NEW ORLEANS -- New Orleans fans dressed up for the world's largest Halloween party.

An adjudicator from Guinness World Records verified that at least 17,777 fans attending Sunday night's game between the Saints and the Pittsburgh Steelers came in costume, setting a record for the largest gathering of Halloween revelers.

According to the Guinness website, the record coming into the game had been set by 508 costumed people at a night club in Bloomington, Ind., last year.

Crowds for Saints games in the Louisiana Superdome routinely exceed 70,000. Many of the thousands in costume at the game dressed with Saints themes. The winner of a costume contest, identified as Glenn Mehrtens, dressed as Saints coach Sean Payton. A female companion was dressed as a package of Juicy Fruit gum, which Payton is known to chew during games.