The 7 Most Haunted Places on Earth—and Why We Keep Visiting Them

Every October, millions of people pay good money to get the s**t scared out of them. Hotels sell out for the promise of “authentic hauntings,” ghost tours bump tourism by double digits, and somewhere in a 17th-century jail cell, there’s a costumed guide doing his best to scare the visiting couple from Minnesota.

According to new data from the gaming platform SpinBlitz, the world’s most haunted destination sits on American soil. Researchers compared thousands of TripAdvisor reviews and folklore archives to rank the places where ghost stories and tourism have become impossible to separate.

1. Salem, Massachusetts (4.9/5)

Salem, most known for the 1692 Witch Trials, has learned to make a living off its own dark history. Each October, more than a million visitors crowd the narrow streets fo