Google Trends recently released Google Frightgeist, a new map detailing the most-Googled Halloween costumes by metropolitan area in the United States. Your first guess is probably correct — the search term “Barbie” dominated the map across the board, and the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose metropolitan area was no exception.
In fact, “Barbie” dominated the results in nearly every metropolitan area analyzed in California. Out of twelve California locations analyzed, only three deviated — they were “Fairy” in Eureka, “Princess” in Bakersfield, and “Dinosaur” in Palm Springs.
After “Barbie,” the next most-searched Halloween costumes in the United States were “Princess” at #2, “Spider-Man” at #3, “Witch” at #4, “Fairy” at #5, and “Wednesday Addams” at #6. However, “Barbie” appears in almost every state and drowns out most of these other results.
The Bay Area’s interest in Barbie has been an intriguing phenomenon considering that the Barbie movie’s box office competitor (companion?) Oppenheimer has so many local connections. Much of the film takes place across the Bay at UC Berkeley and includes a fair amount of local references that Bay Area viewers will recognize. Nevertheless, Barbie easily outranked Oppenheimer in the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose metropolitan area on Google Trends around both films’ release dates.
Google Trends’ Frightgeist also comes with a handy tool for anyone still struggling to come up with a Halloween costume. With the Costume Wizard you can adjust your spookiness and uniqueness levels, choose between classic and modern styles, and align with trends on either a national and local level. It’s a fun resource for anyone having second thoughts on their Barbie getup (although some part of us is intrigued to see the Barbiepocalypse this Halloween in San Francisco).
Now might be a good time to go shopping…