Best Day of the Dead festivals

Mexico – Day of the Dead leads the Halloween ranking with 1384 ELO points over 56 duels, ahead of Transylvania – Vampire Festival and Hawaii – The Haunted Lagoon.

The 56-point gap between Mexico – Day of the Dead and Transylvania – Vampire Festival underscores the strength of Mexico's traditional celebration at the top. Transylvania's Vampire Festival, despite its 75 duels, remains firmly in second place with 1328 ELO points. The race tightens below: Hawaii – The Haunted Lagoon takes third with 1314 points, edging out Louisiana (USA) – Trick or Treat at Its Finest by a single point. At the bottom of the ranking, El Salvador – La Calabiuza struggles at 960 ELO with a 27% win rate, while Madagascar – Famadihana, the Turning of the Bones sits just above at 1024 points. These lower positions suggest the community gravitates toward more widely recognized celebrations over lesser-known rituals.

This ranking draws from 2250 duels submitted by 72 players across 13 contenders, updated on 11 October 2026. The vote captures a snapshot of which Day of the Dead celebrations travelers want to witness firsthand, balancing cultural depth against spectacle and accessibility. Cast your own vote to shape the ranking and see how your preferences compare to the community's choices.

Updated on October 11, 2026

How this ranking is computed

Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.

How our rankings are made →