The beverage industry is going through one of its most dramatic reshuffles in decades. Consumers are rethinking what they pour into their glasses, driven by a mix of health awareness, tighter budgets, and plain old changing taste. When I put the question to ChatGPT – which popular drinks could realistically fade away first? – the answers were pointed, grounded in real market signals, and frankly hard to argue with. Here’s what came up, backed by the latest data.
1. Traditional Wine: A Six-Decade Low and Counting
Global wine consumption fell 3.3% to 214 million hl last year, marking a third consecutive decline to the lowest level since 1961, according to estimates by the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV). That’s not a blip. That’s a structural retreat. OIV director general John Barker pointed to “lingering inflationary pressures and market uncertainty” as key factors, adding that a “long-term decrease in consumption in several mature markets shaped by evolving lifestyle preferences, shifting social habits and generational changes” is also at work. Wine consumption in the United States, the world’s biggest market, fell 5.8% to 33.3 million hl.
Total global wine consumption dropped from about 24.1 billion liters in 2015 to 21.4 billion liters in 2024, a decline of roughly 11%. Younger generations are simply not picking up the habit the way previous ones did. “Wine has been in structural decline for a long time,” explained Richard Halstead, COO of Consulting & Consumer Insights at IWSR, noting that “the competition from other beverages is growing, while the pie – as in how often and how much people are drinking worldwide – is shrinking.” With no strong recovery in sight among younger cohorts, the trajectory points downward well into this decade.
2. Traditional Beer: Losing Its Dominant Grip
Beer faced both value and volume declines in 2024, with value falling roughly 0.7% and volume dropping 2.9%, with imports, non-alcoholic options, and super-premium beers only partially offsetting the losses. The issue isn’t simply that people are drinking less overall – it’s that the category itself is losing cultural relevance among younger adults. Beer is no longer the dominant U.S. alcoholic beverage, with younger consumers increasingly choosing spirits, canned cocktails, or non-alcoholic alternatives.
The craft market has seen intense saturation, with the number of craft breweries more than doubling from 4,803 in 2015 to 9,796 in 2024, creating fierce competition and thinning margins as overall category demand slips. That paradox – more breweries, fewer drinkers – is squeezing the bottom out of the market. Non-alcoholic beer volume rose 175% between 2019 and 2024, and experts predict NA beer will become the world’s second-largest beer segment by end of 2025, creating both opportunity and cannibalization for traditional brewers. The writing is on the wall: regular beer is being replaced, not just reduced.
3. Drip Coffee: Fading from the Coffee Shop Landscape
The biggest sales dips from 2024 to 2025 among traditional coffee shop beverages included green tea at -4.9%, black tea at -3.4%, drip coffee at -3.3%, and cold brew at -2.2%. Drip coffee, once the unquestioned default of morning routines worldwide, is quietly losing shelf space. Consumers haven’t stopped drinking coffee – they’ve just gotten pickier about how it’s prepared. Meanwhile, drinks like lattes, espressos, and Americanos all saw overall increases of 4%, 3.3%, and 1.4% respectively over the same period.
One potential explanation for the shift points less to what people are drinking and more to where they’re drinking it. All the drinks that lost market share – black and green tea, drip coffee, and cold brew – are easily made at home, whereas espresso-based drinks require more expensive equipment, which may be helping to maintain retail’s stronghold on those categories. It’s a functionality problem as much as a taste one. Convenient home brewing has siphoned off what used to be the loyal drip-coffee crowd, and specialty espresso drinks have captured the rest.
4. Traditional Sports Drinks: Gatorade and Legacy Brands Under Pressure
Sports drinks declined in volume by 2.5% in 2024, with retail dollars essentially flat, according to Roger Dilworth, senior analyst at Beverage Marketing Corporation. The legacy giants are bearing the brunt. The sports drink category contracted by 3.6% annually in 2024, with average prices climbing 3.1%. Gatorade dropped 5.2% in volume for the year, while Powerade/BodyArmor declined 3.3%. These are brands that defined hydration culture for decades, and they’re now losing ground to a wave of newer, more targeted alternatives.
The U.S. sports drink category at retail showed no signs of a rebound in 2025 following declines both in 2024 and during the first quarter of the year. Consumers, especially health-conscious ones, are migrating toward electrolyte powders, coconut water, and functional hydration products that feel more “clean label.” Changing consumer preferences and health concerns represent a serious problem in the sports drink sector, with increasing awareness of artificial additives and sugar content pushing some consumers toward healthier alternatives like electrolyte-infused water, coconut water, and plant-based drinks. Unless legacy brands dramatically reformulate, their core products face a shrinking audience.
5. Premium and Standard Spirits: Vodka, Whiskey, and Rum in Retreat
Vodka, whiskey, rum, and brandy/cognac categories are expected to bottom out at around a negative 4.56% growth rate by year-end 2025, with only slight stabilization in 2026 – although still in negative territory. These staples of the bar world have benefited for years from the premiumization wave, but that tide is clearly turning. Sales in premium categories were already dropping sharply, with the $100-plus tier falling 8.5% year-over-year in 2024, while the $50 to $99.99 tier fell 4.3%.
According to NC Solutions, nearly half of U.S. consumers aged 21 and older surveyed in December 2024 said they were trying to reduce their drinking in 2025, up from 41% who expressed interest in reducing consumption in 2024, and 34% in 2023. The momentum is clearly running in one direction. Nearly half of Americans are trying to drink less alcohol in 2025, with that number markedly higher among younger generations, and in just the last two years, interest in sober-curious lifestyles has increased 44%, with a full quarter of American adults reporting they drank no alcohol in 2024. Standard spirits, lacking the cultural cachet of tequila or the novelty of RTD cocktails, are among the most vulnerable.
6. Sugary Carbonated Soft Drinks: A Long, Slow Exit
After a long string of annual volume reductions, carbonated soft drinks saw brief episodes of growth in 2021 and 2022 only to see volume decrease again in 2023, before notching a small uptick in 2024. Volume in 2024 was almost 11.9 billion gallons, up from 11.8 billion gallons in 2023 but still below the 12.1 billion gallons measured in 2022. The uptick looks fragile at best. Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola held their usual first and second positions among the leading beverage trademarks in 2024, yet only two of the leading carbonated soft drink brands – Coca-Cola and Sprite – experienced volume growth.
A Gallup survey found that, as of 2024, an all-time high of 45% of Americans said moderate drinking of one or two alcoholic beverages per day was bad for health, while just 8% said it was good – both figures representing historic shifts from earlier decades. That same health-first mindset extends to sugary sodas. Data suggest that the decline in consumption is largely driven by young people drinking less, with the under-35 cohort’s consumption having plummeted even as older generations hold steadier. Full-sugar sodas are increasingly seen as a category for another era, slowly but surely being replaced by sparkling waters, functional drinks, and prebiotic sodas that promise something beyond empty sweetness.
