Sparkling water’s rise to mainstream popularity happened in two distinct waves: first as a luxury drink in the late 1970s and early 1980s, then as an everyday beverage starting around 2010. The global sparkling water market is now valued at nearly $48 billion and is projected to more than double by 2034.
Perrier and the 1970s Status Symbol
Before 1976, sparkling water in the United States was mostly an afterthought. Europeans had been drinking mineral water for centuries, but Americans saw little reason to pay for fizzy water when tap water was free and soda was everywhere. That changed when Perrier launched a $3 million advertising campaign in 1976, positioning its green glass bottles as chic, cosmopolitan, and unmistakably French. The campaign worked. Perrier became a fixture at dinner parties, wine bars, and upscale restaurants, turning carbonated water into a status symbol almost overnight.
The success was large enough to reshape the broader beverage industry. Competitors rushed to claim a piece of the market Perrier had created. Canada Dry launched its own sparkling water line with ads featuring French actor Louis Jourdan and taste tests designed to position it as “the connoisseur’s choice” over Perrier. But this first wave of popularity stayed firmly in the premium, aspirational lane. Sparkling water was something you ordered to signal sophistication, not something you grabbed from the fridge on a Tuesday afternoon.
The Quiet Decades: 1980s Through 2000s
Through the 1980s and 1990s, sparkling water held steady as a niche product. Brands like San Pellegrino and Perrier maintained loyal followings, particularly in restaurants and among health-conscious consumers. But the broader American public was firmly in the grip of diet soda. Diet Coke, launched in 1982, and other artificially sweetened drinks dominated the “healthier alternative” space for decades. For most people, sparkling water simply wasn’t on the radar.
LaCroix, the brand that would eventually blow the market wide open, actually launched during this period. It had been around for more than 30 years before its breakout moment. For most of that time, it was a regional brand with modest sales and little cultural relevance.
2010: The Tipping Point
Around 2010, several forces converged to push sparkling water from niche to mainstream. LaCroix sales began taking off that year, and the trajectory was steep. Its parent company, National Beverage, saw net sales climb from $646 million in 2015 to $827 million just two years later. While those figures include other brands, LaCroix was widely recognized as the engine driving that growth.
What made 2010 the turning point? A growing unease about artificial sweeteners played a major role. Over the preceding decade, research had raised questions about whether diet sodas were truly the harmless alternative they’d been marketed as. Public health messaging increasingly emphasized reducing sugar intake, but mounting evidence about the potential negative effects of artificial sweeteners left consumers looking for a third option: something that wasn’t sugary soda, wasn’t diet soda, and still felt more interesting than plain water. Sparkling water fit perfectly.
Home carbonation machines accelerated the shift. SodaStream’s revenue surged 53% in 2010, reaching over $213 million. Sales of the machines themselves jumped 82% that year, with American sales up a staggering 189%. The ability to make sparkling water at home for pennies per glass helped normalize it as an everyday drink rather than a special-occasion purchase.
How LaCroix Changed the Branding
LaCroix’s genius was making sparkling water feel fun and accessible rather than fancy. Its brightly colored cans, sold in 12-packs at grocery stores, were the visual opposite of Perrier’s glass bottles. The price point was closer to soda than to imported mineral water. And the brand leaned heavily into social media, becoming one of the most Instagram-friendly beverages of the mid-2010s. Millennials adopted it as a lifestyle staple, and the colorful cans became a fixture in office refrigerators, gym bags, and party coolers across the country.
This repositioning mattered enormously. Perrier had proven Americans would drink sparkling water. LaCroix proved they’d drink it every day, in casual settings, without thinking of it as a luxury. That opened the floodgates for dozens of new brands and line extensions from major beverage companies.
Where the Market Stands Now
The sparkling water market has grown far beyond what Perrier’s 1976 ad team could have imagined. The global market hit $47.75 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $136.58 billion by 2034, growing at roughly 12.4% per year. Major soda companies now sell their own sparkling water lines. Grocery store shelves that once held a single row of Perrier bottles now feature entire aisles of flavored and unflavored options.
The category has also splintered. You can now find sparkling water with added caffeine, electrolytes, prebiotics, or CBD. Hard seltzers, which are essentially alcoholic sparkling water, became their own massive category in the late 2010s. What started as one French brand’s clever marketing campaign nearly 50 years ago has become one of the fastest-growing segments in the entire beverage industry.