Carvana, Tapestry & Dollar Stores Emerge As Top Consumer Gainers In 2025, But Retail Trader Eyes Are Firmly On Riskier Bets

• Innovative Beverage and Airwa drew significant retail interest in 2025 following their mergers.
• Six Flags Entertainment drew buzz amid activist interest in the theme park operator, which last year merged with a rival.
• Overall, the consumer and retail sector had a mixed year and underperformed the benchmark S&P 500 index.

From managing the fallout from tariffs to a string of CEO changes, consumer and retail companies had a busy 2025. After a catastrophic April, the sector found its footing in the latter half of the year, buoyed by consumers’ heavy reliance on giants such as Walmart, Costco, and Yum Brands.

Carvana, Tapestry, and discount retailers Dollar General and Dollar Tree emerged as the top sectoral performers; however, the overall category underperformed the broader market. So far in 2025, the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLY) has gained 7.7%, while the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLP) has declined about 1%. The benchmark S&P 500 index has risen  17.4%.

Retail investors, too, piled into the high flyers — but another group of stocks captured their attention even more. Based on Stocktwits data, here are the top three consumer names that generated the most retail interest:

Innovation Beverage Group (-60% YTD)

The beverage maker attracted attention for potential merger activity and volatile stock moves, with IBG’s watcher count on Stocktwits rising by 224% in 2025. In October, the company announced it would merge with BlockFuel Energy Inc., an oil and gas exploration company that supplies power to Bitcoin miners – effectively pivoting its business.

Earlier, market interest also grew around its product innovation and expanded distribution moves, which helped drive fresh interest in the stock over parts of the year.

Airwa (-98.5% YTD)

Airwa, Inc., often referenced by its stock symbol YYAI, was in the headlines mainly for its blockchain, digital assets, and tokenization initiatives.

In October, Airwa changed its name from Connexa Sports Technologies and announced it was fully pivoting to Web3 and blockchain-based financial services, moving away from its earlier business in sports products such as portable ball launchers and sports analytics.

It also announced a joint venture company with JuCoin Capital Pte Ltd, a cryptocurrency exchange and Web3 company headquartered in Dubai, to launch "AiRWA Exchange" for trading tokenized U.S. equities with Solana as a core asset.

Before that, the company pursued content creation and partnership deals, including an agreement with TikTok for live-streaming and influencer-driven content in the Middle East and North Africa.

Those moves led to an overall 204% increase in YYAI watchers in 2025.

Six Flags Entertainment (-68.4% YTD)

Investor interest in Six Flags was notable entering the year, following the company’s 2024 merger with Cedar Fair, which made Six Flags the largest amusement park operator in North America.

Over the year, the company reported mixed results and announced capital investment plans; however, news of activist interest in the company mainly drove the stock and investor moves.

In September, Land & Buildings Investment Management, an activist investor, disclosed a 2% stake in the company and reportedly pushed for changes, including a spinoff of its real estate business. The following month, Jana Partners, Super Bowl star Travis Kelce, and a few company executives together disclosed a 9% stake in the theme park company and also pushed for changes.

Watcher count for FUN increased by 187% over the year.

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.

Read Next: Meta’s 2025 AI Buying Spree: Every Deal That Signals Zuckerberg’s Endgame

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