Sports Nutrition
An incumbent aisle became a four-way scramble for the crown.
Four times in seven weeks the top spot in Sports Nutrition changed hands. That kind of churn does not happen in a settled aisle. It happens when the whole shelf is moving, and the shelf did move: 72% of the top ten turned over between June 1 and July 13, and 368 new brands showed up in a category that now tracks 589.
Swolverine climbed 71 spots. Legion climbed 58. Kaged walked in at #4 on June 8 and stayed in the title fight. Meanwhile BSN dropped from #2 to #15 and Evlution Nutrition, still a crowd favorite at 4.7 stars, fell to #25 in the rankings. The old order did not hold.
We take one category apart in depth as our history deepens. This season, Sports Nutrition earned the slot — picked on a weighted read of rank movement, AI disagreement and reviewer coverage.
as of July 13 · 6 categories
Who climbed, who slipped, who arrived.
Swolverine climbed from #92 to #21, Legion went from #69 to #11, and Ascent moved from #80 to #29. BSN slipped from #2 to #15, Evlution Nutrition fell from #11 to #25, and Legion Athletics dropped from #14 to #23. Three newcomers landed the same week, June 8: Kaged at #4, Nutricost at #16, Momentous at #17.
Climbed 51 places over the window
as of July 13 · 12 intents
The leaderboard churned.
The #1 spot changed four times in seven weeks, passed among Transparent Labs, Optimum Nutrition, Naked Nutrition, and Kaged. No single brand held the lead for long. A newcomer sitting in that rotation, Kaged arrived at #4 on June 8 and kept pace with three brands that built their names over years.
as of July 13 · vs July 6 · 12 intents
Same question, different answers.
Ask the panel for the best vegan protein powder and you get five different answers. ChatGPT named Vega Protein + Greens. AI Mode picked Organic Plant-Based Protein Isolate. Claude went with Ka'Chava Meal Blend v5. Perplexity chose Epic Protein, Original Unflavored 2nd Gen. Gemini landed on Gold Standard Plant Protein Ultra Blend. Five assistants, five picks, no overlap at all.
as of July 13 · vs July 6 · 5 AI models
The crowd saw it first.
The crowd and the models read different labels. MuscleTech holds 4.7 stars across 22,000 reviews but sits at #5 in the rankings. Redcon1 carries the same 4.7 stars across 27,000 reviews and lands at #18. Evlution Nutrition matches that 4.7-star mark on 5,800 reviews, yet the panel ranks it #25, deep below where the buyers put it.
bar scale 4.0–4.9★
as of July 13 · vs July 6
Where the machines and the room part ways.
The panel runs hot on some names and cold on others. Sport Organic Plant-Based Protein sits at #2 with the AI while humans stay cooler on it. Serious Mass rides at #10 in the rankings but draws the same shrug from real buyers. Flip it around: Naked Creatine sits at #14 with the AI while humans rate it warmer, and True-Mass 1200 sits at #13 while its buyers think more of it than that. The two sides do agree somewhere — Naked Mass holds #1 with both camps, and Gold Standard 100% Whey sits at #7 with both.
AI ranks them high — reviewers + buyers cooler.
Humans rate them top — the models rank them low.
AI and the humans land in the same place.
as of July 13 · vs July 6 · 13 reviewed products
Where the cameras pointed.
Creator coverage split down the middle. Of 38 tracked reviews in the category, Orgain and Transparent Labs each account for half of recent output. No third name cracks the recent split, a sign that creator attention has narrowed to two brands while the rankings below them keep turning over.
as of July 13 · vs July 6
The fights that defined the window.
Transparent Labs and Optimum Nutrition sit at the top of the category.
The fresh-upstart band took 50 points of the top ten from the incumbents over the window.
What actually moved underneath the leader.
The top ten opened the window all incumbent, 100% held by established names. By the close, incumbents held half, and fresh or upstart brands held the other half. Fifty points of the top ten moved from one column to the other in seven weeks. Under Transparent Labs and Optimum Nutrition's fight for the crown, the floor itself shifted.
as of July 13 · vs July 6 · 2 segments
Seven weeks turned a settled aisle into an open contest. The crown changed hands four times, the top ten turned over 72%, and the incumbent bloc gave up half its share to brands that did not exist in these rankings two months ago. Transparent Labs and Optimum Nutinion still trade the lead, but Kaged proved a newcomer can sit at the table, and Legion proved a climb of 58 spots is possible inside a single window. The edge belongs to whoever survives the next turnover, not whoever won the last one.
- 01Whether Kaged holds a top-five spot past its first two months.
- 02Whether Swolverine and Legion keep climbing or stall near the top twenty.
- 03Whether the incumbent share of the top ten drops below 50% next window.