Jenny Lee, Lead Data Analyst
with Katie Seaton
10 Years of Costumes
2025 marks 10 years of Frightgeist!
Top trending costume by year
September of year as compared to September of year prior, US
2015: Evie from Descandants
2016: Harambe
2017: Uma from Descandants
2018: Skull Trooper from Fortnite
2019: VSCO Girl
2020: Joe Exotic
2021: Raya from Raya and the Last Dragon
2022: Huggy Wuggy
2023: Weird Barbie
2024: Shrunken Head Bob
2025: Rumi from Kpop Demon Hunters
Urban Legends
Search interest in creepypasta surpassed that of urban legend in 2011 and has been higher ever since
People searching urban legend over the past week are also searching Snopes and “is slenderman real”
Wendigo and “bigfoot” are the top trending “is…an urban legend” searches over the past week
“virginia urban legends” is a breakout search in the past month and Bunny Man, which is said to take place in the state, is Virginia’s top trending urban legend
MAP: Eleven states are searching for Bunny Man over Bloody Mary in the last month. Virginia, where Bunny Man is said to have taken place, is the top state searching Bunny Man more
Top trending urban legends
past week, US
Smile dog
Homey the clown
The mothman
The smiling man
The elevator game
Top urban legend “how to plays”
of all time, US
Bloody Mary
Light as a feather stiff as a board
Candyman
Cat scratch
The midnight game
Jump scares
Jump scare is 2x more searched with movies than with computer & video games since 2004. Over the last five years, jump scare has spiked around Halloween
In the past day, people searching jump scare are also searching for the splatter genre, and “terrifier 3” is the top trending splatter film
“mulholland drive jumpscare” is the top trending “jumpscare” search in the past week, and “ishowspeed chica jumpscare” quadrupled in search interest
Barbarian and Black Phone 2 are the top trending jump scare movies over the past month
Top searched jump scare “scenes”
of all time, US
Sinister: Lawn mower scene
The Descent: Night vision scene
Psycho: Shower scene
The Haunting of Hill House: Car scene
Hereditary: Car scene
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