Halloween slots lead Day of the Dead games in release volume, but the smaller theme holds a better average casino lobby position in SlotCatalog’s dataset. This Ace Alliance x SlotCatalog report compares production, launch timing, lobby visibility and search demand, using releases tracked from 2023 to 10 October 2026 to assess seasonal content choices for operators and providers.
According to SlotCatalog, providers released 106 Halloween slots in 2025, equivalent to roughly two new games every week. US searches for “halloween slots”, however, remained broadly flat year on year: 528 in September 2026 against 547 in September 2025. Supply continued rising, with 57 Halloween titles launched by the end of September 2026, compared with 32 over the same period a year earlier.
Day of the Dead received 26 new titles in 2025, approximately a quarter of Halloween’s output. Yet its games hold a better average lobby position. BGAMING’s Fiesta Clusters ranks second among the two themes’ 2025–2026 releases, behind only Hacksaw Gaming’s Wicked Grin.
The holidays also share a promotional window. Halloween on 31 October leads directly into Day of the Dead on 1–2 November, giving operators a reason to plan both themes together and providers a choice about which theme still has room for a new title.
| Metric | Halloween | Day of the Dead |
|---|---|---|
| Releases, 2023 to 10 October 2026 | 307 | 104 |
| Releases, 2025 | 106 | 26 |
| Releases, January–September 2026 (same months of 2025) | 57 (32) | 23 (15) |
| Share of 2023–2025 releases launched in September–October | 73% | 53% |
| Share of seasonal slot pool, 2023–2025 | 17.87% | 6.00% |
| Average SlotRank, 2023–2026 releases (lower is better) | 16,514 | 14,872 |
| Titles with a measurable SlotRank | 68.7% | 72.1% |
| Best 2025–2026 release (SlotRank) | Wicked Grin (75) | Fiesta Clusters (121) |
| Largest provider's share of theme, 2023–2026 | 3.26% | 3.85% |
Halloween is a global retail event with a long build-up. The US National Retail Federation expects record Halloween spending of $13.5 billion in 2026, up from $13.1 billion in 2025. 74% of Americans plan to take part, and 49% start shopping in September or earlier, up from 34% in 2016. For slot lobbies, this means the Halloween window opens weeks before 31 October, and players are already primed for themed content by early autumn.
Day of the Dead is narrower and regional, with a firm cultural anchor. UNESCO inscribed Mexico’s indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead on its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2008. The festivity runs from late October to early November, peaking on 1–2 November. Its imagery is specifically Mexican: calaveras, marigolds, altars and mariachi.
That puts Day of the Dead content close to two of the most closely watched markets in the Americas:
Halloween is a global retail event with a long build-up. The US National Retail Federation expects record Halloween spending of $13.5 billion in 2026, up from $13.1 billion in 2025. 74% of Americans plan to take part, and 49% start shopping in September or earlier, up from 34% in 2016. For slot lobbies, this means the Halloween window opens weeks before 31 October, and players are already primed for themed content by early autumn.
Day of the Dead is narrower and regional, with a firm cultural anchor. UNESCO inscribed Mexico’s indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead on its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2008. The festivity runs from late October to early November, peaking on 1–2 November. Its imagery is specifically Mexican: calaveras, marigolds, altars and mariachi.
That puts Day of the Dead content close to two of the most closely watched markets in the Americas:
Market position: North America’s third-largest iGaming market by estimated revenue, behind the US and Canada.
Regulated market: Brazil’s regulated betting market launched on 1 January 2025.
Estimated revenue: Monthly revenue peaked at approximately US$227.1 million in December 2025, according to Blask data cited in SiGMA’s North America Market Report 2026.
Reported revenue: The Secretariat of Prizes and Bets reported R37billion (about US7 billion) in 2025 GGR.
Legal framework: Operators work under the 1947 Federal Law of Games and Lotteries.
Licensed operators: The market had 79 licensed operators by the end of 2025.
Reform efforts: Industry body AIEJA is pressing for a modern regulatory framework.
Cultural context: Brazil marks 2 November as Finados, a sombre public holiday. Day of the Dead imagery reaches players as a visual style rather than a local festival.
Halloween ends on 31 October and the main Day of the Dead days, 1 and 2 November, follow straight after, so the two themes share one promotional window of about three weeks. 74 studios have released games in both themes, yet only three titles carry both tags. Players still meet the two themes in the same lobby, in the same fortnight.
In the US, “halloween slots” draws about 200 searches a month from January to June. Interest rises to 400–550 in September and peaks at about 1,100 in October, roughly five times the spring level.
Ahrefs Keywords Explorer · US monthly search volume estimates, January 2024 to September 2026
November is where the two themes meet. In 2025, US searches held at 483 in November, about twice the spring level, as interest carried into the Day of the Dead window. In 2024 they dropped straight back to 241. Demand is also not growing: 528 searches in September 2026 against 547 a year earlier, even after a year in which Halloween supply rose to 106 releases.
Individual titles draw more searches than the theme names:
| Search term | Global monthly searches |
|---|---|
| Big Bass Halloween | 2,800 |
| Esqueleto Explosivo | 2,200 |
| Halloween Slots | 1,000 |
| Day of the Dead Slots | 200 |
Esqueleto Explosivo alone is searched about 11 times more often than “day of the dead slots”. For providers, the long-term return on a seasonal game depends on a title players remember and search for again.
Search demand is concentrated in different markets from the holidays themselves. Brazil is the second-largest market for Halloween slot searches after the US. “Halloween slot” and “halloween slots” each draw about 200 searches a month there, alongside the Portuguese “caça-níquel halloween” (about 50). The UK (150) and Canada (100) follow. The English term “day of the dead slots” is searched most in the UK (about 100 a month) and the US (about 40). Mexico, the home of Day of the Dead, shows almost no search demand for either theme in English or Spanish. Mexican players most likely find these games inside casino lobbies rather than through Google, so lobby placement decides which Day of the Dead titles get played there.
Paid traffic costs vary widely by market. A paid click on “halloween slots” costs about $4.00 in the US, against $0.80 to $1.30 for Halloween terms in Brazil. For operators planning a paid seasonal push, a Brazilian click costs between a fifth and a third of a US one.
Halloween output has grown three years in a row, from 57 releases in 2023 to 74 in 2024 and 106 in 2025. Day of the Dead has stayed in a narrow band of 24 to 29 titles a year.
SlotCatalog · monthly releases per theme, January 2023 to 10 October 2026
The release calendar is shifting. From 2023 to 2025, 73% of Halloween releases landed in September and October, and October 2025 alone brought 60 titles, about two a day. In 2026 the pattern changed: 42 Halloween slots launched between January and August, against 15 in the same months of 2025. February 2026 alone had 11. Day of the Dead moved the same way, with 21 releases from January to August 2026 against 10 a year earlier.
Both themes are running ahead of 2025. By the end of September 2026, 57 Halloween titles had launched, against 32 at the same point in 2025. Day of the Dead stood at 23 against 15. By 10 October, Day of the Dead had 25 releases, one short of its full 2025 total, while Halloween’s 70 equalled 66% of its 2025 count. From October to December 2025, another 74 Halloween titles followed. Half that pace after 10 October would take 2026 past 106 and set a new record. Day of the Dead needs five more titles to pass its 2023 high of 29; it added at least 11 in every October to December of the period.
The year-to-date ratio of 2.8 : 1 flatters Day of the Dead. Most of Halloween’s October volume still lies ahead, so the full-year gap is likely to widen again.
In SlotCatalog’s 2023–2025 export, Halloween made up 17.87% of the 1,399 seasonal slots across nine holiday themes. That is above the 15% level our St Patrick’s Day analysis identified as the point where added volume stopped producing visibility. Day of the Dead, at 6.00%, sits in the same low-density band where Easter grew.
Neither theme has a dominant supplier. No provider holds more than 4% of releases in either theme in either period. That sets this issue apart from the previous one, where InBet Games alone accounted for about 20% of the St Patrick’s Day catalogue. Our slot mechanics report examines another side of studio specialisation, comparing provider adoption across Book Of, Megaways and Pay Anywhere.
| Halloween 2023–2026 | Halloween 2025–2026 | Day of the Dead 2023–2026 | Day of the Dead 2025–2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Titles | 307 | 176 | 104 | 51 |
| Leading provider | ABXplay (10) | Inspired Gaming (5) | Spinomenal (4) | 8 studios tied at 2 |
| Leader's share | 3.26% | 2.84% | 3.85% | 3.92% each |
| Top-10 providers' combined share | 19.5% | 17.6% | 24.0% | 35.3% |
| Rest of the top 10 | Inspired Gaming, KA Gaming, Onlyplay (7 each); BGAMING, Spinomenal (6); Reel Kingdom (5); 1xGames, Evoplay, MGA Games (4) | BGAMING, KA Gaming (4); Astriona Games, Evoplay, Redstone, Reel Kingdom (3); 1xGames, 7777 Gaming, AGS (2) | Greentube, Pateplay, Zillion Games (3); 5G Games, Gaming Realms, Hacksaw Gaming, Lightning Box, Playnetic, Playtech (2) | 5G Games, Hacksaw Gaming, Pateplay, Playnetic, Playtech Origins, Pragmatic Play, Spinomenal, Zillion Games (2); Ainsworth, Amigo Gaming (1) |
Halloween has a broad supplier base, with leadership changing between release periods. Day of the Dead attracts both major studios and specialists, while only Spinomenal ranks among the leading providers in both themes.
ABXplay leads the 2023–2026 Halloween table with 10 titles but is absent from the 2025–2026 top 10. Inspired Gaming leads that newer period with five. The change shows how leadership shifts between release windows, with no single provider dominating the theme.
Pragmatic Play, Playtech Origins and Hacksaw Gaming all appear in the 2025–2026 Day of the Dead top 10. Each released two games within a theme containing 51 releases. Their presence shows that major studios include the category in their portfolios, despite its relatively limited release volume.
Spinomenal is the only studio in both themes’ 2023–2026 top 10s. It leads Day of the Dead with four titles and places sixth for Halloween with six. Across all years, it also has the largest combined catalogue: 18 games, comprising 11 Halloween and seven Day of the Dead titles.
The top 10 Halloween suppliers account for less than a fifth of the theme’s 307 releases from 2023–2026. The remaining 247 titles come from at least 60 other studios, each contributing no more than four games. Production is spread across a broad field of smaller contributors.
Across all years in SlotCatalog’s provider data, 54 of 277 studios favour Day of the Dead by release count. Pateplay has five titles and no Halloween games. Pragmatic Play and TaDa Gaming have three against two, while Thunderkick, Greentube and Lightning Box each have three against one. These six studios, each with four or more titles across the two themes, are the suppliers most directly positioned for Mexican and Latin American lobbies.
SlotRank measures a game’s popularity by its exposure and position in casino lobbies. SlotCatalog crawls more than 2,000 casinos across 50+ markets daily, and a lower SlotRank means a better position. On this measure, the average Day of the Dead title outperforms the average Halloween title by about 1,641 positions.
| SlotRank, 2023–2026 releases | Halloween | Day of the Dead |
|---|---|---|
| Titles with a SlotRank | 211 of 307 (68.7%) | 75 of 104 (72.1%) |
| Titles without a SlotRank | 96 | 29 |
| Average SlotRank | 16,514 | 14,872 |
| Best SlotRank | 75 | 121 |
| Worst SlotRank | 32,656 | 32,610 |
| Average RTP (2023–2025 data) | 95.41% | 95.34% |
Nearly one Halloween slot in three (96 titles) has no measurable lobby footprint at all. Day of the Dead’s lower volume does not protect it from this problem, but its coverage is 3.4 percentage points better. The two themes are almost identical on RTP, so the maths does not explain the performance gap.
The top of each list shows a different pattern. Day of the Dead’s three best releases of 2025–2026 would all rank in a combined top five: Fiesta Clusters (BGAMING, SlotRank 121), 3 Pinatas (Iron Dog Studio, 262) and Tres Pinatas Hold & Win (Hacksaw Gaming, 355). Below them, the field thins out. The fourth-best Day of the Dead title ranks 3,919, while Halloween’s fourth ranks 683. Across both themes, Halloween takes seven of the ten best positions.
SlotCatalog · SlotRank snapshot, October 2026 · top 10 releases of 2025–2026 per theme
| # | Game | Provider | Released | SlotRank | RTP | Max win | Volatility | Core mechanics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wicked Grin | Hacksaw Gaming | 2026-09-28 | 75 | 96.27% | 10,000x | Medium | Avalanche, free spins, buy feature, multipliers |
| 2 | Witches' Book | Ela Games | 2025-10-16 | 194 | 94.00% | 1,000x | Medium | Book mechanic, moving wilds, free spins |
| 3 | Big Bass Halloween 3 | Reel Kingdom | 2025-10-15 | 667 | 95.50% | 5,000x | High | Cash collector, free spins multipliers, buy feature |
| 4 | Draculatte 7s | Revolver Gaming | 2026-07-18 | 683 | 96.00% | 2,000x | Medium-high | Expanding symbols, free spins, random wilds |
| 5 | Kingfisher Boo! | Wishbone | 2025-10-17 | 690 | 96.21% | 6,000x | Medium-high | Cash collector, free spins, random rewards |
| 6 | Coins of Halloween: Hold & Win | Betsoft | 2025-10-06 | 691 | 96.21% | 3,500x | High | Cash collector, bonus game, buy feature |
| 7 | Frightening Frankie | Reel Kingdom | 2025-10-16 | 2,264 | 95.53% | 2,800x | High | Bonus wheel, free spins multipliers |
| 8 | The Wildwood Curse | Hacksaw Gaming | 2025-09-22 | 4,097 | 96.30% | 10,000x | Medium | Bonus bet, buy feature, respin wild |
| 9 | Trickstar Spins | Yggdrasil | 2025-01-23 | 4,269 | 94.00% | 800x | Medium | Bonus wheel, multipliers, wilds |
| 10 | Fish Tales Halloween | Booming Games | 2025-10-13 | 4,494 | 96.10% | 5,000x | High | Hold and win, free spins, buy feature |
| # | Game | Provider | Released | SlotRank | RTP | Max win | Volatility | Core mechanics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fiesta Clusters | BGAMING | 2025-10-15 | 121 | 97.50% | 5,000x | High | Avalanche, cascades, free spins |
| 2 | 3 Pinatas | Iron Dog Studio | 2026-01-21 | 262 | 95.00% | 5,000x | Medium-high | Hold and win, free spins, wild multipliers |
| 3 | Tres Pinatas Hold & Win | Hacksaw Gaming | 2026-08-27 | 355 | 96.26% | 2,500x | Medium | Hold and win, bonus bet, buy feature |
| 4 | Circle of Life | Hacksaw Gaming | 2026-01-05 | 3,919 | 96.33% | 15,000x | High | Bonus wheel, free spins, wild multipliers |
| 5 | Dead Lucky DuoMax | Reflex Gaming | 2025-05-13 | 5,312 | 94.00% | 20,000x | High | Avalanche, cascades, expanding symbols |
| 6 | Spin of the Dead | Spinomenal | 2025-10-23 | 7,186 | Not published | 3,000x | Not published | Expanding symbols, free spins, respin wild |
| 7 | Ding Dong Death | Nolimit City | 2026-09-22 | 7,533 | 96.08% | 14,280x | High | Avalanche, cascades, buy feature |
| 8 | Wild Mariachi Bros | Apparat Gaming | 2025-06-25 | 8,762 | 96.18% | 1,500x | Medium-high | Free spins, buy feature, wilds |
| 9 | Esqueleto Explosivo Feliz Navidead | Thunderkick | 2025-11-26 | 8,775 | 94.22% | 7,500x | High | Avalanche, cascades, free spins multipliers |
| 10 | 1 Reel: Dia De Los Muertos | Spinomenal | 2025-10-23 | 8,781 | 95.42% | 500x | High | Multipliers, wilds |
Patterns across both lists:
Eight of the Halloween top 10 launched between 22 September and 17 October. Draculatte 7s (July) and Trickstar Spins (January) show that a strong Halloween game can still build lobby presence outside the season. Day of the Dead is far less tied to the calendar: six of its top 10 launched outside September and October, including Esqueleto Explosivo Feliz Navidead, a Christmas edition released on 26 November 2025.
Wicked Grin reached SlotRank 75 within about two weeks of its exclusive release on 28 September 2026. That makes it the best-ranked title in either theme since 2023.
Big Bass Halloween 3, Fish Tales Halloween and Coins of Halloween bring an existing series into a seasonal skin. Players already know the mechanics, and operators already have lobby slots for the brand. Our report on slot franchises and sequels explores how providers extend recognisable characters through new releases and themed variants.
Four of the Halloween top 10 use a cash collector or hold-and-win (Big Bass Halloween 3, Kingfisher Boo!, Coins of Halloween, Fish Tales Halloween), and Wicked Grin adds a coin-collector bonus. Four of the Day of the Dead top 10 run on avalanche or cascading reels (Fiesta Clusters, Dead Lucky DuoMax, Ding Dong Death, Esqueleto Explosivo Feliz Navidead), and both piñata games use hold-and-win.
In the Halloween list, max wins run from 800x to 10,000x, and volatility ranges from medium to high. Witches’ Book ranks second with a 94% RTP and a 1,000x cap. Six of the ten publish an RTP of 96% or higher, although several, including Wicked Grin and Draculatte 7s, ship with lower RTP settings depending on the operator and region. Day of the Dead pushes the caps higher: Dead Lucky DuoMax offers 20,000x, Circle of Life 15,000x and Ding Dong Death 14,280x, and Fiesta Clusters publishes a 97.5% RTP.
It has two titles in each: Wicked Grin and The Wildwood Curse for Halloween, Tres Pinatas Hold & Win and Circle of Life for Day of the Dead.
The two themes cost different amounts to make, and that explains most of the gap in volume, provider mix and lobby performance.
Halloween’s crowded release schedule and Day of the Dead’s smaller catalogue call for different approaches. Providers need to decide where a new game can win lobby space, while operators need to plan lobby placement and promotional timing across both holidays.
Planning Halloween and Day of the Dead together can help operators keep a seasonal lobby position useful beyond 31 October.
Before approving a Halloween title, I’d ask what replaces it on 1 November. I’d look for a Day of the Dead game in the same mechanic family to continue the campaign. If there’s no suitable follow-up, I’d assess the Halloween title’s cost against its shorter promotional window.
Additional data sources: SlotCatalog release and provider datasets, the 2023–2025 seasonal slot export and the October 2026 SlotRank snapshot; Ahrefs Keywords Explorer estimates for search volume and CPC, including US monthly search history from January 2024 to September 2026. Live database pages may display updated figures.
Want a personalised version of this report? Reach out to Misha Kachanov, CBO at SlotCatalog, to find out more.
