Halloween Costumes 2026: Buddy the Unicorn Tops Google's Frightgeist List, and a Stress Ball Is No. 2
Google's annual Frightgeist ranking of the fastest-rising costume searches puts a killer unicorn first, the NeeDoh stress toy second and Dolly Parton first for kids - the last-minute list Austin will see on Sixth Street tonight.
If you are still choosing a costume for tonight, Google has already counted what America is choosing. The most-searched Halloween costume of 2026 is Buddy the Unicorn, the killer mascot from the horror film Buddy, according to Google's annual Frightgeist trends as reported this week - a big orange furry mascot with a purple heart, built as an unsettling twist on a children's TV character.
The rest of the top five is just as 2026. No. 2 is NeeDoh, the squishy stress-ball toy - not a person at all. No. 3 is Nikki from the horror hit Obsession, whose red zebra-print top reportedly sold out online and built a waitlist of 27,000 people. No. 4 is Agamemnon, the Greek king from Christopher Nolan's Odyssey, and No. 5 is Lily Love Braids, the doll from the game Poppy Playtime.
The back half of the top 10, as reported from the Frightgeist data: musician Oliver Tree at No. 6, Verity from Minecraft at No. 7, Carl from Dungeon Crawler Carl at No. 8, Disco Scooby-Doo at No. 9 - also the top couples costume when paired with Shaggy - and Hazel Hook from Descendants at No. 10. For kids, the top trending costume is Dolly Parton, who also appears on the pet-costume list alongside Tow Mater and a baked potato.
For Austin, the practical read is what Sixth Street and the neighborhood routes will look like after dark: horror and internet characters first, superheroes and princesses behind them. The closet-buildable end of the list - an all-one-color NeeDoh outfit, or a sheet, belt and paper crown for Agamemnon - is the honest last-minute route, and it comes straight off the ranking Austinites are searching today.
