The Haunted AI Search Report 👻
Which brands ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Copilot summon for Halloween, the brands they ghost, and the mistakes they make about real attractions.
Top brands in AI answers
Out of 28 brands measured, these were named most in AI Halloween shopping answers.
Walmart
42%
Spirit Halloween
41%
Amazon
37%
Target
34%
Shopping answers naming Walmart
42%
Most-named brand, just ahead of Spirit Halloween (41%)
Prompts where no AI named Spirit Halloween
12 of 34
Candy, inflatables, the 12-foot skeleton and more
Attraction answers with a wrong or outdated fact
1 in 6
8 of 46 answers checked
Copilot attraction answers with an error
1 in 3
4 of 12, the most of any engine
THE SHORT ANSWER
Big-box stores, not Halloween specialists, win AI’s Halloween answers: Walmart is named in 42% of shopping answers, a hair ahead of Spirit Halloween at 41%, and each AI tool has a different favorite. About 1 in 6 answers about Halloween attractions had a wrong or outdated time, price or opening status, and Copilot got it wrong most often.
01 · Summoned and ghosted
Four AI tools, four different favorite stores
We asked ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Copilot 34 Halloween shopping questions, from costumes to candy to the 12-foot skeleton, and counted which brands each answer named and linked to. ChatGPT leans Walmart, Perplexity leans Target, Copilot leans Amazon, and Google’s AI Overviews lean Spirit Halloween. Being named is not the same as being linked: Spirit Halloween is named in 41% of answers but its main site is cited in 20%.
GHOSTED
Joann closed all of its stores by May 2025, yet a Google AI Overview still sent shoppers to “Michaels & Joann Fabrics” for Halloween craft supplies. Party City closed its own stores in early 2025 too, but AI still named it in 16% of answers, mostly pointing to its relaunched website, which is open for business.
Named vs. linked: share of answers
Green: answers that name the brand. Yellow: answers that link to the brand’s own site.
AmazonOther sites AI cites most
Share of answers citing the site
Top pick by AI engine
Brand named in the most answers from each engine.
02 · What AI gets wrong
The scariest things AI said about real Halloween attractions 🎃
We asked all four AI tools for this season’s dates, hours and prices at 10 well-known haunts and theme-park events, plus Spirit Halloween’s store hours, then checked 46 answers against each attraction’s official website. 8 of them had at least one fact that was wrong or out of date. Most misses were start times off by 30 minutes to two hours, or a launch-week price that had since gone up.
Said it wasn’t open yet
COPILOT SAID
“Netherworld Haunted House has not yet released its official 2026 operating dates or ticket prices.”
THE TRUTH
Netherworld’s site lists the full 2026 season, open since September 18, with tickets from $25 to $41.
Official sourceNetherworld, Atlanta area
Outdated price
CHATGPT SAID
“Single-night tickets start at $65.”
THE TRUTH
Knott’s now lists Scary Farm tickets from $75. Copilot gave the same old $65 figure.
Official sourceKnott’s Scary Farm, Buena Park, Calif.
Wrong hours
GOOGLE AI OVERVIEWS SAID
“Starting around 6:00 PM on Thursdays/Fridays/Saturdays.”
THE TRUTH
Cedar Point’s nighttime frights run 8 p.m. to midnight on Thursdays and Fridays. Copilot made a similar mistake.
Official sourceCedar Point HalloWeekends, Sandusky, Ohio
Attraction answers with at least one wrong or outdated fact, by engine
33%
4 of 12
Copilot
17%
2 of 12
ChatGPT
10%
1 of 10
Google AI Overviews
8%
1 of 12
Perplexity
WHAT IT MEANS
Haunts and Halloween events earn much of their year in a few weeks, and AI is now handing out their hours and prices. The fix is boring but fast: keep one clear, crawlable page with this season’s dates, hours and prices in plain text, not just in images or booking widgets.
03 · What AI recommends by aisle
Who AI sends you to, aisle by aisle
Spirit Halloween owns AI’s costume answers but disappears in other aisles. For decorations AI points to Home Depot, for party supplies to Walmart and Target, and for candy to Hershey, Walmart and Chewy. Counts are the number of AI answers that named each brand.
Amazon (20)What to do before next Halloween
AUGUST
Check what AI says about you
Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot and Google for your hours, prices and dates. In our test, 1 in 6 attraction answers had something wrong.
EARLY SEPTEMBER
Put the facts in plain text
Publish this season’s dates, hours and prices on one crawlable page. AI misses facts that live only in images or ticketing widgets.
SEPTEMBER
Earn the link, not just the mention
Big retailers get named and linked. Product pages, store pages and mentions on sites like Reddit help AI send shoppers to you.
How we did this
Shopping prompts: 34 Halloween shopping questions run once in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Copilot (US) on October 24, 2026, tracked with Otterly.AI. Google showed an AI Overview for 13 of the 34, giving 115 answers.
Brand counts: a brand counts once per answer if it is named. “Linked” means the answer cited the brand’s own main website. We tracked 28 retailers and candy makers.
Attraction checks: 12 questions about 2026 dates, hours and prices, 46 answers in total. Each claim was compared with the official website on October 24, 2026. We only called a claim wrong when the official page clearly contradicted it; 7 answers couldn’t be verified and were not counted as errors.
Limits: AI answers change from day to day and by location, so these are a snapshot, not a ranking. The attraction sample is small.