taken up watching our fanged friends on TV and in the cinema, it’s little surprise that the vampire costume has emerged as the most searched-for Halloween costume on Bing this year.

The spookiest day of the year is upon us, and Microsoft’s search engine has revealed the top keywords that people are looking for online ahead of October 31.

You can expect to see a lot of people dressed as vampires at Halloween parties this year, but there will also be plenty of skeleton costumes (second on Bing’s list) and pumpkin outfits (third on the list).

Searches for superhero and witch costumes rounded off the top five in the list, which was dominated by traditional Halloween themes and did not feature outfits related to contemporary TV shows such as Game of Thrones and Stranger Things.

“Dressing up is a great British tradition that many people love, but it seems Halloween this year is moving more in to the realm of adults. Many of us are planning to forego the ‘trick or treating’ with the family and host parties or attend organised events with their friends,” said Kevin Stagg, Head of Marketing at Bing.

Toy ghost on Halloween

A Ghostbusters costume was one of the most searched for outfits on Bing

Bing also revealed that Halloween music, cocktails, drinking games and murder mystery games also ranked high on the list of searches, suggesting that adults are just as keen as kids to have fun this Halloween.

The average consumer in the UK will spend £23 on Halloween-related food, decorations and costumes, according to a Royal Mail survey, a rise of 5% on last year. Around 8% of people will spend more than £50. Retail analyst ShopperTrak said shoppers are expected to spend £320 million on Halloween purchases in 2017, up 3.2% year-on-year.

“Our search data reveals a lot about people in the UK and how we prepare for celebrations such as Halloween. While we may still get a trick or a fright on Halloween, it’s just as likely to come from adults as from children,” Stagg added.

Bing.com top 10 Halloween searches

Halloween costumes:

  1. Vampire costume
  2. Skeleton costume
  3. Pumpkin costume
  4. Superhero costumes
  5. Witch costume
  6. Zombie costume
  7. Pirate costumes
  8. Ghostbusters costume
  9. Animal costumes
  10. Unicorn costumes

 

Halloween activities:

  1. Halloween music
  2. Halloween cocktails
  3. Halloween events
  4. Murder mystery game
  5. Halloween pumpkin carving
  6. Halloween drinking games
  7. Halloween club nights
  8. Halloween apple bobbing
  9. Halloween events for children
  10. Halloween games