Costume shops are already filling up, and Halloween 2026 falls on a Saturday this year, which retailers expect to translate into bigger parties and higher spending than a midweek holiday usually pulls in.

Group Costumes Are Having a Moment

Coordinated group costumes continue climbing in popularity, driven largely by how well they perform on social media. A themed group photo simply gets more engagement than a solo costume, and retailers have responded by stocking matching sets in bulk, from classic movie casts to coordinated color palettes that work for any group size.

Comfort Is Winning Over Elaborate Costumes

After a few years of increasingly elaborate, Pinterest-driven costume builds, there’s a noticeable swing back toward simplicity. Costumes you can actually sit down, eat, and dance in are outperforming anything requiring hours of prop assembly, a shift retailers attribute to Halloween increasingly being treated as an all-night social event rather than a photo op.

Pet Costumes Keep Growing

Pet costume sales have become one of the fastest-growing categories year over year. Matching owner-and-pet sets in particular are selling well, reflecting a broader trend of pets being folded into more household holiday traditions.

DIY Isn’t Going Anywhere

Despite all the retail options, home-assembled costumes remain popular, particularly among people layering thrifted pieces with a few key accessories. It’s typically cheaper, and for a lot of shoppers, it results in a costume nobody else at the party is wearing.

When to Actually Buy

Popular sizes and themed sets tend to sell out by mid-October, so shopping in the next couple of weeks gives you first pick before shelves thin out. Waiting until the final week before Halloween usually means settling for whatever’s left rather than what you actually wanted.

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