Top 10 Halloween Candy Sales Prove Which Treat Is Best

Halloween is one of the biggest holidays for candy. While certain brands come and go, some candies have been around for over a hundred years and are still going strong. In fact, if you get one of these in your bag on Halloween, you know you’ve had a successful time trick or treating. 

According to the supermarket giant Kroger, these brands are the crème de la crème when it comes to Halloween candy sale predictions for 2022. We combined this report with cold-hard facts from CandyStore.com, which scoured 15 years of sales data (from 2007 to 2021) to see the pounds of candy sold in the months leading up to Halloween. Which ones make up the majority of what the National Retail Federation predicts will be $3.1 billion in Halloween candy sales this year?

We’ll give you a hint: It’s not surprising that shoppers are expected to purchase 7.6 million pounds of chocolate to celebrate the season. Our mouths are officially drooling…

Pounds sold: 91,820

Bottom line: The yummy, nougat-filled 3 Musketeers bar has been with us since 1932, courtesy of Mars Incorporated. It originally came in three pieces of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, but due to supply issues during WWII, it became a single bar in 1945. It was marketed as being so big, it could be shared with others.

While the bar is smaller today, not much else about it has changed, and it is still a Halloween and everyday favorite.

* The candy ranking comes from a combination of Kroger’s candy sale projections for 2022 report and CandyStore.com’s report of the pounds of candy purchased in every state.

Pounds sold: 135,672

Bottom line: Kit Kats are sugary wafers separated and covered by chocolate with four pieces (or “fingers”) that you can snap off to enjoy, one by one.

The KitKat bar got its start in the U.K. in 1935 and was originally known as “Rowntree’s Chocolate Crisp” before becoming “Kit Kat Chocolate Crisp” in 1937. Hershey took over production of the candy for the U.S. market and introduced it to the public in 1970. It was an instant smash with candy lovers everywhere. 

Pounds sold: 174,405

Bottom line: The Milky Way bar will celebrate its centennial in 2023. Created by Frank Mars, founder of Mars Incorporated, it initially came in chocolate and vanilla and was the first ever mass-produced bar with a filling.

Its name was not an homage to the galaxy, either, but instead to a popular malted milkshake from the era. Its early ads stated the Milky Way had “more malted milk content than a soda fountain double-malted milk!”

Milky Ways were initially mostly nougat (much like today’s 3 Musketeers). Caramel was added years later to make the bar the deliciously gooey mess we love today.

Pounds sold: 209,693

Bottom line: Mars Incorporated also introduced the Twix bar in the U.S. back in 1979, but it had been known in Europe as the Raider bar until 1991 (when it changed to the Twix brand name.)

People liked the candy bar right off the bat because it felt like they were getting two bars in one. Rumor has it that the left Twix and the right Twix are different in terms of how much caramel and chocolate they have. While there has been no confirmation that this is the case, the company used this urban legend to its advantage by selling just left or right Twix to consumers.