Consumers aren’t all that sweet on diet soda.
Diet Coke is no longer the second-most popular soft drink in the U.S., losing its place to rival Pepsi last year as consumers continued to shun artificially sweetened sodas, according to Beverage Digest’s annual industry report, released Thursday.
Diet Coke’s share of the carbonated soft drink market fell 0.5%, to 8.5%, while volume dropped 6.6%.
It was the worst performance among the top 10 brands tracked by the beverage trade publication.
Pepsi’s market share fell as well, by 0.1%, while volume decreased by nearly 2%. But Diet Coke’s larger loss was enough to drop it into third place, just ahead of Mountain Dew at No. 4 and Dr Pepper in fifth place.
Coca-Cola’s 17.6% share of the carbonated market is double Pepsi’s 8.8% share.
Although Diet Coke had held the No. 2 spot since 2010, when it overtook Pepsi, the soda’s slide has been a long time coming, said John Sicher, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest.
“In recent years, a subset of U.S. consumers have had a withdrawal of enthusiasm for beverages with aspartame and other legacy diet sweeteners,” Sicher told the Daily News.
“And that flipped Pepsi back above Diet Coke.”
Overall, Americans drank less soda in 2014, with volume sliding 0.9% — the 10th straight year soda consumption has dropped as weight-conscious consumers increasingly turn to alternatives like energy drinks and bottled water.
