In 2022, Coca-Cola was ranked as the leading carbonated soft drink (CSD) company in the United States with a volume share of 46.3 percent. Ranked second, PepsiCo garnered a volume share of 24.7 percent that year.

The carbonated soft drink industry

Carbonated soft drinks are processed flavored beverages packaged in bottles and cans. Unlike alcoholic beverages, carbonated soft drinks have no age limit and are widely available to consumers in hypermarkets, supermarkets, convenience stores and other retail outlets. In order to appeal to the health conscious, soft drink brands have launched diet or no-sugar versions of their products. In 2018, nearly 52 percent of American consumers aged between 30 and 49 years had had Coca-Cola Zero within the previous month. Some of the biggest companies in the world produced carbonated soft drinks: among them are Keurig Dr Pepper and PepsiCo, who had a global net revenue of 14.1 and 86.4 billion U.S. dollars, respectively. Carbonated soft drinks are segmented into various flavors such as lemon, cola, orange, and grape.

The statistic shows the global market share of the Coca-Cola Company and other soft drink companies in 2011. In 2011, the Coca-Cola Company held a global market share of 51 percent. The Coca-Cola Company is a producer, retailer and marketer of non-alcoholic beverages and is well-known for the soft drink Coca-Cola. The company was founded in 1892 and is currently headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States.

Soft drinks

Soft drinks belong to the non-alcoholic beverage industry. Depending on the region, they are also known as soda, pop, or carbonated beverages, and cover drinks containing water, sugar or a type of artificial sweetener, and a flavoring agent. These fizzy drinks are mostly available in regular and diet varieties. Multinational companies competing in the soft drink market are comprised of The Coca-Cola Company, Pepsi-Co. Inc. and Dr Pepper Snapple, to name a few. In the beverage segment, The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo have been bitter rivals for ages. PepsiCo always has to face the so-called ’Pepsi challenge’ as competing with Coca-Cola. The ‘Pepsi challenge’ originally took place as a taste test. Consumers were invited to try beverages out of two blank cups – one containing Pepsi Cola and one containing Coca-Cola. Consumers were then asked to evaluate the taste of these two beverages and to decide which one they would prefer. The blind tests let most Americans surprisingly learn that they would prefer Pepsi Cola over Coca-Cola, based on exclusive taste. PepsiCo, Inc. is based in Purchase, NY, United States and was founded in 1965. Their beverage product portfolio comprises soft drinks, bottled water, fruit juices, iced tea and ready-to-drink coffee beverages. Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, and Aquafina are some of their best-selling global brands.

In 2022, the Pepsi-Cola brand had a market share of almost nine percent. With each consecutive year, the brand’s market share has been in decline. In 2008, Pepsi-Cola owned almost 11 percent of the market.

CSD competitors

PepsiCo’s carbonated soft drink (CSD) market share has likewise gotten smaller in recent years. Between 2008 and 2022, the company’s share decreased. Within that same period, Coca-Cola's CSD market share has remained stable at over 40 percent. In 2022, Coca-Cola was also the leading liquid refreshment beverage (LRB) company by volume share, followed by PepsiCo.

Nestlé Waters

Nestlé Waters is Nestlé AG’s bottled water division and is one of the largest bottled water companies in the world. The division is headquartered in Paris, France, and generates the bulk of its revenue in the United States and Canada each year. In 2019, Nestlé Waters generated sales of over four billion Swiss Francs in this region.

This timeline shows the market share of leading carbonated soft drink (CSD) companies in the United States from 2008 to 2022. Throughout this entire period, the Coca-Cola Company was the leading CSD company. In 2022, Coca-Cola's carbonated soft drink market share amounted to roughly 46 percent.

 Carbonated soft drinks

Carbonated soft drinks belong to the non-alcoholic beverage industry. Depending on the region, they are also well-known as soda, pop, or carbonated beverages, and cover drinks containing water, sugar or a type of artificial sweetener, and a flavoring agent. Those fizzy drinks are mostly available in regular and diet varieties. A broader definition of soft drinks may additionally include non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages such as juice, bottled water, functional drinks (sports and energy drinks), and coffee and tea (hot and iced). Multinational companies facing the high competition in the soft drink market comprise The Coca-Cola Corporation, Pepsi-Co. Inc. and Dr Pepper Snapple. In this segment, The Coca-Cola Corporation and PepsiCo have been long-term competitors for ages. PepsiCo always has to face the so-called ’Pepsi challenge’ as rivaling with Coca-Cola. The ‘Pepsi challenge’ originally was set up as a taste experiment. Consumers were invited to degust beverages out of two blank cups – one filled with Pepsi Cola and one containing Coca-Cola. Consumers were then asked to evaluate the taste of these two drinks and to make a choice which one of them they would prefer. The blind test let most Americans surprisingly learn that they would prefer Pepsi Cola over Coca-Cola, only guided by taste.

This statistic shows the soft drink market share of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo worldwide in 2015, based on sales volume. That year, Coca-Cola accounted for a 48.5 percent share of the global soft drink market.

The two leading carbonated beverage companies are the Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo Incorporated. In 2015, Coca-Cola Co. controlled just under 50 percent of the global carbonated beverage market, while PepsiCo controlled just over 20 percent of the market.

Coca-Cola - the market leader

Coca-Cola's market share demonstrates their dominance in the soft drink industry. The company also produces a wide range of other beverages to meet consumer’s needs. Other product ranges include juices, tea, coffee, water, and sports drinks. In Latin America, tea and coffee was Coca-Cola's fastest growing product category, whilst soft drinks were growing fastest in Asia Pacific.

Soft drinks market in the U.S.

Between 2018 and 2019, the volume of carbonated soft drinks sold in the United States decreased, while sales of value-added water increased by over eight percent; demonstrating a shift in beverage preferences among Americans. That being stated, carbonated soft drinks still have the highest sales volume of any liquid refreshment beverage in the United States, at over eight billion 192-oz cases.

In 2022, PepsiCo's U.S. market share in carbonated soft drinks was 24.3 percent. PepsiCo is an American food and beverage corporation, based in Purchase, NY. Famous company brands are Pepsi and Mountain Dew. Other soft drink industry market shares may be found here.

PepsiCo.

PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation. Their most famous product is their Pepsi soft drink, which was developed 1898 by Caleb Bradham. The company was founded in 1902 by Bradham himself and experienced financial success up to World War I. As a result of sugar rationing during the war, Bradham declared bankruptcy. In 1923, the Pepsi secret recipe and company trademark was purchased by Charles Guth of the Craven Holding Corporation. Guth was president of Loft Incorporated, a candy manufacturer that ran 155 stores across the United States. Loft was responsible for the reformulation and promotion of Pepsi. After a lengthy court battle between Guth and Loft Inc., Pepsi was absorbed into Loft, and re-branded as Pepsi-Cola Company (PepsiCo) in 1935. Since then, PepsiCo has introduced other drink brands, as well as snack foods. PepsiCo has established itself as second most popular soft drink company in the United States.

This timeline depicts the market share of The Coca-Cola Company in the United States from 2008 to 2022. In 2022, Coca-Cola's U.S. market share amounted to 46.3 percent. Other soft drink industry market shares may be found here.

The Coca-Cola Company

The Coca-Cola Company is a producer, retailer and marketer of non-alcoholic beverages and is well-known for its soft drink, Coca-Cola. The company was founded in 1892 and comprises the corporate division, which is headquartered in Atlanta, GA, and about 300 bottling partners worldwide.

The product portfolio of Coca-Cola includes non-alcoholic beverages such as soft drinks, bottled water, sports drinks and energy drinks. The company’s most famous soft drink is undoubtedly the soft drink Coca-Cola. Brand rankings list the brand, for good reasons, as one of the most valuable and recognizable brands worldwide. The history of Coca-Cola began in 1886 when Atlanta pharmacist Dr. John S. Pemberton created a flavored syrup with a distinctive taste which could be sold at soda fountains by mixing the two components together. The secret formula, which originated in the United States, is still used today for producing Coca-Cola around the world.

As of October 2023, Coca-Cola accounted for 54 percent of the value of the carbonated drinks market in Thailand, followed by Pepsi. In 2022, the value of non-alcoholic beverages consumed in the country was close to 40 percent.

In 2019, Coca-Cola accounted for around 55 percent of China's carbonated drink market, while its main competitor Pepsi owned about 36 percent of the market. China's carbonated drink market is highly concentrated.

With a brand value of over 35 billion U.S. dollars, Coca-Cola was by far the most valuable non-alcoholic beverage brand in the world in 2024. Pepsi ranked second that year, with a value of around 20 billion U.S. dollars. Coca-Cola & competitors With a 46.3 percent share, Coca-Cola led the CSD (carbonated soft drink) market in the United States in 2022. Competitors, such as PepsiCo and Keurig Dr. Pepper, each had a share of 25.6 and 21.7 percent, respectively. Additionally, Coca-Cola invested close to 327 million U.S. dollars in advertising for its leading product Coke, while PepsiCo spent an estimated 204 million on promoting Pepsi in that year. Polish TikTok user preferences While Coca-Cola and Pepsi were also popular brands, the beverages most commonly consumed by TikTok users in Poland were from the brand Tymbark. Approximately half of the users favored drinks from this label in 2019. Founded and based in Poland, Tymbark is a juice, nectar, and soft drink producer, which exports liquid refreshment products to nearly 30 countries worldwide.

In 2024, the regular Coca Cola had the largest sales among soft drinks sold in convenience stores in the United Kingdom with a value of 798 million British pounds sold through convenience channels, followed by Pepsi Max with sales of 673 million pounds. Growth in volume and valueCoca Cola also led the ranking of convenience sales measured by volume. Second place in the rankings went to retailers’ own labels, with almost 131 million liters sold. However, third place went to Pepsi’s MAX brand. In terms of brand growth, Pepsi MAX grew by 22.7 percent in value and 16.4 percent in volume, while Coca Cola decreased in terms of volume and Diet Coke only grew by 2.3 percent.Grocery market for soft drinksWhen we look at the grocery sales of soft drinks, we can see that private label products have the biggest market share, with a sales value of 1.3 billion British pounds. All soft drink products under the entire Coca Cola brand combined failed to measure up to this on the UK market.

The share of Sprite in the carbonated soft drinks market was 20 percent in India. In comparison, the share of Mirinda and Fanta was at five percent each in the carbonated soft drinks market. Coca Cola dominated the majority of the shares.

In 2024, the leading carbonated drink brand by sales revenue in the United Kingdom was Coca-Cola. That year, Coca-Cola generated approximately 311 million British pounds in sales. Pepsi Max generated the second highest amount of sales revenue in 2024. This indicated that The Coca-Cola Company held a large share of the sales market of carbonate beverages in the United Kingdom.

In Denmark, the non-alcoholic beverage Coca-Cola had the largest market share among soft drinks sold in 2016. Pepsi Max ranked second with a share of almost 13 percent, closely followed by Faxe Kondi, a domestic soft drink produced by Faxe Bryggeri. In this year, by far most soft drinks were sold in grocery stores, amounting to 83 percent. Restaurants and cafes had a share of 17 percent of the total soft drink sales.

Soft drink consumption      In general, the volume of soft drinks consumed in Denmark increased in recent years. It reached its peak in 2016 at a volume of approximately 725 million liters and amounted to roughly 719 million liters in the year that followed. This came down to a per capita consumption volume of around 124 liters of soft drinks consumed per person.

Soft drink packaging     As of 2016, the share of soft drinks packed in PET material was highest and reached 47 percent. Metal used as packaging material came in second place with a market share of 42 percent, while carton came in third place. This material had a share far lower than PET and metal, amounting to seven percent only.

In 2018, the Coca-Cola company was the leading company selling carbonated soft drinks with reduced sugar content in retail on 25 European markets. On these combined markets the company held a share of 61 percent of the market and led competitor Pepsi by almost 40 percent. A G Barr came in as the third largest company on the market with a share of 2.8 percent. The rest of the market was made up by all other companies.

This statistic displays the sales value of the leading Spanish companies in the soft drink industry in 2022, in million euros. Coca-Cola ranked highest with a sales value of 2.1 billion euros, followed by the company Schweppes SA with approximately 413 million euros. Other important companies within the sector included Font Salem, with a sales value amounting to 390 million euros; and Pepsico, whose revenue reached 400 million euros in 2022.

Which carbonated soft drinks flavor is the most popular in the United Kingdom? Cola flavored drinks held by far the biggest share of the UK carbonated soft drinks market in 2023. Cola flavored drinks were so popular among consumers that there was a roughly 50 percent market share gap between cola flavored drinks and the second most popular choice, lemonade. Brands on the market Among fizzy drinks that were not Cola, Sprite had the largest number of consumers, with 5.6 million in 2023. Coca-Cola exceeded that number for cola brands, whereas cherry coke was slightly below it, with approximately 3.4 million consumers. The three leading carbonated soft drinks on the market are Coca-Cola, Pepsi Max, and Diet Coke. Soft drink market in the UK Most soft drink grocery sales were made with private label products in 2018. It is important to note that the market for soft drinks had been shrinking until 2017 when volume is considered. However, in 2018, soft drink consumption grew for the first time since 2013. Market values have been growing too.

This timeline depicts PepsiCo's net revenue worldwide from 2007 to 2023. In 2023, PepsiCo's net revenue worldwide amounted to about 91.47 billion U.S. dollars. The fiscal year end of the company is March, 31stPepsiCoPepsiCo is an American food and beverage corporation, based in Purchase, NY. Famous company beverage brands include Pepsi and Mountain Dew. PepsiCo has increased its global net revenues from 39.47 billion U.S. dollars in 2007 to nearly 92 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. Caleb Bradham developed the recipe for the Pepsi soft drink in 1880 in North Carolina. As his drink became more popular, he established the Pepsi-Cola Company in 1902. In 1965, the Pepsi-Cola company merged with Frito-Lay Inc., to form PepsiCo, Inc. Currently, the company owns various well-known brands that with about 60 percent dedicated to food products and about 40 percent to drink products. PepsiCo is divided into seven main divisions. As of 2023, over half of the company’s revenues were generated from the North American Beverages (NAB) and Frito-Lay North America (FLNA) divisions. Many are familiar with the competition between PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, named the “cola wars”, but lately, both companies have started to depend on businesses outside the beverage market. Recently, the industry is responding to changes in the market as the demand for carbonated soft drinks has decreased. However, studies have indicated that few people can discern the difference between the two soft drinks in a blind taste test, nevertheless, there have been indications that Coca-Cola has been more successful in its branding.

Coca-Cola had the largest market share of soft drinks in Kenya as of 2018, around 70 percent. The homegrown companies Kevian and Excel Chemicals accounted, respectively, for five percent and two percent of the market sales.