Economic pressures drive continued US beverage alcohol decline

US total beverage alcohol (TBA) volumes contracted by -5% in 2025, as economic pressures continued to weigh on consumers and to shape their drinking behaviour, according to preliminary figures from IWSR’s US Navigator product, which provides a monthly read of total-market category volumes across all 50 US states.

Declines were seen across all major categories, with beer volumes down -5%, wine decreasing by -6% and spirits falling by -4%. However, RTDs, which were down by only -1%, continued to gain market share.

According to IWSR Bevtrac consumer research, cost is now the second most common driver of moderation in the market, with 31% of US drinkers citing this as a reason for drinking less.

“As a result, consumers are becoming more selective about where they allocate their alcohol spending, increasingly evaluating purchases based on their own price-to-quality ratio,” says Marten Lodewijks, IWSR Managing Director & President. “Rather than broadly trading down, drinkers are choosing to pay more only when a product clearly justifies its price.”

This latter point is reflected in the +1% volume increase in the super-premium price tier last year, bucking the generally negative trend.

While beer remains the largest beverage alcohol category in the US market, accounting for roughly two-thirds of TBA volumes, RTDs have made rapid inroads since 2019, and once again clearly outperformed the other major TBA categories in 2025.

Thanks to a winning combination of convenience, flavour innovation and brand recognition, RTDs’ TBA volume share has expanded from 6% in 2019 to 13% last year, highlighting the category’s resilience and growing significance in the beverage alcohol marketplace. Spirits-based RTDs continued their strong performance growing 14% in 2025 vs 2024.

Elsewhere, category performance in 2025 was broadly aligned with expectations, with established consumer trends continuing to shape demand. “Several segments performed largely in line with forecasts, including vodka, Canadian whisky and other whisky categories which all saw declines, reflecting stable demand and limited innovation within these segments,” says Lodewijks.

“In some categories, modest improvements were supported by new product launches or continued consumer interest in familiar brands.”

However, structural pressures continued to affect the performances of certain categories. As economic conditions put a squeeze on discretionary spending, Cognac volumes remained under pressure.

“In contrast, a few smaller or niche segments, such as no-alcohol beer and certain emerging spirits categories, continued to perform relatively well from a smaller base,” explains Lodewijks. “But overall, the results suggest that category-level trends in 2025 largely reflected the market environment anticipated earlier in the year.”

This latter point is illustrated by the close alignment between the 2025 results and IWSR’s Global Forecast Suite, with overall TBA volumes finishing only 0.3% below the forecast figures.