Halloween is just around the corner, and whether you’re a child or just a child at heart, chances are you’re going to dress up. That begs the question, what should you go as this year? Vampire, astronaut — Kim Kardashian, maybe? (Too scary?)
If you’ve got an exciting Halloween party to attend or just like trick-or-treating, it’s going to help if you wear a popular costume. Luckily, Halloween Express has just released its thorough Instagram infographic on the most-liked Halloween costumes.
By accumulating Instagram data from the #Halloween tag from 2012 to 2015, Halloween Express was able to determine the most-liked costumes for each of those years on the social media site. After seeing the average number of likes for every post, the Halloween Express team categorized the costumes by state for every year.
The research reveals results that are both surprising not so surprising.
2015 Instagram users in seven states chose ET as their most-liked costume — who’d have thought that ET still had this much staying power more than 30 years after the movie came out? Other monster costumes were popular in five states, including anything from typical witch and ghost costumes to more specific fictional characters like the Scream movies’ Ghostface and the Frankenstein monster.
Digging more deeply into the results reveals some more interesting nuggets. For some reason, Texas Instagram users prefer Santa Claus costumes while puppy and dog costumes are all the rage in the Pacific Northwest states of Washington and Oregon. Superhero costumes are popular with Instagram users in four states. Californians are fond of Captain America while Nevadans love Wonder Woman. Instagram users from New York have a thing for Spider-Man, but those from Georgia are in love with — wait for it — Deadpool.
A specific look at each of the years covered also provided some eyebrow-raising information. In 2012, naughtiness was all the rage, as Vermonters enjoyed stripper costumes, Alaskans got their fill of French maid outfits, and North Dakotans were obsessed with schoolgirl costumes. In 2013, ET costumes fared even better on Instagram than on other years, with a record 10 states showing ET as their most-liked costume.
2014 was dominated by movie-themed costumes on Instagram. Again, ET was king in eight states, The Lord of the Rings’ Orc was a favorite in three; Texans liked Alice in Wonderland; Washingtonians donned Batman disguises; Floridians went with the Hulk; North Carolinians were fans of The Flash; and those in the nation’s capital favored the Mad Hatter.
