Halloween marketing campaigns built as games put a hunt, a puzzle or a scare between the player and a seasonal reward. Fanta opened a haunted house in the Coca-Cola app; Lionsgate built a Saw escape room at Comic Con. Here are nine from our library, with what players did, what results exist and what to copy this October.
Most Halloween round-ups list ads, packs and menu items. We searched the library's 1,089 live games for campaigns built for the Halloween window, dropped ghost-themed games not tied to it, such as LEGO Hidden Side, and kept nine. Few published hard numbers; we say where results are missing, agency-only or untraced.
Why do brands build games for Halloween?
Because spending is concentrated, and it starts in the sweets aisle. The US National Retail Federation expects $13.5 billion of Halloween spending in 2026, against last year's record of $13.1 billion, and 96% of consumers plan to buy sweets (NRF, September 2026). A trade report on Fanta's 2024 campaign with Coca-Cola Europacific Partners GB says the brand accounted for one in every four flavoured carbonates sold in the four weeks to Halloween 2023 (Asian Trader).
Fanta's Halloween campaigns: four games in six years
No brand in the library has played October as often as Fanta.
Vampire AR Game — Fanta (2019)
Agency: MRM · Mechanic: Mini-games · Platform: AR & VR
The bottle was the trigger. Halloween packs of Black Blood Orange carried a vampire, a mummy and a werewolf on the label. Players pointed the Facebook or Messenger camera at the vampire: the room turned spooky, the vampire became a bat and a survival mini-game began, ending with a score and a short scare video (Concept Factory).
Result: Concept Factory, the studio that built the game for MRM, says it was adopted in ten countries, from Romania and Poland to Slovenia and the Baltic states (same source). We found no engagement or sales figures.
Halloween Web 360° & AR — Fanta (2021)
Agency: CamOn, Starcom · Mechanic: Arcade & action · Platform: Web
Fanta Argentina's game needed only a phone browser. A QR code or social link opened a 360° Halloween neighbourhood. Spinning a wheel gave the player one of six 3D objects, from a spider to a pumpkin, to place at full size in their own room and photograph. In a haunted mansion, players had under a minute to find ten hidden pumpkins for a discount on Fanta in the Coca-Cola online store (CamOn).
Result: CamOn reports longer dwell time and better brand recall but gives no numbers (same source).
Haunted Mansion — Fanta (2023)
Agency: UNIT9, Studio X EU · Mechanic: Puzzle · Platform: App
Released in the Coca-Cola app on 23 October 2023, the haunted house had four rooms shown as 360° scenes. Players looked around, solved small mysteries, collected Fanta bottles and met jump scares, with no on-screen text at all (UNIT9). Items collected became app currency for prizes.
Result: UNIT9 says the wordless design needed no translation to run around the world (same source). Our case record adds close to 100% implementation across 23 countries with no adaptation costs, a figure we could not trace to a public page.
Escape the Afterlife Train — Fanta (2024)
Agency: UNIT9 · Mechanic: Puzzle · Platform: App
The 2024 game launched Fanta Zero Afterlife under a Beetlejuice Beetlejuice tie-in. From 1 October, outdoor, cinema, digital and social ads asked people to scan a QR code and board the train in the Coca-Cola app (Asian Trader). Each of three carriages was a scene from the film with a puzzle to solve before the train moved on; gems earned could be redeemed for prizes in the app, and escaping all three unlocked a Beetlejuice face filter (UNIT9). A four-day London pop-up from 30 October gave escapees a can of Fanta Zero Afterlife (Asian Trader).
Result: Our case record lists 7.9 billion campaign impressions and a 54% rise in sales of the Halloween limited-edition range. We could not find these figures on any public page, so treat them as claims.
Which sweets and ice-cream brands made Halloween games?
Get Lolli — Chupa Chups (2014)
Agency: BBH Asia Pacific · Mechanic: Adventure & quest · Platform: Social
Chupa Chups made a horror adventure out of Instagram itself. The nine squares of the @getlolli profile formed one picture of a haunted mansion. Players tapped photo tags to jump between accounts, each one a room, guiding a finger-shaped hero to rescue a kidnapped lollipop before it got licked; wrong choices played a short, grisly death video. It launched in mid-October and ran to Halloween (The Drum).
Result: We found no published results.
Unreal Mission — Unreal (2017)
Agency: Resn · Mechanic: Simulation & strategy · Platform: Web
Sweets brand Unreal had Tom Brady and needed him to sell Halloween boxes. On 12 October 2017 he posted a video saying his spaceship had been hacked and sending fans to a mission briefing (CBS Boston). The site trained players in his space flight simulator, steered by gesture and motion, to chase a villain who had stolen Unreal's Halloween chocolate. Select packs held tickets and skeleton keys that could let a few fans meet Brady (same source).
Result: We found no published figures; the site is offline.
Dracula City — Paleta Drácula (2013)
Agency: Netbangers · Mechanic: Adventure & quest · Platform: Web
The Colombian ice-cream bar Paleta Drácula had run its website as a yearly Halloween destination for children since 2008. The 2013 chapter flipped the scare: Count Dracula and his friends had taken over the city, and the child chased them out of an industrial zone, a shopping mall and the hotel Dracula used as his lair, becoming the hero of Ciudad Bruma (Ads of the World).
Result: We found no published results.
How do film studios use games before a Halloween release?
Jigsaw: Survive the Trap — Lionsgate (2017)
Agency: UNIT9 · Mechanic: Puzzle · Platform: Installation
Lionsgate brought back the Saw series with a playable trap at New York Comic Con on 5–7 October, three weeks before Jigsaw reached cinemas on 27 October. Groups of four had ten minutes to escape a mix of VR and real rooms (NBC New York). Chained in two pairs, they went through separate traps where one pair's choices changed what happened to the other, then reunited for a final puzzle, with Tobin Bell's recorded voice giving the cues (UNIT9).
Result: According to the agency, more than 1,200 people went through the rooms, some after queuing for up to four hours, and the campaign drew more than 16.14 million impressions on Saw's own channels plus more than 4.4 million organic influencer impressions (UNIT9).
Can a brand borrow Halloween inside someone else's game?
Monopoly GO! Monster Mash — KPop Demon Hunters and Ghostbusters (2026)
Agency: none credited (Scopely's own game) · Mechanic: Board-game events · Platform: App
Two film franchises spend this Halloween inside a mobile hit. The Monster Mash season runs from 23 September to 25 November 2026, with the KPop Demon Hunters songs "Golden" and "How It's Done" used in the game (mobilegamer.biz). Two new head-to-head features carry the Halloween theme: in Trick-or-Treat the higher dice roll wins the goodies, and Luck-O-Lantern lets players share collected candy with another player (same source).
Result: No campaign results yet; the draw is reach, with Scopely reporting more than 300 million downloads since launch (same source). For the trade-offs of renting space in another publisher's game, see advergames vs in-game advertising.
Can you add Halloween to a game you already run?
Yes, as a seasonal edition of something players already know. Thorpe Park adds a Fright Nights edition to its park games hub, which is anchored by an always-on quiz; Playable reports more than 7,500 sessions averaging 1:35 minutes each, without saying which games they cover (Playable). Greek burger chain Goody's built loyalty games around Halloween, summer break and new menu launches, drawing 129,472 plays by members across the series (Drimify). Neither figure is for Halloween alone.
The nine games at a glance
| Game | Brand | Year | What it did | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vampire AR Game | Fanta | 2019 | Label-triggered AR game | Ten countries (studio) |
| Halloween Web 360° & AR | Fanta | 2021 | Pumpkin hunt for a discount | None found |
| Haunted Mansion | Fanta | 2023 | Wordless haunted house in an app | 23 countries (untraced) |
| Escape the Afterlife Train | Fanta | 2024 | Puzzle train opened from QR codes in ads | 54% sales rise (untraced) |
| Get Lolli | Chupa Chups | 2014 | Horror adventure via Instagram tags | None found |
| Unreal Mission | Unreal | 2017 | Celebrity simulator tied to packs | None found |
| Dracula City | Paleta Drácula | 2013 | Children chase monsters away | None found |
| Jigsaw: Survive the Trap | Lionsgate | 2017 | Escape room before a horror release | 1,200+ players (agency) |
| Monopoly GO! Monster Mash | KPop Demon Hunters, Ghostbusters | 2026 | Halloween season in a mobile hit | None yet (runs to 25 November) |
What do the strongest Halloween games have in common?
The pack is the ticket. Fanta's 2019 label and Unreal's boxes turned a seasonal purchase into a way in. For codes on packs and posters, see our guide to QR code games.
Sessions fit one evening. Ten pumpkins in under a minute, ten minutes in a Saw trap. Nobody builds a habit in October.
The calendar is tight. Where launch dates are public, play started between 23 September (Monopoly GO) and 23 October (Haunted Mansion), most of it in the first half of October. Treat late September as the deadline for a finished, tested build.
The brand keeps the data. Fanta moved from Facebook's camera in 2019 to a browser in 2021 and then into the Coca-Cola app, with its own prizes and currency. A game hosted on a social platform depends on features the platform controls; Get Lolli relied on Instagram photo tags.
When is a Halloween game the wrong tool?
When the scare doesn't match the audience. Get Lolli's death videos and Jigsaw's traps suit horror fans who chose to be scared. For families, copy Dracula City, where the child scares the monster. If under-13s may play, have prize draws and data capture reviewed in each market before you build.
When nothing carries it. Most cases here had a carrier: a pack, a celebrity video, a comic convention or an app with an audience. A standalone microsite has only four weeks to find its players.
When you need it to last. The Unreal, Paleta Drácula and Fanta Argentina games are all offline. Plan for one season, or add a Halloween edition to an always-on programme, as Thorpe Park and Goody's did.
When a lighter format does the job. To shift a seasonal product in four weeks, a find-the-items hunt, quiz or instant win tied to a discount is quicker to build than a full adventure. For the other big season, see our Christmas brand games.
FAQ
Why is Halloween such big business?
Because most people take part and spend. The US National Retail Federation expects $13.5 billion of Halloween spending in 2026, with 74% of consumers planning to celebrate; costumes are expected to take $4.4 billion, decorations $4.3 billion and sweets $4.1 billion (NRF). For drinks and sweets brands, October is a peak sales window that justifies its own campaign, sometimes with a game on the pack, as Fanta's 2019 label showed.
What are creative Halloween marketing ideas for small businesses?
Start with a light format on a short cycle. Fanta Argentina asked players to find ten pumpkins in under a minute for a discount (case). Thorpe Park adds a Fright Nights edition to its park games hub (case). A QR code on receipts, packs or shop signage can carry a quick hunt or quiz, with the product as the prize. See our quiz campaigns for formats.
Which brands are best known for Halloween marketing?
In our library, Fanta stands out, with Halloween games in 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2024 that moved from an AR label to puzzles in the Coca-Cola app (case). Sweets and ice-cream brands follow, including Chupa Chups, Unreal and Paleta Drácula, along with studios launching horror films, such as Lionsgate with Jigsaw. Browse more in the food and drink collection.
How do you plan a Halloween promotional campaign?
Work back from 31 October. Set one goal: seasonal sales, app sign-ups or film tickets. Choose an entry point people already touch, such as a pack, receipt or app, and keep play to a few minutes. The dated Halloween games in our library went live between 23 September and 23 October, so finish the build by late September, and make the reward lead back to the product, as Fanta's in-app prizes did.
Browse the AR games, food and drink games and those still playable, or send us a Halloween game we have missed.