When choosing an alcoholic beverage, preferences can vary widely depending on the occasion, personal taste, and even dietary requirements.
YouGov’s U.S. alcoholic beverage rankings 2026 highlight the brands that U.S. adults aged 21+ would consider the next time they are in the market to purchase an alcoholic beverage. YouGov BrandIndex data shows a close race at the top, with established beer and spirits brands competing alongside ready-to-drink (RTD) and hard seltzer brands.
In this article, we’ll cover:
- Top 25 alcoholic beverage brands by consideration among U.S. adults aged 21+
- Top 10 beer brands by consideration
- Top 10 RTD and seltzer brands by consideration
- Top 10 spirits brands by consideration
- Top 10 biggest improvers in alcoholic beverage brand consideration year-over-year
- How the most considered brands compare on value and quality
- Methodology behind the rankings
Which alcoholic beverage brands are most considered?
The Dutch lager, Heineken, ranks first in YouGov’s U.S. alcoholic beverage rankings 2026, with 18.4% of U.S. adults aged 21+ saying they would consider the brand the next time they are in the market to purchase an alcoholic beverage, narrowly ahead of Diageo’s Irish cream liqueur, Baileys (18.3%).
Jack Daniel’s ranks third at 18.0%, followed by Smirnoff at 17.0% and Guinness at 16.7%.
The top 10 also includes Mike’s Hard Lemonade and Budweiser at 15.4%, Bacardi at 15.0%, and Modelo and Crown Royal at 14.9%.
The top five brands are separated by less than two percentage points, and the top 10 spans beer, spirits, and RTD brands, highlighting a variety of alcoholic beverage types near the top of America's consideration set.
Top 10 beer brands in the U.S. 2026
Within the beer ranking, Heineken leads at 18.4%, followed by Guinness at 16.7%. Budweiser ranks third at 15.4%.
Modelo follows at 14.9%, while Blue Moon rounds out the top five at 14.5%. Samuel Adams (14.0%), Bud Light (13.8%), Coors Light (13.0%), Michelob ULTRA (12.7%), and Corona Extra (12.4%) round out the top 10.
Notably, no light beers are represented in the top five, with Bud Light ranking highest among light beers at seventh.
Top 10 ready-to-drink/seltzer brands in the U.S. 2026
Mike’s Hard Lemonade leads RTD and seltzer consideration at 15.4%, which is the sixth highest score overall.
White Claw ranks second at 11.2%, followed by Smirnoff Spiked Seltzer (7.3%), Truly Hard Seltzer (6.5%) and BuzzBallz at 6.0%.
The rest of the top 10 includes Simply Spiked Lemonade (5.9%), High Noon (5.2%), Cutwater (4.9%), Bud Light Seltzer (3.6%), and Corona Hard Seltzer (3.5%).
Top 10 spirit brands in the U.S. 2026
Baileys leads the spirits ranking at 18.3%. Jack Daniel’s, Brown-Forman’s Tennessee whiskey brand, follows closely at 18.0%.
Smirnoff ranks third at 17.0%, followed by Bacardi at 15.0% and Crown Royal at 14.9%.
The top 10 also includes Tito’s (13.6%), Captain Morgan (12.9%), Grey Goose (12.3%), 1800 Tequila (10.9%), and Patron (10.9%).
Spirits brands are especially prominent near the top of the overall ranking. Baileys, Jack Daniel’s, Smirnoff, Bacardi, and Crown Royal all appear in the overall top 10.
Which alcoholic beverage brands improved most year-over-year?
In this top 10, four tequila brands are featured, with Don Julio, the Jalisco-rooted tequila brand, records the largest year-over-year gain in consumer consideration, rising 2.7 percentage points from 6.8% to 9.4%. Cutwater, the canned cocktail brand, follows with a 2.6-point gain, moving from 2.3% to 4.9%.
BuzzBallz ranks third among improvers, rising 1.6 points to 6.0%. Michelob ULTRA follows with a 1.5-point gain, while 1800 Tequila and Jose Cuervo each improved by 1.3 points.
The rest of the improvers list includes Patron (+1.1 points), Tito’s (+1.0 points), Crown Royal (+0.9 points), and Aperol (+0.8 points).
Which brands stand out on value and quality?
Using YouGov BrandIndex, we compared perceptions of value and quality among the 25 most considered alcoholic beverage brands in the U.S. Both metrics are reported as net scores, reflecting the balance of positive and negative consumer perceptions overall.
Among the 25 most considered alcoholic beverage brands, Jack Daniel’s records the highest Value score at 20.0, which combines with its third place ranking in the consideration rankings. Smirnoff follows at 18.3, ahead of Bacardi (17.2) and Baileys at 15.1.
Looking at quality perception, Guinness leads with a net score of 33.2, narrowly ahead of Jack Daniel’s at 33.1. Heineken follows at 32.8, while Crown Royal records 32.2 and Grey Goose records 30.3.
Methodology
This article draws on YouGov BrandIndex data collected among U.S. adults aged 21+ from September 1, 2025 to August 31, 2026.
Consideration is the percentage of respondents who say they would consider a brand the next time they are in the market to purchase from the relevant alcoholic beverage category. Value and Quality are reported as net scores.
The overall ranking and Value/Quality analysis use U.S. adults aged 21+ with n>13,190.
The biggest-improvers ranking compares September 1, 2024 to August 31, 2025 with September 1, 2025 to August 31, 2026. The audience base is U.S. adults aged 21+, n>13,680 for 2026 and n>13,700 for 2025.
Non-alcoholic beer alternatives that are tracked in BrandIndex were eligible for this ranking.
Figures are rounded to one decimal place. Year-over-year change is calculated as current-period percentage minus previous-period percentage and shown in percentage points.
Disclosure: The data analysis in this article was conducted by YouGov with the assistance of AI tools.
About YouGov BrandIndex
YouGov BrandIndex is an always-on brand tracking tool that measures consumer perceptions of thousands of brands across sectors and markets. It helps marketers monitor brand health, benchmark competitors, identify audience-specific strengths and weaknesses, and understand how perceptions change over time.
Explore more beverage brand data
This ranking is one view of the broader alcoholic beverage data available in YouGov BrandIndex. Additional analysis can compare brands across competitors, audiences, time periods, and other brand-health measures.
Request an alcoholic beverage brand briefing to explore how consideration, Value, Quality, and other BrandIndex metrics vary across the competitors and audiences that matter most.
