With Halloween coming up, and the new series of ‘The Walking Dead’ due to air this weekend it’s worth asking: have we passed ‘peak Zombie’?

The answer, thankfully, is yes.

U.S. imports of Halloween-related merchandise are clustered in the May to September period, peaking in August, Panjiva data shows. While imports in August were 7.2% lower than a year earlier, the three month period to end September was 3.4% higher. Data for October will show whether Halloween products faced the horror of Hanjin Shipping’s problems.

Looking at the five month period running to September 30, imports of decorations increased 6.0%, compared to a 15.5% drop in sales of outfits. This may suggest retailers including Michaels Stores are anticipating more stay-at-home activities, and costumiers such as California Costume Collections may lose out as customers reuse older outfits.

Data segmented by HS 9505 ( decorations) and 9503 ( costumes) with keyword search for ‘Halloween’ Source: Panjiva

Looking at types of costumes, the data confirms we are past the peak in zombie outfits – these fell 10.2% on a year earlier for the five months through September 30 after reaching a high in 2014. This was outpaced by a 21% drop in vampire costumes. The biggest gain came from wizard outfits. These increased 17.4% on a year earlier, perhaps anticipating the release of the Harry Potter prequel ‘ Fantastic Beasts’ on November 17.

Data for costumes refined by keyword search Source: Panjiva