What Does Fun Size Mean? And How Do Different Fun Size Candies Compare?

I am a big spooky season proponent, psyched to enjoy the ghoulish, ghostly, and goblinesque activities of October. I live in an apartment, but I dream of the day when I will have a porch that I can adorn with all manner of skeletons and spiders and give trick-or-treaters a little shiver as they come to collect their fun size candy. But, what exactly is “fun size?” How much candy are we getting in our fun sizes? And what exactly makes them so fun? Let’s grab a big handful of answers. 

What is fun size candy?

While, yes, it might technically be more fun for you to consume a regular sized candy bar—or even more fun to consume a giant, king size candy bar—“fun size” refers to the small, individually wrapped candies that get handed out at Halloween to trick-or-treaters. Plus, let’s be real, small, cute versions of regular-sized things are inherently pretty fun.

When did fun size candies come out?

According to Time Magazine, Mars—the chocolatier kings responsible for M&Ms, Twix, Snickers, and many other treats—began releasing smaller versions of its products in 1961. At the time, they called them “junior” versions. Before too long, however, they abandoned this marketing strategy and replaced these tiny items with slightly larger ones (still smaller than a normal sized candy) and adopted the name “fun size” in 1968. This coincided with a shift in American perceptions about health and diet, so people were ready for a smaller, less decadent version of their favorite candy. And the rest is Halloween history. 

How big is a fun size Snickers?

Sure, fun size candies are smaller than their counterparts, but how much smaller? Well, when it comes to Snickers, a fun size version weighs in at 17g or about .5 oz. In terms of length, it comes in at just under 2 inches. For comparison, a full size snickers weighs 52.7g or 1.86 oz and is about 4.4 inches. 

How many M&Ms are in a fun size bag?

This was a simple question to answer—I didn’t even need to go out and buy a pack of candy myself! According to the candy obsessives at Candy Warehouse, there are about 20-22 M&Ms per fun size pack. And, as we know from our article addressing the question, how many M&Ms are in a bag, there are 56 in a regular bag. 

How many Skittles are in a fun size bag?

I hate to claim a conspiracy, but this question proved to be much more difficult. According to Candy Warehouse, a fun size bag of sour Skittles contains about a dozen pieces of candy, but they don’t offer any information about regular Skittles. However, an article on StatCrunch determined that there are 14-16 Skittles per fun size bag. Seems like they’ve done the research, so we’ll go with that figure. It’s worth noting that this is significantly fewer individual candies than you get in a package of M&Ms, so if you’re trick-or-treating purely to reach a high number of colorful candied oblongs, your better bet is M&Ms. But of course, when you’ve got a rainbow hankering, nothing but Skittles will do.