The Most Valuable Beer Brand in 2024 Might Surprise You

According to the respected research group Kantar, there’s a new king of beer brands in 2024, and it’s not from America.

Gear Patrol

Published July 9, 2024

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Updated July 9, 2024

UK-based research group Kantar recently revealed its report and ranking of the most valuable brands in the world in 2024.

While we’ve grown accustomed to seeing tech brands, including Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, sitting comfortably at the top of many most valuable brand lists, Kantar’s results were a little surprising this year in the alcohol sector.

BUDWEISER GETS DETHRONED

corona beer bottle — At an estimated value of slightly over $19 billion, Corona is now the world’s most valuable beer brand according to Kantar’s 2024 Brandz report.

Last year, Budweiser was the most valuable and highest-ranking beer brand on Kantar’s 2023 Brandz list. This year, though, the crown for most valuable beer brand was snatched by a familiar brew with royal headgear printed right on its label, Corona.

Valued at slightly over $19 billion in the 2024 report, the Mexican beer brand barely cracked the top 100 ranking across all categories but still took the top spot among beer brands. According to Kantar CEO Chris Jansen, much of Corona’s surge came from growth in markets like Brazil, China, and South Africa.

“Valued at slightly over $19 billion in the 2024 report, the Mexican beer brand barely cracked the top 100 ranking across all categories but still took the top spot among beer brands.”

Corona is also clearly committed to investing in new products beyond its namesake brew, which could help the brand maintain its lead in the years ahead. Case in point, Corona’s non-alcoholic Cero beer was named the global beer sponsor of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games through 2028.

In the context of this report, it’s important to note that brand values are based on “quantitative consumer research and financial analysis,” according to Kantar, including survey data designed to understand how meaningful, different, and salient a brand is to consumers.

As such, the dollar values ascribed in Kantar’s Brandz rankings aren’t a pure measure of current financial performance. Instead, the estimated valuations are a blend of recent financial data and predictions of future value based on consumer sentiment trends. Brands also must either be owned by a company listed on a stock exchange or have publicly available financials to be included in the report.

IT’S STILL A WIN FOR AB Inbev

Just because Corona passed Budweiser as the most valuable global beer brand in 2024 doesn’t mean the “King of Beers” is reeling. Bud still holds the number two spot on the list.

The complete top 10 most valuable global beer brands in 2024 are as follows:

1. Corona ($19 billion)
2. Budweiser ($13 billion)
3. Heineken ($12 billion)
4. Modelo ($11 billion)
5. Brahma ($6.5 billion)
6. Michelob Ultra ($6.3 billion)
7. Bud Light ($6 billion)
8. Skol ($6 billion)
9. Guinness ($4.5 billion)
10. Stella Artois ($4.1 billion)

AB InBev, the parent company of Anheuser-Busch, likely isn’t too worried about the switch in beer rankings at the top either. That’s because the company owns eight of the top 10 most valuable global beer brands in Kantar’s 2024 report, including Corona, with Heineken and Guinness being the two exceptions.

The growth in value of several beer brands like Corona also appears to be the lone bright spot for the greater alcohol and spirits industry at large in 2024.

According to the same report, all other spirit and wine brands listed in the top 20 most valuable brands in the category saw year-over-year declines in brand value.

BUT CORONA’S SUCCESS IN THE U.S. WILL ALWAYS BE COMPLICATED

modelo especial beer bottle — Another Mexican beer, Modelo Especial, made headlines in the beer world when it took over as the number-one-selling beer brand in the U.S. last year. Due to U.S. regulatory action, the owner of both Model and Corona’s U.S. license isn’t AB InBev.

In another indicator of Mexican beer’s surging growth, Modelo Especial became the number one beer brand in the U.S. sales in 2023 according to Nielsen IQ data analyzed by the investment firm Wedbush Securities.

And while AB InBev technically owns both Modelo and Corona globally, neither Modelo or Corona’s success in America is a pure win for the beverage titan.

That’s because the conglomerate was forced to divest the Corona and Modelo brands in America to appease U.S. regulatory concerns about the competitive impact InBev’s acquisition of Anheuser-Busch would have on the American beer market.

So in 2013, AB InBev sold the perpetual U.S. licensing rights to both Corona and Modelo to Constellation Brands.

Since then, tensions have flared between these entities behind Modelo and Corona, most notably in 2021, when AB InBev’s Mexican subsidiary Grupo Modelo took Constellation Brands to court.

The fundamental dispute was over the definition of beer. Constellation Brands had started to market and sell a line of Corona-branded hard seltzers that AB InBev believed violated its licensing contract.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reaffirmed the decision of a Manhattan jury, which ruled that Constellation Brands’ Modelo and Corona hard seltzer offerings were not in violation of its licensing contract with AB InBev, dealing a rare setback to the biggest name in beer.