The FIFA men’s World Cup kicks off today and that means many Mexicans will be having their first World Cup beer of the 23rd edition of the tournament.
We reported last month that beer sales in Mexico are expected to spike during the 39-day tournament. Sales are likely to be particularly strong when the Mexican national team is playing, as is the case today.
In that context, we decided to make beer the focus of this week’s “Mexico in Numbers” article.
While buying a beer at an OXXO, supermarket or corner store is a simple exercise in Mexico, we found that reliable, up-to-date data related to the country’s favorite alcoholic beverage was harder to come by.
Nevertheless, we managed to compile a range of cerveza-related numbers, a selection of which are presented below. ¡Salud!
Mexico’s favorite beer is …
In a poll conducted in February, the company Gobernarte asked 1,500 people in Mexico which beer they drink most frequently.
Corona Extra — an iconic Mexican beer that celebrated its 100th birthday last year — was the clear winner, with 36.1% of those polled saying that it was the beer they consumed the most.
Victoria ranked as the second most popular beer, with 27.6% of respondents saying that the Grupo Modelo-produced brew was their go-to.
Ranking third to fifth were Tecate Original (15.5%), Modelo Especial (8.6%) and Michelob Ultra (8.5%).
Beer is the favorite alcoholic beverage of most Mexicans
According to a 2025 investigation by the media outlet Polls MX, beer — known colloquially as chela and cheve in Mexico — is the favorite alcoholic beverage of 69% of adult Mexicans.
Citing its own research as well as data from Deloitte, Kirin, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Bank of Mexico and the Beer Institute, Polls MX also reported last year that 15% of Mexican beer drinkers prefer to drink from cans, and that per capita beer consumption in Mexico was 79.8 liters per year.
From coronitas to caguamones
Bottled and canned beer comes in various sizes in Mexico. Here is a brief guide to those different sizes and their names (or colloquial names) in Mexico.
Bottled beer
- 210-ml bottles: Corona Extra and Victoria are both sold in bottles of this size. Small bottles of Corona are called Coronitas (little Coronas). Other brands are also sold in similarly-sized small bottles. One example is Tecate Light, branded as Tecatita Light. Small bottles of beer are also known as ampolletas (vials) and cuartitos.
- 355-ml bottles: This is the standard size of bottled beer in Mexico. A bottle of this size is called media or simply a botella.
- 940-ml bottles: Bottles of this size are colloquially called caguamas or ballenas in Mexico. Bottles of this size are also known as “tamaño familiar” (family size). The name caguama comes from the bottle’s supposed similarity to a loggerhead turtle, which is known in Mexico as a caguama. In some parts of the country, beer bottles of this size are called ballenas (whales), due to their supposed similarity to the large marine mammals.
- 1.2-liter bottles: Bottles of this size are colloquially known as caguamones. That’s right, the word caguamón refers to a large loggerhead turtle.
Canned beer
- 355-ml cans: This is the standard size of canned beer in Mexico. A can of this size is simply called a lata (can).
- 473-ml cans: Cans of this size are often called latones (large cans).
- 710-ml cans: These even larger cans of beer are also known as latones.
Mexico’s beer exports
Mexico is the world’s largest beer exporter and one of the top five producers of the beverage.
In 2024, Mexico’s beer exports were worth US $6.72 billion, an increase of 9.1% compared to the previous year.
Mexico’s revenue from beer exports in 2024 was more than triple that of the Netherlands, which ranked as the second biggest beer exporter that year.
Mexico’s biggest brewers are owned by foreign companies
Mexico’s beer market is dominated by two players: Grupo Modelo, which makes Corona, Victoria and Modelo Especial, among other beers, and Heineken México, which produces Tecate, Dos Equis and Indio, among other beers.
Anheuser Busch InBev, a Belgium-based company that is the world’s biggest brewer, bought Grupo Modelo in 2013 for US $20.1 billion.
Heineken, a Dutch company, acquired the Monterrey-headquartered Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery from the Mexican company FEMSA in a $7.6 billion deal in 2010.
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