Breweries all over the world are facing geopolitical headwinds, rising ingredient costs, and ever-changing shifts in consumer preferences, but that hasn’t stopped them from persevering and pumping out massive volumes of beer to serve to their customers across the globe.
BarthHaas, a German hop trader, recently released its 2024/2025 industry report, revealing the biggest brewers in the world. According to the data, the world’s top 40 brewing companies collectively produced 1,638.82 million hectoliters of beer, marking a 0.6 percent decrease from last year’s total of 1,648.71 million hectoliters.
In the list of breweries, ranked by output volume, the first eleven spots remained unchanged since last year’s report. Frontrunner AB InBev dominated once again with a whopping 495.49 million hectoliters brewed in 2024, and sitting in second place with 240.7 million hectoliters was the Netherland’s Heineken. China Res. Snow Breweries clinched third place with 108.8 million hectoliters produced last year. Though the top three companies each saw a slight decline in output in 2024, they still accounted for more than half of the total output from all 40 list-makers.
On the bright side, more than half of the brewing companies listed saw either increased or steady sales between the end of 2023 and 2024. Arguably the most noteworthy shift in 2024’s ranking was the reappearance of Baltika, the biggest brewer in the Russian Federation. According to BarthHass, the Russian government seized the company from its parent organization Carlsberg, so Batilka now operates as its own entity. It entered the most recent ranking at 12th place. Nonetheless, Carlsberg still saw a 0.2 percent increase in output year-over-year. In early 2025, the Danish company expanded its reach beyond beer with the acquisition of BritVic, the leading U.K. producer of soft drinks.
As was the case last year, Germany claimed six spots — more than any other one country — on the top 40 list. China and Japan were both the next most heavily represented countries, each securing four positions in the ranking.
Check out the full list of the world’s largest beer companies by output in million hectoliters below.
| # | Company | Country | Beer output for 2024 (Million hl) |
| 1 | AB InBev | Belgium | 495.49 |
| 2 | Heineken | Netherlands | 240.70 |
| 3 | China Res. Snow Breweries | China | 108.80 |
| 4 | Carlsberg | Denmark | 101.20 |
| 5 | Molson Coors | USA / Canada | 79.62 |
| 6 | Tsingtao Brewery Group | China | 75.38 |
| 7 | Asahi Group | Japan | 65.00 |
| 8 | BGI / Groupe Castel | France | 44.00 |
| 9 | Yanjing | China | 40.00 |
| 10 | Efes Group | Turkey | 38.70 |
| 11 | Constellation Brands | USA | 35.00 |
| 12 | Baltika | Russia | 23.60 |
| 13 | Diageo (Guinness) | Ireland | 22.95 |
| 14 | Kirin | Japan | 22.90 |
| 15 | Grupo Petrópolis | Brazil | 20.00 |
| 16 | San Miguel Corporation | Philippines | 18.00 |
| 17 | CCU | Chile | 16.48 |
| 18 | Grupo Mahou – San Miguel | Spain | 15.90 |
| 19 | Singha Corporation | Thailand | 14.72 |
| 20 | Pearl River | China | 14.39 |
| 21 | Saigon Beverage Corp. (SABECO) | Vietnam | 13.70 |
| 22 | Damm | Spain | 12.65 |
| 23 | Radeberger Gruppe | Germany | 10.40 |
| 24 | OPH United Breweries | Russia | 9.50 |
| 25 | Beer Thai (Chang) | Thailand | 9.00 |
| 26 | Suntory | Japan | 8.41 |
| 27 | Sapporo | Japan | 8.16 |
| 28 | TCB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH | Germany | 7.50 |
| 29 | Swinkels Family Brewers | Netherlands | 7.30 |
| 30 | Oettinger Gruppe | Germany | 6.60 |
| 31 | Paulaner Gruppe | Germany | 6.30 |
| 32 | Krombacher Gruppe | Germany | 5.94 |
| 33 | Bitburger Braugruppe | Germany | 5.78 |
| 34 | HiteJinro | South Korea | 5.40 |
| 35 | Olvi Group | Finland | 5.30 |
| 36 | Estrella de Galicia | Spain | 5.30 |
| 37 | Royal Unibrew | Denmark | 5.00 |
| 38 | Martens | Belgium | 4.80 |
| 39 | Polar | Venezuela | 4.75 |
| 40 | Financière ACP | France | 4.20 |
