You Won’t Believe How Many Candy Canes Are Actually Sold

There are so many sweet treats around during the winter holidays. Sure, Halloween might be known as the penultimate candy holiday, but there’s no need to trick or treat in order to get plenty of candy once late November and December roll around. Just take a look at how many seasonal flavors and candy varieties hit store shelves in celebration of the ‘ber months and their many holidays — I mean, you can pick up everything from limited-edition M&M’s to chocolatey squares with seasonal spins from Ghirardelli. 

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But there’s one particular candy that gets a lot of shelf space every year once the Christmas and Hanukkah decorations start rolling into stores: candy canes. These peppermint-y striped hard candies are a Christmas staple. And, to my own surprise, they’re actually more popular than most of us might suspect.

Hundreds of Millions of Candy Canes Are Sold Every Year

Recently, Brach’s released its 2026 Candy Cane Report, which offers a peek behind the scenes of what goes into its holiday candies — and just how popular they are. Specifically, this report offers some stunning facts about candy canes, which apparently fly off store shelves every holiday season.

According to this year’s Candy Cane Report, the iconic and mint-flavored treat is one very in-demand sweet. Nearly half of all shoppers ultimately purchase candy canes (I assume solely during the ‘ber months and not as, say, a summertime snack). And that results in more than 750 million candy canes being sold each year. That, according to Brach’s helpful data, is roughly the same weight as over 70,000 reindeer.

Brach’s is the number one candy cane brand in the U.S., and this single brand sells approximately 255 million candy canes annually. Need a visualization? That’s almost enough candy canes to circle the world — just 2,000 miles short, if the candy canes were placed end to end.

Classic Candy Canes Are a Crowd-Pleaser at Christmas

If you’re wondering just who’s consuming all of those hundreds of millions of candy canes, Brach’s has even more data on sweet shopping habits. It turns out that most shoppers — about 73 percent of them — actually start picking up their holiday candy choices early, kicking off their search for sweets and stocking up in October or November. Just 27 percent of shoppers wait until December to start grabbing boxes of candy canes (and other holiday candies).

But most don’t stop at just a few candy canes. According to Brach’s, roughly 54 percent of shoppers buy candy two to three times during the holidays.

However, when it comes to candy canes, they’re definitely one of December’s biggest candies. Nearly 80 percent of all candy canes sold are bought in December. So it’s definitely a treat with a very seasonal timeframe.

And if you’re wondering just how popular peppermint is, there’s a reason it’s the primary flavor of the holidays (I mean, that Starbucks Peppermint Mocha is delicious and a staple for a reason). 68 percent of candy cane shoppers reach for the classic mint variety. However, other flavors get plenty of attention; 47 percent grab sweet, fruit-forward varieties instead, while 31 percent pick up sour spins.

So, there really is a candy cane for every taste, it seems — but not necessarily every season of the year.