Gatorade Vs Powerade: Which Sports Drink Came First?

The race to be the number one most popular sports drink continues to heat up amongst different beverage brands. Back in 2023, Powerade underwent a major rebranding, complete with a new look, marketing strategy, and drink formula. The sports drink boosted the amount of electrolytes present in the beverage and added vitamins C and B12 in order to one-up the brand's main rival: Gatorade. The two drinks have been pitted against one another for decades, especially since they are owned by rival parent companies, Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

With eerily similar names and formulas that have to be extra meticulous about their ingredients in order to set themselves apart, Gatorade and Powerade seem to have been competitors since the beginning. But in reality, one beverage arrived much earlier than the other. Gatorade, the number one best-selling sports drink, has been around for nearly 60 years. Powerade emerged as a competitor more than twenty years afterward and has been fighting to dethrone Gatorade ever since.

Gatorade got its start in the college football scene back in 1965 after concerns about how the heat was affecting players' physical health and performance. Dr. Robert Cade and a team of researchers at the University of Florida College of Medicine developed a formula to replenish electrolytes in football players quickly with a "drink containing salts and sugars" that players' bodies were lacking while exerting themselves in harsh weather conditions, per the University of Florida. Naturally, the drink quickly caught on amongst other athletes dealing with similar issues, starting an entire subsection of beverage products known today as sports drinks. The beverage became so popular, that even Elvis Presley claimed it was his favorite thing to drink on stage.

Powerade appeared on the scene in 1988 as Coca-Cola's response to the new genre of beverage and became the number two most popular sports drink. The rivalry between the two brands really heated up when the Pepsi Company bought Gatorade in 2000. While Gatorade has been around for longer, that doesn't guarantee that it will remain the most popular forever.

Whether you consume sports drinks to improve your athletic ability, replenish electrolytes after a workout, or simply enjoy the flavor of cool blue gatorade, sports drinks are an extremely sought-after beverage. But which beverage are consumers reaching for most often? According to sales reports collected by Statista, Gatorade continues to lead the pack by a large majority, reporting a profit of $7.06 billion in 2023 alone. For comparison, that same data showed Powerade reporting just $1.22 billion in 2023.

Interestingly, Powerade actually placed third in overall sales last year, falling behind the increasingly popular sports drink Body Armor, which reported earnings of $1.49 billion in 2023. The beverage was first created in 2011 and sets itself apart by utilizing coconut water as a base for most of its drinks. Powerade may not be nearly as concerned about Body Armor's popularity, however, since both drinks are owned by the same parent company, Coca-Cola, as of 2021 (although Coca-Cola only owns a minority stake in Body Armor). Even so, there's nothing like good, friendly competition to encourage product innovation and consumer happiness to the forefront of a company's mind.