Top 10 biggest-selling rum Brand Champions 2026
While the top five best-selling rum brands endured a frustrating year of declines, one brand nearly doubled its sales in 2025 after selling one million nine-litre cases for the first time.
Overall, dark rum volumes grew by 3.1% last year, while white rum fell by 2.5%, according to Euromonitor International data.
The category’s emergence as a premium player has been touted for several years, but barriers such as better consumer understanding of its many styles and regions remain a talking point.
Some producers have also turned their focus to more affordable liquids at a time when consumers are seeking value for money, while travel retail could unlock the category’s potential.
The top five best-selling rums remain the same as last year, and in the same order, but each brand recorded declines in 2025, contributing to a collective downturn.
This year’s Rum Brand Champion, Amrut’s XXX Classic Rum, however, showed that it’s not all doom and gloom in the category after an excellent year that saw a 90.1% increase in volume sales.
Read on to learn how the world’s biggest rum brands shaped up last year, from the companies that supplied data for The Brand Champions 2026 report.
The 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.
10. 1965 Spirit of Victory
Owner: Radico Khaitan
2021: 0.6m | 2022: 0.9m | 2023: 1.2m | 2024: 1.2m | 2025: 1.1m
Growth: -9.0%
Place last year: 8
After four years of growth, including taking the Rum Brand Champion title in 2024 and debuting on this list last year, the hot streak ended for 1965 Spirit of Victory in 2025 after a 9% decline.
The Indian brand remains above the one-million-case mark, and narrowly edged its Radico Khaitan stablemate, Contessa, for the 10th spot. Contessa moved 1.07 nine-litre cases, compared with 1965 Spirit of Victory’s 1.11m.
9. Božkov
Owner: Stock Spirits Group
2021: 1.4m | 2022: 1.3m | 2023: 1.4m | 2024: 1.4m | 2025: 1.3m
Growth: -7.2%
Place last year: 7
Like 1965 Spirit of Victory above, Stock Spirits Group-owned Božkov had a tough outing last year. The Czech brand stumbled through 2025 in decline for a second successive year, but its performance line over the past five years has mostly remained consistent, bouncing between 1.3m and 1.4m cases.
The brand is still “central to our growth story, combining strong heritage with significant headroom for the future,” former CEO of Stock-Spirits Group, Jean-Christophe Coutures, had said of Božkov’s importance for the company last year.
8. Amrut’s XXX Classic Rum
Owner: Amrut Distillers
2021: 0.1m | 2022: 0.2m | 2023: 0.4m | 2024: 0.9m | 2025: 1.7m
Growth: 90.1%
Place last year: N/A
Making its Brand Champions debut was Amrut Distillers’ XXX Classic Rum, which earned this year’s Rum Brand Champion crown. Its credentials? Racing past 1m cases so speedily that it could already be looking at 2m for 2026. It rocketed by 90.1% from 910,000 to 1.75m cases in 2025. On top of that, the brand has seen consistent year-on-year growth since 2021.
Speaking about the brand’s success, Rakshit Jagdale, managing director of Amrut Distilleries, said that as a millionaire brand “high-volume consumer retention remained one of its biggest growth engines”. He backed the brand’s strong mass-market loyalty and consumption base: “The brand witnesses strong growth due to its deep-rooted consumer loyalty in core southern markets, particularly in the mass and regular-consumption segment.”
7. Kenya Cane
Owner: Diageo
2021: 0.9m | 2022: 0.9m | 2023: 0.8m | 2024: 1.1m | 2025: 2.3m
Growth: 113.2%
Place last year: N/A
Blink and you’ll miss it: Diageo’s Kenya Cane was another brand that achieved rapid growth last year, bolting to 2.3m cases and registering a 113.2% leap. Like Amrut’s XXX Classic Rum, Kenya Cane was a top 10 debutant in this year’s rum rankings and also the biggest grower.
Diageo has agreed to sell its controlling stake in the brand’s parent company, East African Breweries Limited, to Asahi Group, which will be finalised in the second half of this year. Kenya Cane led growth for Diageo’s strong spirits performance in Africa, where the region saw a double-digit increase in the company’s third quarter.
6. Ron Barceló
Owner: Ron Barceló
2021: 2.4m | 2022: 2.4m | 2023: 2.2m | 2024: 2.2m | 2025: 2.3m
Growth: 5.3%
Place last year: 6
Hailing from the Dominican Republic, Barceló has recovered well from its drop-off in 2023 when it posted an 11.9% decline.
Now back in good health, the brand’s 5.3% increase to 2.3m cases in 2025 came off the back of a hard-fought year. The brand looked to educate drinkers on every detail of its production through a video platform called the Barceló Rum Academy, and also made inroads in the UK after securing a distribution partnership with Disaronno International.
Its Barceló Premium Blend was awarded a Master medal at the Rum and Cachaça Masters 2025, one of the competition’s top honours.
5. Havana Club
Owner: Pernod Ricard
2021: 4.3m | 2022: 4.6m | 2023: 3.8m | 2024: 3.3m | 2025: 3.1m
Growth: -6.3%
Place last year: 5
Is Havana Club in free fall? Its trajectory over the past four years suggests so, with 2025 seeing the Cuban brand fall to 3.1m cases after a 6.3% decline.
The result is not for a lack of activity. Owner Pernod Ricard has continued to push the brand at the forefront of culture with team-ups such as British menswear designer Martine Rose. It also remains ever-present in the bar space with its competition, Havana Club Cocktail Maestros.
Last year notably saw Christian Barré retire from his role as chief executive officer of the brand, with Michael Merolli, former CEO of House of Tequila, stepping into the hot seat. Combined with its placement in Pernod Ricard’s newly structured Crystal Business Unit, perhaps a fresh start at the top can help restore Havana Club to growth.
4. McDowell’s Rum
Owner: United Spirits
2021: 8.4m | 2022: 8.8m | 2023: 6.5m | 2024: 6.1m | 2025: 5.7m
Growth: -6.1%
Place last year: 4
McDowell’s is the next brand in our top five to suffer a sales slide last year. The brand was closing in on 9m cases in 2022, but fast-forward to today and the picture looks very different. It fell to 5.7m, marking a 6.1% decline in 2025.
The Indian brand is produced by Diageo’s United Spirits arm. Despite slipping down the sales charts for the third straight year, it is still India’s biggest-selling rum brand, according to The Brand Champions report.
3. Captain Morgan
Owner: Diageo
2021: 12.7m | 2022: 12.9m | 2023: 12.1m | 2024: 11.5m | 2025: 11.0m
Growth: -4.2%
Place last year: 3
Diageo’s flagship rum brand Captain Morgan is walking the plank towards 10m cases after a difficult 2025. The brand, which shifted 11m cases last year, found itself in uncharted waters, having dropped 2m cases below 2023. Back then, the brand might reasonably have had its sights set on exceeding 13m.
The Captain has looked to attach itself to consumer trends – with in-demand flavours and RTDs, for instance – but a shift in focus to the mass market from Diageo could be what it needs to right the ship.
2. Bacardí
Owner: Bacardi
2021: 19.2m | 2022: 21.1m | 2023: 20.6m | 2024: 20.3m | 2025: 19.3m
Growth: -5.0%
Place last year: 2
Bacardí is no longer a 20m-case-selling brand. The Puerto Rican rum has enjoyed the title for the past three years, before a 5% decline last year pulled it back down into the 19m tier. Bacardí was our Rum Brand Champion in 2023 on the back of its double-digit growth.
Parent company Bacardi, however, isn’t resting on its laurels. A Gen-Z-targeted campaign with British singer-songwriter Joy Crookes rolled out at the end of October last year, with another music-led initiative featuring Bad Bunny’s producer Tainy following this spring. It was also positioned among big celebrations and moments like Halloween.
Through its ‘Do What Moves You’ platform, the brand uses the intersection between music and rum as a way to bring people together. Pedro Mendonça, global senior vice-president Bacardí and rums, explained: “The new campaign exemplifies Bacardí’s commitment to celebrating the moments where music, movement, rum, and culture intersect.”
Mendonça also joined the SB Podcast last year to discuss the brand’s route to long-term success.
1. Tanduay
Owner: Tanduay Distillers
2021: 23.6m | 2022: 27.4m | 2023: 23.4m | 2024: 23.8m | 2025: 23.2m
Growth: -2.7%
Place last year: 1
It remains at the top of the table, but will Tanduay be pleased? Tanduay Distillers’ flagship brand registered its lowest volumes in the past five years at 23.2m cases. Its best outing was in 2022, when it hit 27.4m – a gap of 4m cases, which is more than what many of the brands on this list sold last year.
If it’s any consolation, Tanduay’s 2.7% decline was the lowest of the top five-selling rum brands, and the Philippine brand is still far ahead of its closest competitor.
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