Popular Chocolate Halloween Candies Ranked from Worst to Best

For most kids (and parents), Halloween means candy, and retail projections suggest that collectively we'll be spending $2.6 billion on the sweet stuff this season. Candy corn may be the holiday's most iconic treat, but nearly 7 out of 10 survey respondents told the National Confectioners Association that chocolate is their favorite. What kind, though? To find out, market research company YouGov surveyed over 1,000 kids, ages 8 to 17, to find out which types of candy they liked the most — and which ones they'd rather skip. We took a look at the results to find out where many of Halloween's most popular chocolate candies ranked so you can be appropriately stocked for the arrival of trick-or-treaters this year. Not surprisingly, there are more than a few ties on the list.

Related: The Fun, Little-Known History Behind Candy Corn and Other Favorite Halloween Sweets

The cartoon character Bart Simpson declared Butterfinger "neat" back in the late 1980s, but it seems kids still like the chocolate-covered treat with a peanut butter core. Butterfinger has been around since 1922, and even though it's been reformulated since then, it remains a favorite for some. While only 2% of all kids who responded to the YouGov study love the candy bar, it was slightly more popular among 10- and 16-year-olds do. Bart would be proud.

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This simple favorite features milk chocolate and crisped rice. Nestle markets a "fun size" for Halloween, so it can be grabbed by the handful. For variety, look for bags that include other Nestle brands such as Butterfinger and Baby Ruth in addition to Crunch bars (90 minis for $10 at Walmart). While only 2% of all kids consider Nestle Crunch the best of the best, it's slightly more popular with teens than younger kids.

Related: 25 Candy Stores That Will Make You Feel Like a Kid Again

These sibling bars are among the few mass-produced chocolate candies that contain coconut, a polarizing flavor that sometimes relegates them to the reject pile (only 2 percent of all kids put either of these treats at the top of their list, though 4% of 12-year-olds crave them). The snack-size Almond Joy designed for trick-or-treat bags puts one almond atop a mound of coconut enrobed in milk chocolate. A Mounds bar contains no nuts, only coconut and dark chocolate.

They look like M&M's, but inside the colorful candy coating is a dollop of peanut butter. Though Reese's Pieces aren't as popular as either M&M's or Reese's peanut butter cups, they still have their fans. Though only 3% of all kids surveyed picked them as their favorites, 6% of 17-year-olds think they're awesome. 

This candy bar, made of chocolate-malt-flavored nougat covered in caramel and wrapped in milk chocolate, has been around for nearly 100 years. Yet it's not quite as popular as other Mars chocolate brands on this list (only 3% of kids who took the YouGov survey would say it's their favorite, but 5% of 8- and 15-year-olds give it top honors). Milky Way Midnight bars, with vanilla-flavored nougat and dark chocolate, make an atmospheric choice for Halloween, but the seasonal flavor is Caramel Apple. An 11.5-ounce bag of the elusive minis are $3.50 at Mills Fleet Farm.  

This candy originated in the U.K. but immigrated to the United States to acclaim. The original version, a cookie topped with caramel and covered in milk chocolate, has spawned variations such as Twix Dark, Twix White, and Twix Peanut Butter. While Twix traditionally comes in a package of two bars, the "fun size" is only a single, smaller bar. Five percent of all kids surveyed thinks Twix are tops. Get 40 mini-sized Twix from Walmart for $10. 

An oldie but goodie, Hershey's milk chocolate bar has been around since 1900. Its continued popularity (6% of all kids say it's their favorite) proves that chocolate doesn't have to be jammed full of stuff to make a beloved candy bar. Hershey bars come in a snack size for Halloween.

Related: 17 Surprising Things You Didn't Know About Hershey Kisses

Snickers built a billion-dollar brand on a foundation of peanuts, nougat, caramel, and chocolate. A new Snickers Crisper variety leaves out the nougat in favor of crisped rice in a "fun size" bar for Halloween (a bag of 12 is $5.50 at Target). Regular fun-size Snickers bars are a staple of Mars' Halloween variety packs. Of all kids surveyed, Snickers tied for third place but it was more popular than M&M's among the 15- and 16-year-olds surveyed.

This is the top-selling candy from the chocolate giant Mars, which even has retail stores devoted to M&M's. In addition to the simple milk chocolate with candy coating, crispy M&M's come in smaller fun-size pouches as well as green, orange, and purple Ghoul's Mix and white chocolate-infused candy corn flavor. Seven percent of all kids want M&M's in their trick-or-treat bags, but the candy is more popular with kids in the South and West than the Northeast or Midwest. 

These crunchy, chocolate-covered wafers can be snapped apart and shared — if trick-or-treaters are so inclined. Orange white-chocolate Kit Kats for Halloween are readily available (a bag of 21 for $3 at Walmart), and Kit Kat Halloween Snack Size Triple Chocolate Bars aren't impossible to find. Pumpkin Pie Kit Kats are also available ($4 for a 9.7-ounce bag at Target). Eight percent of kids surveyed love Kit Kats best of all, while 11% of 10-year-olds put it at the top of their lists. 

When the trick-or-treating is finished, the bags are emptied, and the candy is sorted, Reese's peanut butter cups almost invariably go into the "jackpot" pile. A whopping 18% of all kids surveyed like it best. The peanut-butter treats come in pumpkin-shaped versions and festively wrapped miniatures. This year for Halloween, parent company Hershey is again making snack-size white peanut butter monsters (a 10.2-ounce bag for $3.60 at Target), milk chocolate bats ($3.60 at Target) and pumpkins (2 pounds for $23 at Walmart).