The most-watched horror movies during Halloween over the past five years have been revealed in a new report. Since the late 1970s, significantly boosted by the release of John Carpenter’s 1978 classic Halloween, it’s become a widespread yearly tradition for audiences to watch horror movies during the month of October in the lead-up to, and on Halloween on October 31.
According to Nielsen’s special Halloween report (via Variety) tracking October horror movie viewership since 2021, M3GAN 2.0 was the most-watched horror movie on TV this year during the week of October 1–7, racking up 115 million minutes viewed on Peacock. Though the M3GAN sequel disappointed at the box office, it was the first horror movie that many audiences turned to as this year’s Halloween season kicked off.
Close behind is the original Scream (1996), which slashed its way to 113 million minutes viewed via the Paramount Network, Showtime, and various streaming services. These totals combine both linear and streaming TV viewership, and the numbers for the rest of October are still creeping in.
Alongside M3GAN 2.0, several other 2025 horror movies secured spots on the chart, including Bring Her Back in third, 28 Years Later in fourth, and Sinners in eighth. Beyond Scream (1996), the only other older titles to make the list were the 1962 classic Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? in fifth and the 1990 cult favorite Tremors in seventh. See the full chart below:
On Nielsen’s chart of the most-watched horror movies in October from 2021 to 2024, the only two titles from the 2025 list to appear are Scream (1996) and Halloween (2018). The former ranked third in 2021, while the latter ranked eighth, returned to that same spot in 2024, and landed in ninth in 2025.
Other repeat appearances between 2021 and 2024 include the original Halloween (1978), Thir13en Ghosts, and House of Wax (each charting in 2021 and 2022), Hubie Halloween (appearing in 2022 and 2023), and the Haunted Mansion remake (which made the charts in both 2023 and 2024). Check out the full charts below:
Nielsen also analyzed horror movie viewership from October 2021 to 2024 by demographic, examining trends among different races and age groups, and also analyzed horror movies as a percentage of total movie viewing. See those two charts below:
Nielsen’s Halloween report highlights an unexpected trend. Even with the growing abundance of content available, horror movies stand out as a unifying force, attracting audiences across demographics more evenly than other genres, as viewers consistently revisit classics and discover new releases alike.