Despite shifts in its production and consumption, beer remains the most popular alcoholic beverage in the world, and companies from all over the world lead the industry.
According to data published by German hop trader BarthHass, the world’s top 40 brewers produced 1,623.77 million hectoliters of beer in 2023, accounting for 86.2 percent of all beer brewed across the globe — a 1.9 percent decrease year-over-year.
Anheuser Busch InBev brewed more beer than any other producer, cornering a 26.9 percent share of the world’s beer production. Despite that number being down by about 0.5 percent year-over-year, ABInBev still brewed more than twice the amount of beer than the world’s No. 2 producer, Heineken. Last year, the European beer giant brewed 242.60 million hectoliters, claiming a 12.9-percent share of the market. Rounding out the top three is China Res. Snow Breweries with a 5.9-percent share and 111.51 million hectoliters brewed.
Germany was, once again, the most heavily represented country in the top 40 list with six breweries represented including Radeberger Gruppe, Oettinger Gruppe, Paulaner Gruppe, TCB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Krombacher Gruppe, and Bitburger Braugruppe. China (China Res. Snow Breweries, Tsingtao Brewery Group, Yanjing, and Pearl River) and Japan (Asahi Group, Kirin, Suntory, and Sapporo) weren’t far behind, with each country claiming four of the top 40 companies.
Check out the rest of the world’s largest beer companies by output in million hectoliters below.
| # | Company | Country | Million hl |
| 1 | AB InBev | Belgium | 505.90 |
| 2 | Heineken | Netherlands | 242.60 |
| 3 | China Res. Snow Breweries | China | 111.51 |
| 4 | Carlsberg | Denmark | 101.00 |
| 5 | Molson Coors | USA / Canada | 83.77 |
| 6 | Tsingtao Brewery Group | China | 74.10 |
| 7 | Asahi Group | Japan | 65.00 |
| 8 | BGI / Group Castel | France | 42.70 |
| 9 | Yanjing | China | 39.42 |
| 10 | Efes Group | Turkey | 35.70 |
| 11 | Constellation Brands | USA | 34.40 |
| 12 | Diageo (Guinness) | Ireland | 24.66 |
| 13 | Kirin | Japan | 23.51 |
| 14 | Grupo Petrópolis | Brazil | 21.00 |
| 15 | San Miguel Corporation | Philippines | 17.83 |
| 16 | Grupo Mahou – San Miguel | Spain | 16.20 |
| 17 | CCU | Chile | 16.06 |
| 18 | Pearl River | China | 14.03 |
| 19 | Singha Corporation | Thailand | 13.99 |
| 20 | Saigon Beverage Corp. (SABECO) | Vietnam | 13.00 |
| 21 | Damm | Spain | 12.70 |
| 22 | Radeberger Gruppe | Germany | 10.80 |
| 23 | Suntory | Japan | 8.65 |
| 24 | Sapporo | Japan | 8.06 |
| 25 | Oettinger Gruppe | Germany | 7.50 |
| 26 | Swinkels Family Brewers | Netherlands | 7.49 |
| 27 | Beer Thai (Chang) | Thailand | 6.94 |
| 28 | Paulaner Gruppe | Germany | 6.34 |
| 29 | HiteJinro | South Korea | 5.98 |
| 30 | TCB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH | Germany | 5.80 |
| 31 | Krombacher Gruppe | Germany | 5.74 |
| 32 | Bitburger Braugruppe | Germany | 5.69 |
| 33 | Olvi Group | Finland | 5.30 |
| 34 | Estrella de Galicia | Spain | 5.03 |
| 35 | Royal Unibrew | Denmark | 4.90 |
| 36 | Polar | Venezuela | 4.30 |
| 37 | Financière ACP | France | 4.11 |
| 38 | Moscow Brewing Company | Russia | 4.10 |
| 39 | Martens | Belgium | 4.01 |
| 40 | Obolon | Ukraine | 3.96 |
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