The latest NIQ On Premise analysis reveals a beer category that continues to face volume pressure, but one where performance varies significantly by segment, format, and occasion. The findings also highlight meaningful shifts in on-premise consumption that extend beyond topline category performance.
This report examines the underlying trends shaping beverage performance through the first half of 2026, including category growth, market share shifts, channel performance, and product innovation.
The latest NIQ on premise update highlights a beer category under pressure, with both value and volume declining over the past year. In contrast, spirits and RTDs continue to capture share, supported by price-led growth and shifting consumer preferences.
For the first time since April, off-premise beer category dollar sales dipped below $1 billion, to $987 million, for the one-week ending August 29, according to market research firm Nielsen.
If economic conditions in the United States worsen via recession or inflation, 39% of consumers said they wouldn’t cut back on purchases of beer or wine to save money, according to a survey conducted by Nielsen of 18,000 consumers from July 1-8.
Aluminum cans are in short supply, and the shortage comes at a time when the can package is becoming more important to the beer category as brewers shift their focus to off-premise sales during the pandemic. Market research firm Nielsen’s latest report highlights the growth and importance of cans to the beer category. The firm… Read more »
Consumers’ rates of visits to bars and restaurants remain somewhat flat at the country’s on-premise venues, with 46% of adults having dined out in the past two weeks, according to Nielsen CGA.
Beer consumers are settling into the “next” normal — and that means increased sales in the convenience channel, according to Nielsen VP of beverage alcohol practice Danelle Kosmal.
Danny Brager, the long-time leader of market research firm Nielsen’s beverage alcohol practice, is exiting the company to pursue other opportunities after nearly 40 years.
In any other year, 10 consecutive weeks of billion dollar off-premise beer category sales would be eye-opening. Consider that in all of 2019, there was just one week — the week of the July 4 holiday — in which beer category off-premise dollar sales topped $1 billion. Now, it’s a footnote in weekly reports.
The streak of consecutive billion dollar weeks for the beer category now stands at nine — and hard seltzers are continuing to push triple-digit growth. For the one-week period ending July 18, off-premise dollar sales of beer, cider and FMBs increased 15.4%, to $1.042 billion, compared to the same one-week period in 2019, according to market research firm Nielsen.
Consumers have ventured to on-premise establishments to eat at more than twice the rate they do for just drinks, a Nielsen CGA survey found. In the two weeks leading up to July 19, 41% of respondents had gone out for a meal. Meanwhile, just 16% had been out for only drinks, according to a July 22 report from Nielsen CGA, the on-premise arm of the market research firm.
The billion dollar weeks keep coming for the beer category in off-premise retailers. Beer category sales (beer, FMBs and cider) in off-premise channels increased 14.9%, to $1.007 billion, for the week ending July 11 compared to the same week one year ago, according to market research firm Nilesen. That makes eight consecutive weeks of beer category dollar sales in excess of $1 billion.
More legal drinking age consumers than ever before are drinking craft beer, market research firm Nielsen found in its sixth annual Craft Beer Insights Poll (CIP), conducted on behalf of not-for-profit trade group the Brewers Association (BA).
Facing tough comps with the 2019 July 4 holiday week, the hard seltzer segment still managed to post its strongest week in sales ever in off-premise retailers during the July 4 holiday week, according to market research firm Nielsen.
For the one-week period ending June 27, beer category dollar sales increased 16.1%, to $1.007 billion, according to data shared by market research firm Nielsen. Excluding FMBs, hard seltzers and cider, core beer dollar sales increased just 8.1% .
Beer category dollar sales in off-premise retailers have now topped $1 billion in four of the last five weeks, according to market research firm Nielsen. For the one-week period ending June 20, off-premise scans increased 21.2%, to $1.02 billion, the firm reported. Category sales also reached $1 billion for the weeks ending June 13, as well as the weeks ending May 23 and May 30, which bookended the Memorial Day holiday. Sales fell just short of the $1 billion mark for the week ending June 6, totaling $998.4 million.
