Bud Light Fails To Place In Top Ten Beer Brands As Sales Continue To Disappoint

The former number-one beer brand in America, Bud Light, got some bad news after a recent survey showed that it managed to drop from not just first place in sales, but entirely out of the rankings of the top ten beer brands in America entirely. 

Bud Light and parent company Anheuser-Busch have been reeling since their catastrophic partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney after the company sent him a custom can to celebrate his ‘365 Days of Womanhood.’ The move resulted in a record boycott against the American beer company causing millions of dollars in lost sales and massive brand damage, per DC Enquirer.

A week back, Mulvaney himself made his first message related to the beer brand since their initial partnership, bashing the brand for not properly backing the biological male during “more bullying and more harassment than [he] could’ve ever imagined,” as reported by the DC Enquirer. 

Recent reports also show that the brand is down nearly 30 percent in sales compared to the same time last year, per the DC Enquirer. The drop in sales represents millions per week that are being lost and could show even more in yearly reporting. 

A survey done by YouGov for the second quarter of 2023 asked 1,468 Americans what beer brands they thought positively and negatively of. The survey found that the most popular brands were Guinness, Corona, and Heineken when it comes to positive opinions.

Bud Light sits lower, in fourteenth place alongside brands like Pabst Blue Ribbon, Miller Genuine Draft, and Miller Lite, all of which are tied with the boycotted beer brand. It is worth noting that Bud Light ranks higher in favorability than Modelo, the new best-selling beer in America, according to the YouGov survey. 

The sister brand of Bud Light, Budweiser, was able to maintain its place among the top ten, sitting at sixth place, while another Anheuser-Busch-owned brand, Stella Artois, barely held on at ninth place. 

The popularity ranking seems to not have a major effect on sales, with many high-ranking beers not having the highest sales and vice versa, but it does serve as another hit on Bud Light’s ego. The low popularity score paints a grim picture of the brand's path to recovery, showing that it doesn’t just need to find a way to get sales up but to also improve its image among its consumers.