As International Beer Day celebrated its 13th year (it was first celebrated in 2008 and is recognized annually on the first Friday of August), it is known as a global celebration of beer where brewers, pubs, and all around beer lovers rejoice and celebrate the industry and its brews.

However, when taking a step back to see where the majority of the production of beer comes from, it can be seen that the majority of beer production does in fact come from a few of the world’s biggest companies. Brands such as Anheuser Busch InBev, Heineken and Carlsberg have created and controlled hundreds of beer brands under their umbrellas, making it look like there are tons and tons of choices for consumers to choose from.

According to Brand Finance, four of the five top beer brands belong to the big guys — AB InBev, which owns world-famous brands such as Budweiser, Beck’s, Stella Artois, Leffe, Modelo and Corona.

What customers may not realize is that they can walk into a sole establishment, order five different beers without realizing that AB InBev was the sole provider of those beers. There is no doubt that the industry has seen a massive uptick in craft breweries over the years and continues to see vast growth for the industry, but unfortunately the reality is that the output is still second to these global providers. According to the Brewers Association, America’s 8,764 operating craft breweries produced 23 million barrels (around 27 million hectoliters) of beer in 2020. AB InBev produced nearly 17 times that according to official company figures tracked by hops specialist BarthHaas. Together, the six largest brewing groups accounted for roughly 60 percent of global beer production last year.

Chart stats & illustration courtesy of Statistica.