Joker costumes top Trade Me Halloween searches for Wellington

The Joker is a popular costume choice for those in the Wellington region. Photo / Supplied

The capital may soon be awash with murderous clowns if Wellingtonians' Halloween Trade Me searches are anything to go by.

As the traditionally American celebration gathers steam in New Zealand, more people are taking to the auction site to find their costumes.

"In the last two weeks we've seen 68,000 searches for Halloween items onsite, from pumpkins to fake blood and even cookie cutters," said spokeswoman Millie Silvester.

"The faint-hearted will be pleased to know it won't be all scary this Halloween. This year's most popular costume theme is pretty radical and we've seen 4200 searches for '80s costume' in the last seven days."

It's a different story in Wellington though, where locals seem to have been inspired by the recently released movie Joker.

Nationwide there have been nearly 3000 searches for the super villain in the past seven days, making it the second most searched for costume onsite, and the most sought after costume in the Wellington region.

"Some Kiwis like to be on trend with their Halloween outfits," Silvester said.

"In previous years superheroes and villains like Pennywise, Batman and Spiderman have been very popular when the films have been out and about."

Pirates, witches and Harry Potter costumes are also among the top five most popular costumes, each fetching around 2000 searches last week.

The second most searched costume for Wellington is "superheroes".

Aucklanders can also expect to see a few superheroes knocking on their doors, as well as plenty of 80s-themed trick or treaters.

In Canterbury superhero and princess costumes topped the list.