Google Frightgeist 2026: Buddy the Unicorn Tops Costume Searches

Google put a killer unicorn at the top of Halloween this year. The company released its Frightgeist rankings on Wednesday, October 14, and Buddy the Unicorn, from the horror film Buddy, is the most searched costume trend in the United States, ahead of the squishy toy NeeDoh and Nikki from the film Obsession.

The list tracks costume searches that spiked in September compared with last year. Google calls a search trending when it shows a big rise in interest over a period of time, so the ranking measures the climb, not the total number of searches. It is a search ranking, not a sales count, and it reads like a map of what films, games and internet jokes filled people's feeds this year. A costume can top this list while a plain witch or vampire still sells more in shops.

The top 10 costume searches

Buddy the Unicorn leads, and Google says searches for the Buddy unicorn costume passed searches for a plain kids unicorn costume for the first time this September. Buddy is the colorful, unsettling mascot of Casper Kelly's horror film. NeeDoh is second, with searches higher than ever in 2026. The viral squishy toy is known for its bright colors and stress relief feel. Nikki from Obsession is third. She is Inde Navarrette's character in Curry Barker's supernatural horror film. Agamemnon from The Odyssey is fourth, with his costume searched three times more than Penelope this year. He is the Greek king in Christopher Nolan's film of Homer's epic. Lily Love Braids from Poppy Playtime, a doll-like character from the horror game series, is fifth, then singer Oliver Tree, known for his bowl haircut, Verity from Minecraft, Carl from Dungeon Crawler Carl, the hero of Matt Dinniman's fantasy series, Disco Scooby-Doo and Hazel Hook from Descendants. Hazel Hook is Captain Hook's daughter, played by Kiara Romero in Descendants: Wicked Wonderland.

The rest of the top 25 mixes new hits with old names: Captain Clark from Backrooms, Dolly Parton, Thragg from Invincible, Kenny Rogers, Bowser Jr., Princess Rosalina from Super Mario, Green Lantern and Michael Jackson in his Thriller era, whose costume searches are at a 10-year high this year. Skeletor, Cyclops from X-Men, Dumpling, Dr. Frank-n-Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a Viltrumite from Invincible, Nightcrawler and Doctor Doom close the list.

What kids are searching

Google's kids list starts with Dolly Parton, then singer Ella Langley, Dumpling, Shakira, Ash Ketchum from Pokemon, Hannah Montana, Spider-Gwen, Michael Jackson, Pomni from The Amazing Digital Circus and Grogu. Bloody Disgusting noted that Michael Myers also made the kids list this year, a reminder that the kids ranking follows family searches, not only cartoon names. For couples, Nikki and Bear from Obsession ranked third among trending couples costumes.

Buddy also tops the horror list

Buddy shows up twice. It is also first on Google's trending horror movie list, ahead of Other Mommy, The Whisper Man, Passenger and Brute. The rest of that top 15 runs through Insidious: Out of the Further, Resident Evil, Arachnophobia, Hokum, Backrooms, Leviticus, Send Help, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Ice Cream Man and Colony. Backrooms, from Kane Parsons, is on both lists as well. Bloody Disgusting pointed out two odd entries on the horror list: Brute refers to the indie film Brute 1976, which made little noise on release, and Arachnophobia is the only film on the list not released this year, a 1990s title with recent talk of a remake.

Halloween falls on Saturday, October 31 this year, which gives the costume search two more weekends to run.