Like last year, Google has published a Halloween-related page listing the most popular Halloween costumes for 2025, based on search queries. The results are split into several categories, including “overall costume,” “kid costume,” “duo costume,” and “dog costume.”
There’s also a map that lists the most popular costumes for your area (if you’re in the United States). For me, the most popular local costumes are characters from “KPop Demon Hunters” and “Labubu,” a Chinese rabbit-like monster doll that’s a currently popular fad. (No, Labubu isn’t Yogi Bear’s sidekick… to make an old-school pop culture reference I assume younger Labubu fans won’t get.)
Below, I look at the most popular cartoon-related costumes for each category. “Cartoon” here includes animation, comics, children’s picture books, anime, manga, and video games.
Top 10 overall cartoon-based Halloween costumes
- Rumi (“KPop Demon Hunters”)
- Zoey (“KPop Demon Hunters”)
- Mira (“KPop Demon Hunters”)
- Jinu (“KPop Demon Hunters”)
- Baby Saja (“KPop Demon Hunters”)
- Chicken Jockey (“Minecraft”)
- Derpy the Tiger (“KPop Demon Hunters”)
- The Lorax (“The Lorax”)
- Nightwing (DC Comics)
- Toothless (“How to Train Your Dragon”)
As I expected, the most popular costumes by far are from this year’s most popular animated movie, Netflix’s “KPop Demon Hunters.” Six of the top 10 entries are characters from that film.
As for non-”KPop” entries, “Chicken Jockey” is a meme/element from “Minecraft,” and especially “A Minecraft Movie” from last spring. Meanwhile, the Lorax is the star of the eponymous Dr. Seuss story; it was turned into an animated TV special by DePatie-Freleng in 1972, and an Illumination animated feature film in 2012.
A surprising entry is Nightwing, who’s the top-ranked superhero on this year’s list. (Supergirl and Superman are the only other two superheroes in the overall top 25.) While it implies Nightwing’s finally becoming better known outside comic circles/among the general public, I suspect the reason he’s here is he’s seen as “Starfire’s boyfriend” (more on that below).
Toothless is the main dragon in “How to Train Your Dragon”; the film saw a live-action remake released this summer (though Toothless is rendered in CGI, of course).
Top 10 cartoon-based kids Halloween costumes
- Rumi (“KPop Demon Hunters”)
- Zoey (“KPop Demon Hunters”)
- Mira (“KPop Demon Hunters”)
- Jinu (“KPop Demon Hunters”)
- Baby Saja (“KPop Demon Hunters”)
- Derpy the Tiger (“KPop Demon Hunters”)
- Demon
- Creeper (“Minecraft”)
- Toothless (“How to Train Your Dragon”)
- Chicken Jockey (“Minecraft”)
Again, it’s “KPop Demon Hunters” all the way down this year, with seven of the 10 kids costumes spots coming from that movie. While “Demon” is listed, that’s almost certainly related to “KPop Demon Hunters,” so I’m counting it here.
Out of the remaining entries is an appearance of Creeper, an antagonist in “Minecraft.” No relation to the DC Comics superhero or the Scooby-Doo villain, to make more old-school pop culture references.
Top 5 cartoon-based dog Halloween costumes
- Derpy the Tiger (“KPop Demon Hunters”)
- Krypto (DC Comics)
- Nezuko Kamado (“Demon Slayer”)
- Superman (DC Comics)
- Thing (“The Addams Family”)
For canines this year, there’s finally a dog related entry they can dress up as: Krypto, Superman’s faithful superdog! That said, the Man of Steel himself is also on the list. Presumably it’s either people unfamiliar with Krypto, or such costumes are still sold as “Superman costumes for dogs.”
At #3 is Nezuko Kamado, a character in the “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba” manga/anime series. Someone more familiar with this franchise might want to tell me why people would dress their dogs as this character; it sounds slightly random, even with the popularity of the “Demon Slayer” theatrical film.
At #5 is Thing, from “The Addams Family.” While Thing in his modern form (as a disembodied hand) originated in the 1960s live-action sitcom, Thing’s appeared in every animated and live-action adaptation since.
Top 5 cartoon-related duo Halloween costumes
- Astrid and Hiccup (“How to Train Your Dragon”)
- Starfire and Nightwing (DC Comics)
- Shimmer and Shine (Nickelodeon)
- Donkey and Dragon (“Shrek”)
- Thing 1 and Thing 2 (“The Cat in the Hat”)
At the top of the list are Astrid and Hiccup from “How to Train Your Dragon.” Again, the live action remake from this summer put this film and its characters back in the spotlight.
At #2 are Starfire and Nightwing. While “Robin and Starfire” are also on this list, I suspect the general public learned that Nightwing = “Robin as a grown-up who doesn’t wear an elf-like costume.” Thus, Nightwing might be more appealing for adult couples cosplaying as characters they remember from the 2000s “Teen Titans” cartoon. (Kids of course still see Robin and Starfire on “Teen Titans Go.”) I also assume people looking up who Nightwing is is why he ranked so high in the overall list above.
“Shimmer and Shine” is a Nick Jr. cartoon about a little girl who has two genie friends (the eponymous Shimmer and Shine) that grant her three wishes every day.
Donkey and Dragon are the (bizarre) couple from the “Shrek” films.
Thing 1 and Thing 2 (unrelated to the Addams’ Thing) are, of course, the Cat in the Hat’s mischievous sidekicks.
Image: “KPop Demon Hunters.” (Sony/Netflix)
