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The Alcohol Industry Lost $830 Billion In the Last 4 Years, Thanks Largely to Gen Z
by Emily BrownFebruary 19, 2026
relevantmagazine.com
The alcohol industry has survived just about everything: Prohibition. Wars. Recessions. The invention of Four Loko. What it’s struggling to survive right now is a generation that’s simply not that interested in drinking.
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.
Financial analyst Laurence Whyatt told Bloomberg the industry is seeing “four times the impact of the financial crash on alcohol consumption.” And this is not just a temporary slump, either. Whyatt called it a “structural change.”
Gen Z is a big reason why. Gallup found U.S. alcohol consumption has fallen to a record-low 54% of adults, the lowest level since Gallup began tracking in 1939. Meanwhile, public health warnings have gotten harder to ignore. The World Health Organization has said no level of alcohol consumption is “safe” for health. And the U.S. surgeon general issued an advisory in January 2025 outlining evidence linking alcohol to at least seven types of cancer.
The shift is showing up in how alcohol companies are trying to keep younger consumers in the category without the alcohol. Big players like Bacardi, Heineken and Molson Coors are increasingly launching, acquiring or partnering with nonalcoholic brands to address consumer demand. Nonalcoholic beverage sales increased by 30% in the past year, a signal that “drinking less” does not automatically mean “spending less.”
