Americans Are Looking for Energy (Drinks)
Key Takeaways
- According to Morning Consult Intelligence data, U.S. adults’ opinion of the energy drink category is getting notably sunnier recently across several metrics, including net favorability, net purchase consideration and net trust.
- The gains are largest in net purchase consideration; since 2020, this figure has jumped by 13 points among all U.S. adults, and even more among specific demographics.
- While the typical energy drink user still skews male, women are exhibiting more interest in these beverages than ever before, likely due, among other things, to a host of new entrants and recent category-wide shifts in the moods and methods of marketing efforts.
As Americans increasingly reorient their social lives (and spending dollars) around health and wellness goals, both established and emerging industries have benefited. There are the obvious — GLP-1 drugs, preventative Botox — but also the not-so-obvious, like energy drinks.
Morning Consult Intelligence data reveals that this older category is experiencing a resurgence: Americans have been exhibiting a growing affinity for, interest in and trust of energy drink brands, among both men and women, even though historically this industry has been geared towards the former..
Enthusiasm for energy drinks
Between January 2020 and August 2025, U.S. adults’ net favorability for a group of nearly 20 major energy drink brands grew six percentage points, from 3 to 9. This may not sound like a huge jump, but our sample size for the period was more than 2.5 million, meaning the margin of error is just +/- .002 percentage points. (Throughout this analysis, net favorability, trust, and purchase consideration are defined by the share of respondents who favor, trust or are considering purchasing from a brand minus the share who do not.)
Consumer perceptions of energy drinks are improving
The increases were equally large for both men and women (roughly +6 points each), a pattern that exists to an even greater extent when looking at net purchase consideration for the energy drink brand group, too.
Men and women’s net purchase consideration of energy drinks grew 14 and 13 points, respectively, over the last five years. And while women’s net purchase consideration remains underwater today (-7), the growth is still quite remarkable — especially given the category’s strong association with hypermasculinity, which was forged, in part, by leaders like Red Bull and Monster regularly sponsoring all kinds of death-defying stunts and male-dominated extreme sports.
Net purchase consideration for energy drinks is on the rise
But more recently, other brands have widened the pool of potential energy drink users by taking a different approach — one focused less on shock and awe and more on lifestyle and wellness benefits.
For example, though it's been around since 2004, Celsius didn’t experience a major breakthrough until approximately 2020, when the brand pivoted its positioning to a “functional” beverage and closely aligned itself with the online fitness community through partnerships with popular fitness influencers, bodybuilders and more.
Since then, energy drinks have become all but ubiquitous on social media, with content creators touting their usefulness for everything from powering through a workout or meetings to reenergizing for a big night out. Several internet stars have even launched their own energy drink brands in recent years, including Alex Cooper (Unwell Hydration, 2025), Logan Paul and KSI (Prime Energy, 2023) and Katy Hearn (Alani Nu, 2018). All have followed similar playbooks — tying their beverages to positive health, productivity or image outcomes — and all have found a great degree of success to date.
Amid their ever-growing authority, influencers’ embrace of energy drinks, whether as founders or advertising partners, plays a critical role in the category’s march toward the mainstream. This is further reflected in net trust figures for our energy drink brand group, which have also grown between two and five percentage points over the last several years for the key demographics spotlighted in this analysis.
Energy drinks and health experimentation
The category’s rise comes at a time when Americans, especially young ones, are drinking less and experimenting with their health more. This broader trend is undoubtedly fueling some of the interest in energy drinks and other energy-adjacent products, like nicotine pouches.
Though the typical frequent energy drink user still skews quite young and male today, our data suggests that this profile is poised to expand in a meaningful way in the near future. And many major companies seem to agree: Just in the past year, Keurig Dr Pepper acquired GHOST Energy for $990 million, PepsiCo bolstered its existing partnership with Celsius via a $585 million investment, and Celsius itself acquired Alani Nu for $1.8 billion.
Though still nascent, energy drinks’ reemergence offers other legacy categories a framework from which to pull and iterate; products and services don’t always need to be totally overhauled to capture a new crop of attention, oftentimes they just need to be reintroduced in alignment with the era’s prevailing consumer motivations.
Ellyn Briggs is a brands analyst on the Industry Intelligence team, where she conducts research, authors analyst notes and advises brand and marketing leaders on how to apply insights to make better business decisions. Prior to joining Morning Consult, Ellyn worked as a market researcher and brand strategist in both agency and in-house settings. She graduated from American University with a bachelor’s degree in finance. For speaking opportunities and booking requests, please email [email protected].
