Top 10 best-selling Brand Champions in 2024
Despite global economic uncertainty caused by the US president’s on-again, off-again tariffs, and China’s spat with the EU’s brandy and Cognac producers, spirits brands had much to be pleased with in the past 12 months, as our Brand Champions 2025 report reveals.
Many of the trials and tribulations that affected the global spirits industry in 2023 continued in 2024. Inflation remained high, as did energy costs, and this meant consumers continued to feel the cost‐of‐living squeeze.
In China, the anti‐dumping investigation into brandy and Cognac from the EU also continued. Meanwhile, towards the latter part of the year, the then soon‐to‐be US president Donald Trump announced his intentions to reintroduce tariffs on a number of countries, leaving the industry in a state of uncertainty – which it is still feeling today.
The second quarter of the year is when research for The Brand Champions really ramps up. The Spirits Business editorial team has been collecting data from the world’s spirits brands that sell more than one million cases annually, including those that are edging closer to the coveted mark. Once the data has been compiled, the team carefully trawls through the figures to analyse the developments, which are detailed on the following pages of this report.
For each major category, a Brand Champion has been chosen. These titles are given to brands not only due to impressive sales results, but after considering their marketing endeavours, new product developments, and consistency in previous years.
For the Social Media Heroes, the impact of a brand’s online presence is put under the microscope. How many followers do they have? How engaged is the audience? How aesthetically pleasing are their social media accounts? How frequently do they post, and how much does their content stand out in a saturated space?
Several companies that have in recent years disclosed their volume sales have opted not to share their data this time, including William Grant & Sons, De Kuyper Royal Distillers, Rémy Cointreau, and Fratelli Branca. Tito’s Handmade Vodka remains the biggest‐selling vodka in the US, bigger than Diageo’s Smirnoff, but does not share its sales volumes publicly.
*The Brand Champions data is listed to one decimal place for ease of reading, but the percentage changes were calculated on the full data supplied. All data is recorded in millions of nine-litre cases.
The Brand Champions 2025 can be read for free here.
10. Suntory Lemon Sour
Owner: Suntory Global Spirits
Category: RTD
2020: 16.3 | 2021: 19.0 | 2022: 18.0 | 2023: 20.4 | 2024: 21.9
% growth/decline: 7.5%
Place last year: 14
Making its debut in the top 10 best-selling Brand Champions spirits list is Suntory Global Spirits’ Lemon Sour ready-to-drink (RTD) – which is not to be confused with Suntory’s other RTD, -196, which we’ll learn more about later in this list. Rising by a healthy 7.5% in case sales in 2024, it certainly hints at a consumer penchant for citrus and shochu.
9. Imperial Blue
Owner: Pernod Ricard
Category: Whisky – Indian
2020: 21.3 | 2021: 24.1 | 2022: 24.0 | 2023: 22.8 | 2024: 22.9
% growth/decline: 0.5%
Place last year: 10
According to reports in India, Pernod Ricard is reportedly planning to sell its Imperial Blue whisky brand, despite it being one of the best-selling spirits in the world – even rising one place in this year’s top 10 list. The move is said to be part of a broader strategy to focus on the firm’s premium portfolio, including brands like The Glenlivet, Jameson, and Chivas Regal, with Goldman Sachs reportedly having been appointed to assist with the sale. While the sale is being considered, Pernod Ricard has not officially commented on the matter.
8. High Noon
Owner: Gallo
Category: RTD
2020: 2.9 | 2021: 8.84 | 2022: 16.4 | 2023: 21.0 | 2024: 23.5
% growth/decline: 11.7%
Place last year: 12
Another RTD breaking into the top 10 this year is Gallo’s vodka-based hard seltzer brand High Noon, which is known for being low in calories, sugar-free, and gluten-free, with an ABV of 4.5%. With a double-digit growth of 11.7%, this proves the taste of hard seltzers is clearly still going strong.
7. Tanduay Rum
Owner: Tanduay Distillers
Category: Rum
2020: 23.7 | 2021: 23.6 | 2022: 27.4 | 2023: 23.4 | 2024: 23.8
% growth/decline: 1.9%
Place last year: 9
Jumping two places despite only achieving single-digit growth in 2024, Tanduay Rum, produced in the Philippines, is the only rum brand in the top 10 – placing six places higher than its nearest category competitor.
6. Smirnoff
Owner: Diageo
Category: Vodka
2020: 23.0 | 2021: 26.5| 2022: 28.1| 2023: 26.0 | 2024: 24.4
% growth/decline: -6.1%
Place last year: 7
Diageo’s prized vodka brand has benefitted from other brands dropping out of the list this year. Despite suffering a 6.1% fall in growth in 2024, it has still managed to climb through the ranks. The UK-headquartered drinks behemoth has recently made suggestions that it will be looking to make some ‘substantial changes’ to its product portfolio in the form of asset disposals in a bid to invest in ‘future growth’ and improve its ‘operating leverage’. Could Smirnoff’s days in the Diageo line-up be numbered if sales continue to fall?
5. Chum Churum (includes Soonhari)
Owner: Lotte Liquor
Category: Local – Soju
2020: 19.9 | 2021: 19.0| 2022: 26.0 | 2023: 27.0| 2024: 27.5
% growth/decline: 1.6%
Place last year: 6
For many of those outside of South Korea, this brand may not have yet entered your orbit, but Lotte Liquor’s soju brand Chum Churum (and its flavoured cousin, Soonhari) continues to travel steadily on its upwards trajectory, reaching 27.5m cases in 2024. In fact, at the start of 2024, Lotte partnered with the spirits arm of California-based Gallo for its US distribution, and subsequently both brands saw sales skyrocket by 700% in the region in the year to March 2025. Will it place even higher in next year’s report? Time will tell.
4. -196
Owner: Suntory Global Spirits
Category: RTD
2020: 25.0| 2021: 27.8 | 2022: 27.3 | 2023: 27.8 | 2024: 30.5
% growth/decline: 9.4%
Place last year: 5
The best-selling RTD in this year’s list, this other Suntory Global Spirits-owned brand has kept its growth steady, and in 2024 it passed the 30m mark in its case sales. The name comes from Suntory’s ‘freeze crush infusion’ technology, which sees fruits frozen using liquid nitrogen at -196°C, then crushed and infused with vodka.
3. Royal Stag
Owner: Pernod Ricard
Category: Whisky – Indian
2020: 18.5 | 2021: 22.4| 2022: 27.1 | 2023: 27.9 | 2024: 31.0
% growth/decline: 11.1%
Place last year: 4
Boasting a healthy double-digit jump, Indian whisky brand Royal Stag remains Pernod Ricard’s best-selling brand by volume, so unlike its stablemate Imperial Blue, there is surely no chance the French firm will be looking to offload this brand anytime soon.
2. McDowell’s Whisky
Owner: United Spirits
Category: Whisky – Indian
2020: 25.7 | 2021: 30.1 | 2022: 30.8 | 2023: 31.4 | 2024: 32.2
% growth/decline: 2.5%
Place last year: 3
This year, McDowell’s has taken a step up on the best-selling podium. The brand has seen steady single-digit growth over the past five years, but it’s still more than 60m cases away from getting the gold.
1. Jinro
Owner: Hite‐Jinro
Category: Local – Soju
2020: 95 | 2021: 95 | 2022: 100.9 | 2023: 97.4 | 2024: 96.8
% growth/decline: ‐0.6%
Place last year: 1
Just as death and taxes are a life certainty, so is the fact that Jinro will continue to retain its top spot in the best-selling list year after year, as the soju brand has made it virtually impossible to beat its annual case sales. This is despite the small dip in growth the brand saw last year, which in the grand scheme of things is similar to losing a deck chair from the Titanic.
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