Bud Light Drops to No. 3 Beer Brand as It Fights To Recover From Boycott

Bud Light, once the U.S.’s longstanding beer sales leader, has dropped to No. 3 following a boycott of the brand that began last year, according to recent sales data. Modelo Especial remains at the top, while Michelob Ultra has taken the second spot.

The Wall Street Journal reported that NielsenIQ data, analyzed by the consulting firm Bump Williams, showed Bud Light “represented 6.5% of beer dollar sales in U.S. stores in the four weeks ended July 6, compared with 7.3% for Michelob Ultra and 9.7%” for No. 1 Modelo, a Mexican import sold by Constellation Brands. 

These four weeks include the Fourth of July holiday weekend, which “can heavily impact a beer brand’s yearly performance,” per the WSJ.

The drop for Bud Light follows a boycott after transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney posted an Instagram video last April about a personalized beer can that the brand had sent her as a gift, the WSJ reported. A month later, Bud Light fell from its spot as the U.S.’s top-selling beer.

Bud Light lost $1.4 billion in beer sales after the controversy, according to Forbes.

“Bud Light is still the #1 selling beer in the United States on a volume basis (cases) and has started to recover from the Dylan Mulvaney situation that occurred on April 1st of 2023,” Bump Williams shared in a statement to FOX Business. “While $ sales aren’t quite back into the ‘positive’ yet, the declines for the brand have improved dramatically and Retailer support continues to improve week after week.”

This news isn’t all bad for Bud Light’s brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, given that it also makes No. 2 Michelob Ultra. This beer in particular has succeeded, Bump Wiliams said, in part because of advertising, consumer acceptance, retail support, distributor execution, and a “focus and the thirst for ‘health & wellness and better for you refreshment.’”