Every spring, Americans hunt for their favorite Easter treats, and that craving is only getting stronger.
Despite candy prices climbing 22% between 2022 and 2025, search demand for Easter candy reached its highest point.
From the unstoppable rise of Peeps and Cadbury eggs to surprising drops in jelly bean interest, our new report by Gourmet Gift Baskets reveals which candies win the Easter basket wars. We analyzed candy, with an average of almost 2,000,000 monthly searches in the US, and found some interesting insights.
Key Findings
- Peeps and Cadbury eggs dominate the Easter window. In 2025, Peeps reached 651,000 searches in March and April, the highest of any candy term
- Cadbury eggs saw the fastest growth in terms of total searches, jumping by 117,000 searches year-over-year.
- While candy prices climbed 22% from 2022 to 2025, total Easter-season search demand grew by 2.3%, proving that Americans aren't cutting back on their favorite spring treats.
Easter Candy Rankings (2025)
The 2025 "Easter window" (March and April) shows a clear hierarchy of favorites based on national search volume:
- Peeps: 651,000 searches.
- Cadbury eggs: 356,000 searches.
- Easter candy (generic): 291,500 searches.
- Jelly beans: 275,500 searches.
Niche favorites also maintain steady footprints, including Bean Boozled, Reese's eggs, and Dove eggs. While Peeps and Cadbury eggs are the most popular candies nationwide, they are also uncontested at the state level. In every state, “peeps” is the most searched candy during Easter.
Easter Searches Are Climbing Year After Year
Search demand for Easter candy is highly seasonal, characterized by a massive peak of searches in March and April, followed by a return to low baselines for the rest of the year. For example, Peeps searches in 2025 jumped from 110,000 in February to a peak of 450,000 in March, then dropped back to 110,000 in April. Cadbury eggs displayed an even more dramatic shift, with March 2025 volume (368,000) more than doubling its March 2024 level.
Although when we add up all candy keywords, total Easter‑season search demand (March + April) rises by 2.3% from 2022 to 2025, making Easter 2025 the strongest candy search season in our data. Over the same period, the official candy and chewing gum price index rose by about 22%.
Individual candies tell their own growth stories. Peeps, the Easter classic, grows its holiday searches from about 614,000 in 2022 to 651,000 in 2025 (+6%). Cadbury eggs are the breakout star, jumping from 239,000 Easter searches in 2022 to 356,000 in 2025—an increase of nearly 49%. Generic “easter candy” searches also climb about 14% over the same period, suggesting more people are starting with broad, open‑ended queries.
Not every candy benefits equally. Jelly beans, for instance, fall from roughly 502,000 to 275,000 Easter searches between 2022 and 2025 (about a 45% drop), even as overall Easter candy demand rises. That points to shifting preferences within a growing seasonal category: consumers are clearly more excited about some Easter treats than others.
Methodology
This analysis combines three primary data sources covering 2022 through early 2026 to measure American Easter candy cravings.
- National and State Search Data: Monthly Google Ads search volume for keywords like "Peeps," "Cadbury eggs," and "Jelly beans" across all 50 states.
- The Easter Window: All seasonal search metrics are defined by the combined volume in March and April of each year to capture both early planners and last-minute shoppers.
- Price Indexing: Monthly index values for "Candy and Chewing Gum in U.S. City Average" (Dec 1997 = 100) used to compare demand growth against price inflation.