Clown Sightings
Prior to this year, the fear of clowns was a relatively niche phobia that served more as a topic for humor than a widespread phenomenon. Yet this fall, we’ve observed a sudden increase in clown-related content on YouTube:
The impetus for this trend? Clown sightings. YouTubers have been uploading footage of solitary clowns frightening passersby in droves, and as news of these unnerving encounters has spread, so have views of clown-related videos.
Although bizarre clown sightings are reported as far back as 2014, their sharp increase only goes back to late August this year. The real peak, however, occurred on October 15th, after hundreds of news stories.
Harley Quinn, ‘The Purge,’ and Clown Costumes
As clowns have become prominent, so too have clown costumes: “clown” has become one of the most searched-for costumes on YouTube this October.
- Clown costumes, at #6 this year, are in the top 10 for the first time.
- Stick figure costumes were the most popular costume-related search this month.
- Costumes of this year’s biggest Hollywood blockbusters are popular too, with users searching for costumes of Harley Quinn (from “Suicide Squad”) at #2, “The Purge” at #5, and “Deadpool” at #8.
Suicide Squad’s Harley Quinn
- Costumes inspired by this year’s video games, such as “Overwatch” (released in May ‘16) and “Five Nights At Freddy’s” (the latest installment of which was released this October), are also in the top 10.
Other Halloween 2016 Trends
- Makeup how-to videos are also among the most popular this year, including tutorials like dope2111’s Yzma from Emperor’s New Groove (4.3M) and Kat Sketch’s “The Conjuring 2” tutorial (3.1M views).
- DIY costume tutorials, such as this how-to of 15 candy costumes (8M) by SaraBeautyCorner or this “Suicide Squad” costume tutorial (3.7M) by Wengie, are also highly popular in 2016.
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