Market share of the U.S. alcohol industry by beverage 2000-2021

In 2021, beer accounted for an estimated 42.5 percent of the U.S. alcohol industry market. While the wine market has remained stable in recent years, the market share of beer has gotten smaller in favor of spirits.

Alcoholic beverage sales in the U.S.

In 2020, total alcoholic beverage sales numbers in the United States reached over 222 billion U.S. dollars. U.S. sales numbers had been increasing for years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. In supermarkets across the United States, beverages, such as beer, cider, and flavored malt drinks, generated over 11 billion U.S. dollars in sales in 2018. Spirits generated just over 4 billion U.S. dollars within the same period.

Leading beer brands

With sales of over seven billion U.S. dollars, Bud was the leading brand of beer in the United States. Introduced in 1982, Bud Light is one of the world’s top-selling light beer lagers. Top competitor Michelob ranked second with roughly three billion dollars in sales that year.