The Whiskey Wash Now World’s Most Visited* Whiskey Website

The Whiskey Wash has achieved a major milestone, becoming the world’s biggest* editorial whiskey website with 2.5 million annual readers (SEMrush, 2024). This reflects our unwavering commitment to comprehensive whiskey coverage.

Over the past decade, The Whiskey Wash has amassed a collection of over 11,000 articles, including 2,500 detailed whiskey reviews. This extensive library covers a wide range of topics, from in-depth explorations of bourbon and scotch to insights into emerging world whiskeys. Our aim has always been to create a comprehensive online resource for whiskey enthusiasts, and this milestone signifies the realization of that vision.

*With 2.5 million annual readers (SEMrush, 2024), The Whiskey Wash is the world’s most visited editorial whiskey website, providing comprehensive coverage across all whiskey categories. This excludes database/wiki sites like Whiskybase and single-category specialists like Breaking Bourbon, focusing instead on fully-editorial websites covering the complete whiskey landscape.

Breaking Down the Numbers

SEMrush traffic data from January to December 2024 reveals an insightful picture of the whiskey media landscape. The numbers show The Whiskey Wash reaching 2.5 million annual visitors, positioning us as the largest editorial whiskey website globally.

Let’s break down the larger landscape to add clarity. Whiskybase leads overall traffic to any whisky themed website, with 25 million annual visitors, but as a user-generated database platform, it operates in a different space and provides a different experience. Breaking Bourbon is second in overall traffic, with 6.8 million visitors, however they focus exclusively on bourbon coverage rather than the global whiskey landscape. Among comparable, comprehensive editorial whiskey websites, The Whiskey Wash leads, with 2.5 million visitors, followed by Whisky Advocate (2 million), Bottle Raiders (1.2 million), and Whisky.com (1 million).

A note on methodology: We’ve used SEMrush data as our benchmark. While no third-party analytics tool is perfect, SEMrush provides a consistent measurement across all sites, creating a level playing field for comparison. Direct analytics access for every whiskey website isn’t feasible, making SEMrush the most reliable independent source for comparative analysis.

This data led us to interpret three distinct categories for whiskey themed websites:

• Database/Wiki platforms (like Whiskybase)
• Single-category specialists (like Breaking Bourbon)
• Comprehensive editorial websites (like The Whiskey Wash)

Among comprehensive editorial whiskey websites – those covering the entire whiskey landscape with original content – The Whiskey Wash leads the field as the largest comprehensive editorial whiskey website. Our position reflects both the breadth of our coverage and our commitment to serving whiskey enthusiasts across all categories and interests.

Building A Sustainable Future

While reaching this milestone, we made a significant choice in 2024 – running The Whiskey Wash entirely free of external advertising, focusing purely on reader experience. This decision, while challenging, reflected our commitment to independent, uncluttered whiskey journalism.

The media landscape in 2025 presents new challenges. The era of organic social media reach is effectively over, making it harder than ever for specialist publications to reach their audience. Yet these challenges also present opportunities. Our traffic growth proves that readers value authoritative, comprehensive coverage more than ever.

Looking ahead, we’re exploring sustainable ways to maintain our independence while growing our coverage. We welcome collaboration with brands who share our values of transparency and quality, and we’re always open to working with passionate writers who can bring fresh perspectives to whiskey journalism.

Our position as the largest editorial whiskey website comes with responsibility – to our readers, to whiskey culture, and to the broader spirits community. We’ll continue to put our readers first as we navigate this next chapter.

The Data