11 hours ago
These Are The 25 Bestselling Whisky Brands In The World
It might have a Scottish-sounding name, but Indian brand McDowell's is the bestselling whisky in the ... More world, if you're flexible on your definition of 'whisky'.
In 2018, I was trying to find a list of the bestselling whiskies in the world by volume and was struggling. While that information was easy to find for separate categories, such as Scotch or Bourbon, I quickly wrote up what (I think) was one of the first lists that actually collated the bestselling global brands. It's been a while since I wrote the last one though, so I thought it's high time to update the list given that The Spirits Business recently released its 2025 Brand Champions report covering sales of all kinds of drinks from around the world. I've simply pulled the figures from the report covering whisky and collated it here into an easy-reading list.
Some notes. The figures below incorporate sales from 2024, covering millions of 9-liter cases sold. So for example, 1 million cases sold means a total of 9 million liters.
If you don't follow whisky and drinks trends, you'll be surprised to see just how much Indian whisky is sold (almost all of it consumed domestically). For those who do follow these kinds of figures, you'll be surprised to see that Johnnie Walker has finally managed to break into the top 4 which for the last few years was dominated by Indian brands McDowell's, Royal Stag, Imperial Blue, and Officer's Choice. As you'll see from the figures below, the latter has taken a hit in sales compared to Johnnie Walker's smaller dip.
At the bottom of the article is a quick little graph I drafted up with the figures in case it's useful.
And finally, I'm not picky at all about what gets counted as 'whisky' here. If it's labelled as 'whisky' in the report, then it makes this list. This is an important distinction especially when it comes to many Indian whisky brands, which often incorporate molasses in their production (these are classified within the country as 'Indian-made foreign liquor, or IMFL).
With that, the world's bestselling whiskies are:
1. McDowell's Whisky
Owner: United SpiritsCountry: IndiaSales: 2020: 25.7m | 2021: 30.1m | 2022: 30.8m | 2023: 31.4m | 2024: 32.2mGrowth: +2.6%
2. Royal Stag
Owner: Pernod RicardCountry: IndiaSales: 2020: 18.5m | 2021: 22.4m | 2022: 27.1m | 2023: 27.9m | 2024: 31.0mGrowth: +11.1%
3. Imperial Blue
Owner: Pernod RicardCountry: IndiaSales: 2020: 21.3m | 2021: 24.1m | 2022: 24.0m | 2023: 22.8m | 2024: 22.9mGrowth: +0.5%
4. Johnnie Walker
Owner: DiageoCountry: ScotlandSales: 2020: 14.1m | 2021: 19.1m | 2022: 22.7m | 2023: 22.1m | 2024: 21.6mGrowth: –2.0%
5. Officer's Choice
Owner: Allied Blenders & DistillersCountry: IndiaSales: 2020: 20.8m | 2021: 23.2m | 2022: 24.9m | 2023: 23.4m | 2024: 21.3mGrowth: –9.0%
6. Jim Beam
Owner: Suntory Global SpiritsCountry: USASales: 2020: 16.4m | 2021: 17.0m | 2022: 16.6m | 2023: 17.0m | 2024: 17.5mGrowth: +2.9%
7. Jack Daniel's
Owner: Brown-FormanCountry: USASales: 2020: 12.3m | 2021: 13.5m | 2022: 14.6m | 2023: 14.3m | 2024: 14.1mGrowth: –1.5%
8. Jameson
Owner: Pernod RicardCountry: IrelandSales: 2020: 7.7m | 2021: 9.6m | 2022: 11.1m | 2023: 10.2m | 2024: 10.8mGrowth: +6.3%
9. Blenders Pride
Owner: Pernod RicardCountry: Whisky – IndianSales: 2020: 6.6m | 2021: 8.0m | 2022: 9.5m | 2023: 9.6m | 2024: 10.1mGrowth: +5.0% 10. 8PM
Owner: Radico KhaitanCountry: Whisky – IndianSales: 2020: 9.4m | 2021: 11.4m | 2022: 11.9m | 2023: 12.2m | 2024: 9.6mGrowth: –20.8% 11. Ballantine's
Owner: Pernod RicardCountry: Whisky – ScotchSales: 2020: 7.0m | 2021: 8.7m | 2022: 9.2m | 2023: 8.2m | 2024: 9.3mGrowth: +13.9%
12. Royal Challenge
Owner: United SpiritsCountry: Whisky – IndianSales: 2020: 4.3m | 2021: 4.7m | 2022: 7.2m | 2023: 8.6m | 2024: 9.1mGrowth: +6.7%
13. Crown Royal
Owner: DiageoCountry: Whisky – CanadianSales: 2020: 8.1m | 2021: 9.0m | 2022: 8.4m | 2023: 7.7m | 2024: 8.0mGrowth: +4.0%
14. Iconiq White Whisky
Owner: Allied Blenders & DistillersCountry: Whisky – IndianSales: 2020: N/A | 2021: N/A | 2022: N/A | 2023: 1.6m | 2024: 4.5mGrowth: +181.3%
15. Chivas Regal
Owner: Pernod RicardCountry: Whisky – ScotchSales: 2020: 3.2m | 2021: 4.1m | 2022: 5.2m | 2023: 4.6m | 2024: 4.8mGrowth: +4.8% 16. Kakubin
Owner: Suntory Global SpiritsCountry: Whisky – JapaneseSales: 2020: 3.7m | 2021: 3.6m | 2022: 4.3m | 2023: 4.2m | 2024: 4.0mGrowth: –4.5%
17. Black Nikka
Owner: Asahi BreweriesCountry: Whisky – JapaneseSales: 2020: 3.3m | 2021: 3.3m | 2022: 3.5m | 2023: 4.0m | 2024: 4.0mGrowth: 0.0%
18. Sterling Reserve
Owner: Allied Blenders & DistillersCountry: Whisky – IndianSales: 2020: 2.8m | 2021: 3.6m | 2022: 5.0m | 2023: 5.1m | 2024: 3.9mGrowth: –23.5%
19. Director's Special
Owner: United SpiritsCountry: Whisky – IndianSales: 2020: 3.1m | 2021: 2.9m | 2022: 3.0m | 2023: 3.3m | 2024: 3.6mGrowth: +9.4%
20. Canadian Club
Owner: Suntory Global SpiritsCountry: Whisky – CanadianSales: 2020: 5.9m | 2021: 6.2m | 2022: 6.5m | 2023: 6.2m | 2024: 5.3mGrowth: –15.2%
21. Signature
Owner: United SpiritsCountry: Whisky – IndianSales: 2020: 1.9m | 2021: 2.0m | 2022: 2.5m | 2023: 2.9m | 2024: 3.3mGrowth: +13.4%
22. Dewar's
Owner: BacardiCountry: Whisky – ScotchSales: 2020: 2.5m | 2021: 2.8m | 2022: 3.5m | 2023: 3.3m | 2024: 3.3mGrowth: +1.8%
23. Evan Williams
Owner: Heaven Hill BrandsCountry: Whiskey – AmericanSales: 2020: 3.0m | 2021: 3.1m | 2022: 3.1m | 2023: 3.1m | 2024: 3.1mGrowth: –1.3%
24. William Lawson's
Owner: BacardiCountry: Whisky – ScotchSales: 2020: 3.3m | 2021: 3.4m | 2022: 3.5m | 2023: 3.4m | 2024: 3.2mGrowth: –4.4%
25. Black & White
Owner: DiageoCountry: Whisky – ScotchSales: 2020: 2.9m | 2021: 3.1m | 2022: 3.6m | 2023: 3.2m | 2024: 3.0mGrowth: –5.4% And here is the data in chart form below:
The world's bestselling whiskies, as reported by the Spirits Business 2025 Brand Champions report.
