Candy corn just reclaimed Halloween’s worst-candy crown, a complaint voters file almost every year. But that title hasn’t stopped candy corn from being a favorite this year. National Candy Corn Day is Oct. 30, and the real curiosity is that candy corn stayed just as hated and still got swept into a broader reshuffling of Halloween’s favorite candies this year.
The debate over candy corn’s title as the worst candy is specific enough to track. Candy corn held that title from 2019 through 2021, then Circus Peanuts took over for three straight years before candy corn reclaimed it in 2026. This year’s margin was close enough to read as a toss-up between finishing dead last and finishing on top, depending on which numbers you use.
People vote against candy corn every year in a survey, then keep buying it anyway, a contradiction that’s held steady for over a decade. Candy corn has landed on this ranking every year since 2014, even as most of its voters rank it dead last. By that same measure, it’s one of the single most polarizing candies sold anywhere in the country.
Candy corn climbed from No. 3 in 2024 back to No. 1 in this year’s worst-candy ranking, based on a survey of the retailer’s own customers rather than the public at large. A separate sales map, built from Halloween sales data stretching from 2008 through 2025 and weighted toward more recent seasons to project this year’s results, puts it eighth nationally and names it the outright favorite in Maryland, North Dakota and Utah. Circus Peanuts, which had held the worst-candy crown in 2024, slipped to second.
North Dakota’s switch is the real pickup
North Dakota is the clearest example, because it’s the only state where candy corn actually gained new territory. The state crowned Hot Tamales its favorite Halloween candy in 2024, then swapped to candy corn in 2026. Since Hot Tamales isn’t chocolate either, the switch has nothing to do with the broader pattern elsewhere.
Maryland and Utah kept candy corn at No. 1 for a second straight year. Hot Tamales, the candy North Dakota left behind, isn’t struggling either, even after losing its one state to candy corn. It still won four other states outright, including Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico and Wisconsin.
Chocolate candy keeps getting swapped out
North Dakota’s swap was one of 12 state changes the sales map recorded between 2024 and 2026. Seven of those states dropped a chocolate candy for something else, and none moved the other way.
Arizona swapped Hershey Kisses for Sour Patch Kids, Florida moved from Reese’s Cups to Skittles and Wyoming replaced Reese’s Cups with Salt Water Taffy. Massachusetts and South Carolina both landed on Sour Patch Kids after dropping Butterfinger, and Nevada and Wisconsin each picked up Hot Tamales.
The other 38 states, 3-quarters of the map, kept the same candy they had two years earlier. Candy corn accounted for just one of those changes. The other 11 went to candies that have nothing to do with candy corn’s reputation, which means its new win sits inside a much larger change rather than causing it.
2 newer candies do the actual climbing
The bigger movement this year belongs to two candies with much better reputations. Sour Patch Kids rose from third to second nationally and tied M&M’s for the most state wins, 10 each and are the only two candies to win at least one state in all four U.S. Census regions.
NERDS Gummy Clusters is the newest name on the list. It’s new to the top 10 nationally at No. 5; it won Indiana outright for its first-ever state win and placed second in Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Washington, and third in Oregon and Texas. That’s seven states total for a candy that had never placed in a single one before 2026.
What the rest of the map says
The rest of the sales map shows how far that change reaches, with Skittles finishing second or third in 10 states beyond its two outright wins in Alabama and Florida, proof that plenty of runner-up finishes didn’t translate into first place elsewhere. Hershey Kisses fell even further, dropping from eighth place nationally all the way to 18th. Butterfinger went the other way in win count, falling from six outright state wins to three.
BUBS, a sour gummy brand, showed up on the state map for the first time this year, finishing third in Kentucky and New York. Reese’s Cups, the candy both Florida and Wyoming left behind, now wins only Kentucky and New Hampshire. Only M&M’s and Sour Patch Kids reached all four Census regions this year, a spread every other state winner, Reese’s Cups and BUBS included, fell short of.
Non-chocolate candy keeps taking a bigger piece of the bowl
Candy corn’s three wins sit inside a longer-running change in the candy aisle. Non-chocolate candy made up 40.9% of U.S. confectionery sales in 2025. A handful of gummy and chewy candies are the ones actually redrawing the map, one state at a time. Candy corn is somehow still on it, too.
Mandy Applegate is the creator behind Splash of Taste and seven other high-profile food and travel blogs. She’s also the co-founder of Food Drink Life Inc., a unique and highly rewarding collaborative blogger project. Her articles appear frequently on major online news sites, and she always has her eyes open to spot the next big trend.