Halloween music bingo: 40 spooky songs for your party

Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, 31 October 2026. That makes it a good night for a party at home, a school disco or a themed evening at the local club. Music bingo fits the occasion well: everyone knows a few spooky songs, and the game works with costumes, snacks and a room full of people who don't all know each other.

Below you will find a list of 40 Halloween songs ready to paste into My Music Bingo, plus ideas for splitting the night into themed rounds. If this is your first game, read how to make music bingo cards first. It takes about ten minutes to prepare everything.

Why Halloween songs work so well

Halloween has a small set of songs that come back every year, and most people can name them after a few seconds. That is exactly what you want in a bingo game. Players feel clever when they recognise a track, and nobody is left out for long.

The same songs appear again and again on streaming playlists. A Mental Floss analysis of 226 Spotify playlists with words like Halloween and spooky in the title put Monster Mash at the top, followed by Thriller. When Billboard ranked the biggest Halloween hits on its Hot 100 chart in 2025, Monster Mash came first again.

In the UK, the Official Charts Company looked at chart placings and streams for Halloween themed songs in 2023. Ghostbusters by Ray Parker Jr. reached number 2 in the UK, while Sweet but Psycho by Ava Max and Black Magic by Little Mix both went to number 1. So the list mixes old favourites for parents and grandparents with recent pop hits for teenagers.

The song list: 40 Halloween songs

Copy the list below and paste it into the text box on the card generator. Each line has the title, a hyphen and the artist, which is the format the generator reads. All the songs appear in the chart and streaming lists linked in the sources at the end of this post.

Thriller - Michael Jackson
Monster Mash - Bobby "Boris" Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers
Ghostbusters - Ray Parker Jr.
This Is Halloween - The Citizens of Halloween
Time Warp - Little Nell
Somebody's Watching Me - Rockwell
Disturbia - Rihanna
Spooky, Scary Skeletons - Andrew Gold
(Don't Fear) The Reaper - Blue Öyster Cult
Psycho Killer - Talking Heads
Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) - Eurythmics
Dead Man's Party - Oingo Boingo
Bad Guy - Billie Eilish
Toxic - Britney Spears
People Are Strange - The Doors
Highway to Hell - AC/DC
Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon
A Nightmare on My Street - DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
Black Magic Woman - Santana
Superstition - Stevie Wonder
I Put a Spell on You - Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Evil Woman - Electric Light Orchestra
Sympathy for the Devil - The Rolling Stones
Bark at the Moon - Ozzy Osbourne
Zombie - The Cranberries
Freaks Come Out at Night - Whodini
Men in Black - Will Smith
Maneater - Daryl Hall & John Oates
You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) - Dead or Alive
She Wolf - Shakira
Bury a Friend - Billie Eilish
Sweet but Psycho - Ava Max
Black Magic - Little Mix
Youngblood - 5 Seconds of Summer
Bring Me to Life - Evanescence
Everybody (Backstreet's Back) - Backstreet Boys
Living Dead Girl - Rob Zombie
Look What You Made Me Do - Taylor Swift
Hard Rock Hallelujah - Lordi
Halloween Theme - John Carpenter

How to set up the cards

With 40 songs you have plenty of room to make every card different. These settings work well for most Halloween parties:

• Grid: 4×4 with a free space for a mixed group. Use 3×3 for young children and 5×5 for a long evening with adults.
• Game name: something like "Haunted House Bingo", with the date or the host's name as the subtitle.
• Show artist: turn it on. Many people remember Michael Jackson or Rihanna better than the exact song title.
• Number of cards: one per player or team, plus a few spares for late arrivals in costume.

If you would rather not print, send the digital cards link to a group chat. Guests open it on their phones and mark the songs with a tap. The step-by-step guide shows how.

Three themed rounds

You can play the whole list in one long game, or split the night into shorter rounds with a small prize for each. One idea is to play the same cards three times and change the winning pattern each round: one line, then two lines, then the full card. Another is to build three short playlists with a different mood.

Round 1: monsters and ghosts

The classics that most families know. Start with Monster Mash, Ghostbusters, Thriller, Time Warp, Werewolves of London and This Is Halloween. It is a gentle opening and gets younger players involved straight away.

Round 2: witches and spells

Songs about magic and mystery, many of them from the 1960s and 1970s. Play I Put a Spell on You, Black Magic Woman, Superstition, Evil Woman and Black Magic. Older guests often shine in this round.

Round 3: modern scares

Recent pop and rock for teenagers and young adults: Bad Guy, Bury a Friend, Disturbia, Sweet but Psycho, Youngblood, Bring Me to Life and Look What You Made Me Do. Turn the lights down a little for this one.

If you use themed rounds, make a separate set of cards for each round with only that round's songs. A 3×3 grid is enough for a playlist of 12 to 15 tracks.

Tips for a good Halloween game

• Check the list for your audience. Most of these songs are fine for all ages, but a few have darker themes. For a primary school party, remove anything you are unsure about and add film songs instead.
• Keep each song short. Twenty to thirty seconds is usually enough. Playing all 40 tracks this way takes around half an hour.
• Give a prize for the best costume among the winners. It keeps people in character and adds a laugh at the end of each round.
• Use sound effects between songs. A creaking door or a short scream from a sound effects video marks the change of track and builds the mood.
• Have a tie-breaker ready. If two people shout "Bingo!" at the same time, play the intro of one more song. The first to name it wins.

Sources

All sources checked on 23 September 2026.

• The top Halloween-themed songs revealed, Official Charts, 31 October 2023.
• Halloween: 13 essential spooky season pop music videos, Official Charts, 28 October 2022.
• The 20 most popular Halloween songs, according to Spotify, Mental Floss, 23 October 2022.
• The most streamed Halloween songs around the world, Radio X, 30 October 2018.
• Billboard listed the biggest 25 Halloween songs of all time. We beg to differ, NPR via WESA, 27 October 2025.