The cola wars reignite
The most contested shelf in the country just got more interesting. Pepsi roared back +124%, Coca-Cola climbed +67%, Sprite +69% and Stoney +71% — while sparkling and flavoured waters quietly surged on the side. Everyone's drinking more fizz, and the loyalties are shifting.
The 60-second version
- 🥤 Pepsi is the comeback story (+124%), growing faster than Coca-Cola (+67%) and closing the gap.
- 🍋 The flavoured fizz boomed: Sprite +69%, Stoney +71%, cream soda +32%.
- 💧 The sugar shift is real: sparkling water +29%, flavoured water +51%, sugar-free soft drinks +38%, Coke Zero +42%.
- 🧊 Frozen fizz surged: slushies +52%, Icee +38% — the cheap, fun, cooling treat.
Soft drinks are the ultimate everyday economy: cheap, universal, and brutally competitive. Which makes the last four years remarkable — almost everything on the fizzy shelf grew, and the balance of power shifted. The cola wars, long assumed settled, just reignited.
The whole shelf is rising
A fizzy boom
The first surprise is breadth. This isn't one brand winning — it's the entire category lifting, from the colas to the flavoured fizz to the frozen treats. When even a mature, saturated category grows like this, it usually signals something bigger: an affordable-treat economy in full swing.
Four-year change across colas, flavoured fizz, frozen and water.
The takeaway: Pepsi (+124%) leads, with Stoney, Sprite, Coca-Cola and the frozen-and-water categories all climbing.
Soft drinks are the ultimate "affordable joy" — the treat that survives any budget. Broad-based growth here is a portrait of a country trading down to small, cheap pleasures.
The main event
Pepsi vs Coke
The headline duel is the one that's defined soft drinks for a century. Coca-Cola is still the bigger name by a wide margin — but Pepsi is growing nearly twice as fast, the clearest challenger momentum in years.
Monthly demand for Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
The takeaway: Coke remains far larger, but Pepsi's steeper climb is narrowing a long-static gap.
Pepsi's resurgence — often tied to aggressive pricing and renewed marketing — is exactly the kind of underdog momentum that makes a "war" out of a settled market. Coke leads; Pepsi is gaining.
The quiet revolution
The sugar shift
Running underneath the cola duel is a slower, structural change: the steady rise of water and sugar-free options. It's not replacing the colas — it's growing alongside them, a hedge for the same shoppers.
Monthly demand for sparkling water, flavoured water and sugar-free soft drinks.
The takeaway: All three climb steadily — the health-conscious flank of the fizzy aisle.
This is the same consumer hedging: a Coke today, a sparkling water tomorrow. The sugar tax and health messaging didn't kill fizz — they expanded it into a no-sugar tier that grows in parallel.
Share of average monthly demand across colas, flavoured fizz, frozen and water.
The takeaway: Colas still anchor the category, but flavoured fizz and water are substantial, growing slices.
The modern soft-drink shelf is more fragmented than the old cola duopoly suggests — flavoured fizz, frozen treats and waters now command real share.
| Brand / category | 4-yr change | Brand / category | 4-yr change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pepsi | +124% | Slushies | +52% |
| Stoney | +71% | Flavoured water | +51% |
| Sprite | +69% | Coke Zero | +42% |
| Coca-Cola | +67% | Sparkling water | +29% |
The verdict
The cheapest joy still wins
The soft-drink boom is the most democratic story in the data: when money is tight, the R15 cold drink is the treat that survives. Pepsi's comeback adds drama, and the sugar shift adds nuance, but the headline is simple and a little heartwarming — a stressed country is still buying itself small, fizzy, affordable moments of joy, more of them than ever.
You can cancel the holiday and skip the restaurant. You can almost always still afford the cold drink.
- Source. Aggregated South African search demand for soft-drink keywords, monthly, June 2022 – May 2026.
- Growth. First 12 months vs the most recent 12.
- Caveat. Brand search interest is influenced by marketing campaigns and news; it indicates attention, not market share or units sold.
References & further reading
Figures are PartyTrends' own analysis of the search-demand dataset described above. Sources below corroborate the wider context.
- BusinessTech, South Africa\'s sugar tax and the soft-drink market. businesstech.co.za
- Statistics South Africa, Census 2022 — population & spending context. statssa.gov.za
- PartyTrends, Recession-Proof Fun — the affordable-treat economy. partytrends.co.za/blog
- PartyTrends, The Wellness-Industrial Complex — the water & functional-drink boom. partytrends.co.za/blog
- PartyTrends, Drink Stats — live soft-drink demand tracker. partytrends.co.za/stats