The buyer is no longer a 24-year-old lifter. The SKUs riding the wave fastest are the ones most likely to sink.
Creatine has been the most-studied sports supplement for thirty years and a quiet, boring, profitable powder for most of them. In the last two years it stopped being boring. Mainstream retail sales grew by more than two-thirds, it topped ConsumerLab’s 2026 survey for growth in users, and its largest Western producer says global demand has tripled in two years.
What changed is not the molecule. It is who is buying it and in what form. The growth has moved to a new buyer — women over 40, more interested in memory than muscle — and to a new format, the gummy, whose economics and lab record look nothing like the powder it is replacing. This report walks through where creatine’s growth is coming from, why the gummy is the category’s weak point, and what the brands still growing are doing about it.
SPINS data published by Nutritional Outlook shows creatine sales in the mainstream multi-outlet channel up 71.9% in the 52 weeks to November 30, 2025, after growing 46.5% in the 52 weeks to October 2024. Natural-channel creatine grew 48.9%. A later SPINS read, reported by NutraIngredients in May, had US creatine sales up 60.6% over the past year, with one in five shoppers now buying creatine regularly.
ConsumerLab’s 2026 survey of its readers found creatine led every supplement in user growth, up 17.1 percentage points. That is a self-selected, supplement-literate sample — but it points the same way as the till data.
The buyer has shifted. GNC told Bloomberg last year that women now account for 30% of its creatine purchases, up from 18% in 2020. CPG Radar, a data vendor, writing in a guest column for NutraIngredients, counted roughly 253,000 monthly US searches for creatine within women’s supplements, up 155.5% year over year — one of only two of 544 women’s-supplement ingredients above 100,000 monthly searches. Its read of the core female buyer: 40 to 65, and talking about brain function first. Strength ranked seventh in the social conversation; muscle ranked eighth.
On Amazon, the shelf is crowded and split. SmartScout’s analysis of the category in May 2025 found creatine revenue up sharply, Optimum Nutrition leading on share with relatively little ad spend, and the rest of the market dividing into ultra-cheap powders and premium brands charging double. That structure — commodity powder at one end, certified premium at the other, gummies in between — is the frame for everything below.
A new buyer with a different question. The legacy creatine shopper wanted strength. The growth shopper is asking about memory, focus and staying strong with age. The evidence is real but narrower than the marketing. A 2024 meta-analysis of 16 randomized trials in Frontiers in Nutrition found a moderate-certainty improvement in memory, but no significant effect on overall cognition. In postmenopausal women, the stronger trial evidence is for lean mass and strength at 5 g a day or more combined with resistance training. A two-year trial in 237 postmenopausal women found no effect on bone mineral density. That gap — between what the buyer hopes for and what the research shows — is where claim risk lives.
A format that fights the ingredient. The gummy is how brands reached the new buyer. It is also where creatine is least stable. Creatine converts to creatinine in the presence of water, heat and acid, which is a fair description of how a gummy is made. A 3–5 g daily dose also has to fit into a handful of small, sweet pieces. When independent labs have checked, the results have been poor. NOW Foods tested 12 creatine gummies in 2024 and found six failed their label claim, several with little or none. SuppCo’s June 2025 round found four of six gummies had trace or zero creatine, including one of Amazon’s best-selling gummies; all five powders passed at 98–101%. A round tested at Eurofins and reported in July 2025 found five of nine gummies held under 2% of their claimed creatine. Different methods, different samples (the Eurofins round was UK-sourced) — but across the three rounds, 15 of 27 creatine gummy samples failed the tester’s label check, most with little or no creatine, while all five powders SuppCo tested passed.
Lawyers and Amazon arrived at the same time. In April, a proposed class action was filed in the Southern District of New York against Create Wellness — the best-known creatine gummy brand — alleging its gummies contain roughly 10% less creatine than labeled. Create disputes the allegations and says independent testing of the same lot met label claim. Whatever the outcome, the case shows how little margin a gummy has: under FDA’s rules for added dietary ingredients, product must test at no less than 100% of the declared amount. And Amazon’s 2026 policy, enforced from March 31, requires listings to match the Supplement Facts panel exactly and is phasing in third-party cGMP verification for all supplements. Sports nutrition has been in Amazon’s high-risk testing tier since 2024, which adds adulterant screening on top.
Supply is concentrated, and verified supply is scarce. An industry estimate quoted in May puts about 84% of the world’s creatine production in China. AlzChem, which makes Creapure in Germany and describes itself as the only producer outside Asia, announced a roughly €120 million capacity expansion in December — commissioning in stages from the second half of 2027 — and says it is prioritizing existing customers. Commodity Chinese creatine is not short; vendor price reports in May showed spot prices down from their 2024 peak. What is scarce is creatine with a verifiable origin and an assay you would put your brand on.
Age restrictions are spreading. New York has barred sales of weight-loss and muscle-building supplements to minors since 2024, and its law lists creatine among the ingredients that can bring a product into scope. CRN’s challenge is pending at the Supreme Court. California’s AB 2030, which passed the Assembly in May, would bring similar rules — including age verification for online sales — to the largest US market.
They sell certification, not price. Thorne and Momentous sell premium monohydrate powders carrying NSF Certified for Sport, at price points well above the commodity tier. In a category where a gummy may hold no creatine at all, a third-party seal is doing real conversion work.
The gummy leader is hedging into powder. Create raised a $20 million Series B in March and, alongside its gummies, is launching a creatine-and-electrolytes powder and stick packs. When the brand that made creatine gummies mainstream starts selling powder, that is a signal worth reading.
They speak to the new buyer. Lemme’s January launch aimed creatine gummies squarely at women, with NSF certification on the pack. The brands doing this well talk about memory and staying strong with training — claims the evidence can carry — and stay away from menopause symptoms, bone density and anything that names a disease.
They make the quality visible. Lot-level certificates of analysis, creatinine disclosure, “Creapure” on the label where it applies. When the shopper has read the gummy test headlines, transparency is the product.
If you sell creatine on Amazon, there are three different businesses in this category now, and it is worth being honest about which one you are in.
If you sell a gummy, test at end of shelf life, not just at release. Test for creatinine as well as creatine. Ask whether a 4–5 g serving is realistic in your format at all. A gummy that passes at the factory and degrades on the shelf is the theory alleged in the Create complaint.
Clean up listings for the March 31 rules. The listing has to match the Supplement Facts panel exactly — serving size, grams per serving, form. Remove disease claims (bone loss, osteoporosis, dementia) and symptom claims the evidence cannot support (menopause relief). “Supports memory” and “supports strength with resistance training” are claims the research can carry.
Get ready for age gates. Know which of your ASINs read as “muscle building” through claims, imagery or browse node, and how your fulfillment handles adult-signature delivery for New York — and, if AB 2030 passes, California.
Position for the buyer who is actually growing. Women over 40 searching for memory and healthy aging are the growth segment, and those claims carry less state-law exposure than “gains” — though New York’s law, and California’s bill, list creatine itself as a factor, so no positioning escapes entirely. Lead with monohydrate, a real 3–5 g dose, a certification seal and a certificate of analysis.
Lock in verified supply. If you are buying Chinese creatine, require specifications and an independent assay per lot for creatinine, dicyandiamide and dihydrotriazine. If you want German material, the queue is long.
If you want to know which creatine listings in your catalog carry claim or label-mismatch risk under Amazon’s new rules, Verid8 scans titles, bullets and images — start with a free listing scan. For a full review of claims, certificates and margin, order an audit.
Keep reading: Amazon’s supplement rulebook, one month in · Getting a suppressed listing back · What actually triggers a suppression
Market Analyses are published the first Tuesday of every month. Figures as of June 2, 2026. Sources: SPINS via trade press, ConsumerLab, CPG Radar, Bloomberg, NOW Foods, SuppCo, Eurofins-tested results, AlzChem, press reports of court filings and state legislatures. Lawsuits described are allegations. This report is market analysis, not legal advice. The next report looks at the GLP-1 companion economy.
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