Snack foods industry in the U.S. - statistics & facts
The United States has the largest snack food market worldwide in terms of revenue. As of 2025, the snack food market in the U.S. generated over 53 billion U.S. dollars in sales, followed by China with almost 34 billion U.S. dollars in market revenue. Â A 2025 survey found that most U.S. consumers snack at least once a day. As of 2024, cookies were the most popular snacks that were eaten by Americans. Chips and ice cream came in second and third place, which were consumed regularly by over half of Americans in the previous year.
Leading segments
Among snack types, savory snacks are growing significantly. In 2024, roughly 76 billion U.S. dollars' worth of savory snacks were sold in the United States, and by 2028, sales are expected to exceed 90 billion. Within convenience stores, potato chips were the best-selling salty snack in 2025, with total sales reaching roughly 2.2 billion U.S. dollars. Doritos was the number one chips brand in the United States. Two-thirds of Americans who regularly buy chips claimed to have bought Doritos in the past three months. Cheetos and Lay's came in second and third place, respectively.
Consumer market
In the last few years, the mass and club store sales channel has been gaining share in the American snack market. As of 2024, snack food purchasing within mass and club stores had the highest sales share compared to other channels. This could be due to the lower average price per volume of snack products in this sales channel. In contrast, convenience stores, with the highest average prices of snack food, held only 14 percent of the snack food market in the U.S. This shows the importance of price and its influence on consumers’ purchasing behavior. Brand trust, however, is still the top factor influencing snack purchasing, cited by 70 percent of consumers in 2025.
When it comes to the quality of snacks, consumers have shown an interest in healthier options. Still, about two-thirds of consumers said they'd pick a familiar brand over a new, healthier alternative. For brands, adding healthier alternatives under established labels at reasonable prices could be a real opportunity in this competitive food segment.
