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By India McCarty
Alcohol sales are down a whopping $830 billion, and it’s all thanks to Gen Z.
“Shares of the world’s top listed beer, wine and spirits makers have shed a combined $830 billion in market value over the past four years, a 46% drop from their June 2021 peak,” Relevant Magazine reported.
Related: Gen Z Drinks Way Less Than Generations Before — Is That a Good Thing?
Financial analyst Laurence Whyatt told Bloomberg that right now, the alcohol industry is dealing with “four times the impact of the financial crash on alcohol consumption.” He was quick to add that this isn’t a temporary dip but a “structural change.”
This drop in sales is thanks, in large part, to Gen Z’s increasing disinterest in alcohol consumption. Last year, Gallup published a survey that found that the percentage of young adults who drink fell 10% from 2023 to 2025.
“They’re just a much more conscious consumer,” Marten Lodewijks, president of the beverage market data firm, IWSR, told Business Insider. “It’s not that they just don’t want to drink. They enjoy it, and they enjoy it as much as other generations. It’s just that they’re conscious that it’s not good for them, and so they don’t do it as frequently.”
This awareness of the physical and mental health impacts of alcohol consumption might be negatively impacting the alcohol industry, but it’s causing another industry to boom.
“According to NielsenIQ (NIQ), NA beer is the leading product in the broader non-alcohol category, accounting for 83% of NA sales, compared to 11.2% for NA wine and 5.7% for Spirits (including ready-to-drink, or RTD mocktails),” Forbes reported. “And while the spirits / RTD / mocktail segment makes up the smallest market share currently, it is the fastest growing, with 70% growth between 2024 and 2025.”
Amanda Paul-Garnier, VP of Marketing at the Daily Pour, told Forbes, “I’ve been working in wines & spirits for 16 years and have been watching this small category grow double digits while other categories decline. Though it represents a small portion of the total alcohol category, it is the only thing that is really growing.”
Many bars are taking cues from Gen Z’s reluctance to drink, offering a wide selection of “mocktails” and other non-alcoholic beverages.
Stacy Molnar, the director of operations at Ideation Design Group, which creates design concepts for bars and restaurants, told Business Insider, “At the end of the day, it’s about revenue per seat. If someone wants to order a $15 mocktail instead of a $15 cocktail, great — it makes them feel included, and the operator still hits their numbers.”
While Gen Z’s rejection of typical alcoholic beverages might be negatively impacting the alcohol industry, it’s creating a new opportunity for companies catering to those who want non-alcoholic options.
Read Next: Young Americans’ Interest In Alcohol on Decline, Study Finds
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