Brands & Consumer
Report
Fastest Growing Brands 2026
Exploring the trends behind brands that grew the most in purchase consideration across 12 audiences
What’s in the full report?
Brand rankings across 12 different audiences, featuring 194 brands
1. The 25 fastest-growing brands
The brands that grew the most YoY with U.S. consumers.
2. Winners across 12 audiences
The brands that grew the most by gender, generation, income, parents and TikTok users.
3. The 25 compounders
The brands that grew every year for five years straight.
4. Economic context
How consumer sentiment and spending shifted during the same period.
Sneak peek of what we’ll cover inside the report.
And more …
Plus case studies and insights on AI brand metrics, Mr. Pibb’s rebrand, RTD cocktails, 7 Brew, Gen X.
About this report
Morning Consult’s Fastest-Growing Brands 2026 report is the ranking of the brands seeing the biggest growth in purchase consideration. Brand ranking data comes from Morning Consult Intelligence, which surveys consumers on thousands of brands daily among representative samples of U.S. adults. Purchasing consideration reflects the share of consumers who say they are considering purchasing from a brand. Rankings were determined by taking each brand’s total purchase consideration from May 15 to Aug. 15, 2026, and subtracting its consideration over the same window in 2025.
Surveys were fielded continuously online, with results aggregated across each measurement window (May 15-Aug. 15, 2025 and May 15-Aug. 15, 2026) and weighted to be representative of U.S. adults. Our analysis covered 2,800+ brands. A brand needed at least 400 responses in both windows to qualify for an audience's ranking; sample sizes ranged from 408 to 66,655 responses, with margins of error between +/-0.4 and +/-4.1 percentage points. Nonprofits, military branches, government entities, and duplicate brand listings were excluded.
Economic data comes from Morning Consult's economic tracking: the Index of Consumer Sentiment, which follows the University of Michigan's five-question methodology, and Morning Consult's monthly consumer spending survey, reported as self-reported spending per adult, adjusted for inflation and seasonality.
Key takeaways from this year’s data
1. Brand growth was rare
Just 14% of brands grew consideration in 2026, a five-year low, after 94% grew the year before. The typical brand lost nearly 2 points of consideration.
2. The fastest growing brand of 2026 is Mr. Pibb
The soda tops nine of our 12 audience rankings, from boomers to TikTok users. Mr. Pibb’s rise is largely thanks to the brand’s relaunch. But it isn’t the only grocery item to land in this year’s report. Kitchen-table categories make up 35% of the brands we track but 60 of the 100 fastest-growing brands.
3. Few brands grow consistently
Only 40 of 1,101 continuously tracked brands grew every single year for five years. Peacock and Chime saw the largest jumps during this window.
4. Consumers are using AI more but liking it less, which is a problem for long-term growth
Consideration tends to grow either alongside or shortly after affection. That's what makes AI's position precarious. Most of the AI brands we track are seeing trust and favorability either flatline or slip. Gemini is the only AI brand turning usage into meaningful growth: its consideration rose 4.6 points, alongside gains in trust and favorability.
5. Gen X is the pullback generation
Gen Xers cut real spending 5.9% this year, the most of any generation. Their sentiment fell 13 points, the steepest generational drop we measured. 46% now say they're worse off than a year ago, an 8-point jump. We’re seeing this play out in Gen X’s purchase consideration — just 9% of brands grew with them.
6. AI visibility is table stakes
The share of U.S. adults who name AI chatbots as the online source they most commonly use to research brands, products and services has more than tripled in five quarters, from 2.6% to 9.2%, making chatbots the No. 3 research channel. This is crucial for brands looking to be discovered.
Posted in
Reports
Copy link
Copied
Sign up to get these insights first.
Our Best Intel is Morning Consult's weekly briefing on key trends emerging in our Always-On survey tracking.
