Americans are projected to spend $700M on Halloween costumes for their pets. Here are this year's most popular getups.
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Americans are projected to spend $700M on Halloween costumes for their pets. Here are this year’s most popular getups.
Cute dog wearing pumpkin costume surrounded by Halloween decor.
This Halloween season, fur may overtake fear: American spending on pet costumes will reach $700 million in 2024, according to the most recent data from the National Retail Federation.
Americans really love dressing up their pets for Halloween. According to a 2022 PetSmart survey conducted by Wakefield, more than 3 in 4 (76%) pet owners dress their pets for the holiday. About a third of pet owners reported their costume-wearing pets attract the most attention, while over a third said that friends and family engage the most with social media posts of their pets in costume.
However, while pet Halloween costumes may seem as modern as social media, their origins date back to the 327–309 B.C. reign of King Cuo of Zhongshan. Two of his dogs were found buried with gold-and-silver-jeweled collars around their necks, functioning more like necklaces than collars.
Since then, costuming furry—and even scaly—friends has evolved. From ensembles that turn a puppy into a bipedal teddy bear or a guinea pig into a fire truck, Halloween costumes for pets are often humorous and playful. They also give pet owners the opportunity to emphasize aspects of their pets’ personalities—consider the observant cat in a detective costume or a bubbly golden retriever dressed like a social butterfly. Pets can also make a family’s collective costume complete, such as a terrier dressed as a salt shaker to their owners’ lime and Tequila, or simply resting in a basket as the Toto to Dorothy and a Cowardly Lion.
To further track how Americans’ love for their pets is shaping Halloween trends, Ollie used data from the NRF to look at the most popular pet costumes for 2024.
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Bar chart showing the five most popular pet costumes for 2024. They are a pumpkin, hot dog, bat, ghost, and bumblebee.
When it comes to Halloween, the pumpkin costume still reigns supreme even among pets: constituting 10% of all pets’ Halloween costumes in 2024.
The classic symbol for Halloween, in its costume form, is baggy and round and does not need to be perfectly shaped to be recognizable, making it ideal for all kinds of species. The iconic costume has even been adapted for tortoises and bearded dragons.
In second place, with the most pun potential, is the hot dog costume—another option that allows many pets unrestricted movement. Such reasoning drove Tonya Moore of Gainesville, Virginia, to buy a hot dog costume for her chihuahua mix, Isabella. Thanks to innovations in dog costumes over the years, her other dog, Teddy the bulldog, will be a lion.
“The costumes are getting better thought out, like some of the hoods are really connecting to the body versus when you had to go find ears for something that you had a body for before,” Moore told Stacker. “So now they’re kind of grouping them all together which makes it a lot easier.”
Bat outfits flew in as the third most popular for pets, with ghost getups coming in fourth place. Ranked fifth overall is the bumblebee costume, and just below it is a cat costume, though there is no word on which species is most likely to disguise itself as a feline. A devil or demon ranks 10th overall, perhaps reflecting the misbehaving nature of some beloved furry family members.
Emerging trends in pet Halloween costumes are linked to pop culture trends. Dogpool, the Marvel Comics’ canine equivalent of Deadpool, is the rise alongside fellow film character Beetlejuice, according to Google Frightgeist data.
Other popular dog costumes in 2024 include a stegosaurus, donkey, and hippo—the latter in homage to Moo Deng, the baby pygmy hippo at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand who went viral this past September. Whether the costumed critter in question intends to capture hearts or treats, pet costumes are no passing trend.
Story editing by Alizah Salario. Additional editing by Kelly Glass. Copy editing by Paris Close. Photo selection by Lacy Kerrick.
This story originally appeared on Ollie and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.
