The Most Popular Merch in Every Country [MAP]

A piece of branded merchandise is a gift that keeps on giving.

For the consumer, merch is a way to express their identity, pledge allegiance to brands they align with and connect with like-minded fans.

For your brand, the value of merch continues long past the moment of sale. A loved garment with a loved logo consolidates customer loyalty and transforms your customer into an accidental influencer, spreading brand recognition wherever they wear your shirt.

And these days it’s easy to do. Thanks to services such as Amazon Merch on Demand, anyone with the rights to a recognisable piece of intellectual property can easily sell branded items such as T-shirts, tote bags and mugs to capitalise on their popularity. Unlikely icons such as Aldi, Greggs and Marmite have proven that a business doesn’t need to be “cool” to be stylish — or to cultivate affection (and free publicity) from their customer base.

Whether you run a café, a yoga studio or a YouTube channel, it’s worth a look at how the world’s most successful merchandisers do it before you upload your logo and start getting arty. So, Merchant Machine analysed consumer search data to find the most popular merch in every country.

Sections

Key Findings

BTS merchandise is the most popular in 30 countries, more than any other brand.
Taylor Swift merchandise is the most popular in the U.S.
Merchandise from Stranger Things is the most popular in the UK.

Mapping the Most Popular Merch in Every Country

We found that consumers in the majority of countries search most fervently for foreign brands. South Korean merch is the hottest of all. Merch for the Korean boyband BTS is the most popular in 30 countries, eclipsing second-placed brand Disguised Toast, a Taiwanese-Canadian YouTuber who is top in 17 countries.

Click to open the world map in full size

In 2021, BTS generated half a per cent — $5 billion — of South Korea’s entire economy. And merchandise accounts for 32.5% of their record label’s revenue. By comparison, that figure for Universal Music Group is more like 2%. The Korean music industry invests heavily in the relationship between bands and fans and churns out new products regularly and strategically.

“Social media platforms [are] made explicitly to facilitate increased K-pop artist and fan interactions are also substantial sources of income,” explains Ingrid Chan for Music Business Journal. “They encourage fans to develop stronger emotional bonds with their idols and include the constant peripheral presence of K-pop merchandise and digital products.”

The Most Popular Merch in Every European Country

The most popular merch in the UK is for Mexican YouTuber Quackity. The UK shares this favourite with four other European countries and Bahrain in the Middle East.

As well as pairing with known brands, Quackity — real name Alexis “Alex” Maldonado — has produced short-run series of merch, such as his Las Nevadas line, which included tags, poker chips and card decks alongside hoodies and other clothing.

In turn, the UK’s Harry Styles produces the most popular merch in 15 countries, including nine in Europe. This makes Harry Styles merch the third most popular in the world and number one in Europe — where France, Germany and Croatia are among the most devoted fans.

Recent merch has been inspired by the ‘4 Houses’ iconography from his live tour. A Harry Styles pop-up opened in Selfridges London ahead of Christmas 2023 to promote products made by Styles’ perfume and clothing brand, Pleasing. At the same time, an Etsy shop selling unofficial Styles-inspired merch was shut down without warning for using his brand without permission.

The Most Popular Merch in Every North American Country

Bad Bunny is the top choice for merch in North America. The Puerto Rican rapper is most popular in Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Honduras and Panama. Bunny’s merch is often based on his famous heart logo and ranges from slippers to crochet dolls to air fresheners. However, the latest merch is cowboy-themed, including a limited edition Adidas sneaker that was initially released “exclusively at horse and Western attire shops in Puerto Rico, Spain, Mexico, and the U.S.”

Taylor Swift merch is the most popular in the U.S. Swift became a billionaire in 2023 and topped the official merch charts towards the end of the year, with fans searching for scrapbooks and friendship bracelets among the more popular T-shirts.

But Swifties with big ideas for merch should avoid infringing on her copyright. Amazon’s FAQs specifically remind vendors not to “use Taylor Swift’s name, picture or likeness on an Amazon Merch on Demand design, product name, brand name, keyword or product description unless you have express documented permission from Tay Tay.”

The Most Popular Merch in Every South American Country

YouTuber Quackity has the most popular line of merch in South America. He is joined by the Taiwanese-Canadian Disguised Toast, among the most popular streamers on the continent. However, musicians account for seven out of 12 of the most popular merch brands in these countries. The Argentinian singer and actress Martina Stoessel, better known as Tini, is number one in her home country.

Chile, where Disguised Toast merch is the most popular, has become the destination for vast amounts of unwanted second-hand clothing, creating a dumping site nearly the size of Central Park — drawing attention to the need for sustainable practices when embarking on a line of merch.

“People have no idea that when they see a tag that reads ‘polyester,’ in the end you are putting on a piece of petroleum,” explains Pamela Poo, director of Public Policy and Litigation at Santiago-based environmental organization Fundación Ecosur.

The Most Popular Merch in the Middle East and Central Asia

BTS merchandise is the most popular in five countries in this region. It is followed by merchandise for YouTuber Disguised Toast and the TV show Stranger Things, which are the most popular in four countries each.

Fans snapped up the early, sketch-based apparel that Disguised Toast created, but sales dropped after he adopted a more classical aesthetic. “I was not comfortable selling any product I myself wasn’t excited about,” said Toast (real name Jeremy Wang).

Disguised Toast rebranded at the end of 2023, with his recent merch not selling as well as his initial efforts. “There’s a tiny bit of good news. In the month of November, we actually made money. It wasn’t much, but hey. Having a month where I didn’t lose money is a huge win.”

The Most Popular Merch in the Rest of Asia and Oceania

Pet Simulator X is an incredibly popular series of games on the Roblox platform. Players collect and trade cute animated pets and unlock points and other rewards as they go. The game lends itself to merchandising thanks to its cuteness and addictive nature. Many Plushes have been produced, and despite their often high price tags, they sell well — the packs include download codes for digital versions of the hard-to-find pets. It is the most popular merch in Mongolia.

Elsewhere in the region, musicians as diverse as XXXTentacion, The 1975 and Kublai Khan can lay claim to being merch kings in one country or another. But it is BTS that is most popular of all, dominating in six countries.

The Most Popular Merch in Every African Country

BTS dominates our map of Africa as the most popular merch brand in 13 countries, including South Africa and Egypt. This is despite the band having neither visited Africa nor collaborated with an African artist. “Being an African K-pop stan just bores me sooo much,” says one Reddit user. “[W]e barely have any concerts, merchandise shops, fan calls, etc.”

Elsewhere on the continent, Stranger Things is the top merch in Zambia. But there nearly wasn’t any Stranger Things merchandise anywhere in the world. “You have to remember, when we made Stranger Things, we had no idea if anyone would watch it,” says executive producer Shawn Levy. “The weekend it opened, I’m seeing social media light up. I called Netflix and said, “You know, I think this is gonna be something. Maybe we should think about merchandise and other aspects.” I remember the answer from the Netflix exec was, “With all due respect, we’re in the subscription business.”

What is Amazon Merch on Demand? (And How Much Money Can You Make Selling Merch There?)

Amazon now makes it straightforward to begin producing your own merch, and since they manufacture it ‘on demand,’ there is no need to maintain expensive or space-consuming inventory.

If you can prove you have the right to produce merch for your brand, you can set up an account and upload your artwork to get going. Amazon takes care of production, shipping and customer service. And since it’s Amazon, your merch can be easily found by millions of customers — and Prime subscribers can get it with Prime shipping.

That just leaves you to collect your royalty payments and cook up your next big merch idea. Amazon calculates your royalties by subtracting costs, including materials, postage and taxes, where appropriate. So, the higher the price you set, the bigger your cut per sale. Here are some examples of how much you could earn selling merch on Amazon:

Type of Product	Cheapest purchase price in GBP (USD)	Royalties in GBP (USD)	Most expensive purchase price in GBP (USD)	Royalties in GBP (USD)
Standard T-Shirt	£14.99 ($15.99)	£1.92 ($1.93)	£17.49 ($25.99)	£3.57 ($9.32)
Pullover Hoodie	£28.99 ($29.99)	£2.15 ($3.57)	£33.99 ($39.99)	£5.36 ($10.78)
Tank Top	£14.99 ($17.99)	£1.01 ($2.07)	£19.99 ($22.99)	£4.17 ($5.89)
Raglan	£17.99 ($21.99)	£2.25 ($2.36)	£22.99 ($26.99)	£5.58 ($6.03)
PopSockets Grip	£9.99 ($12.99)	£1.17 ($1.82)	£14.99 ($15.49)	£1.75 ($2.17)
Phone Case	£13.99 ($14.99)	£1.75 ($0.80)	£15.99 ($19.99)	£2.00 ($4.28)

And here are five tips for when you’re getting started:

Focus on your photography. If you’re not an expert, hire someone who knows how to use light and framing to make your products pop. The same goes for any graphic design your merch will feature.
Find your niche. Not every business should produce every category of merchandise. Choose apparel or other products that make sense for your brand — and your target customer.
Comply with copyright and trademark rules. Trademarks can include not just names and logos but quotes, imagery and even common day-to-day phrases.
Promote your merch off of Amazon. Use your social media channels, SEO and bricks-and-mortar premises to draw attention to your products.
Ask for help. Plenty of small business owners are out there doing the same thing — check Facebook groups and Reddit discussions for inspiration, inside tips and technical support.

In an age of fast fashion and mountains of dead stock, it’s reassuring to be able to easily produce branded merch on demand — especially when you don’t know how it will sell. But it is worth researching the materials used to produce your merch, whatever platform you use, both to protect the environment and your reputation as an eco-friendly business. If you’re not satisfied that your merch platform of choice lives up to your ideals, there are plenty of alternative merch-on-demand options to consider.

Methodology

We identified each country’s top merchandise search term using Ahrefs’s Keyword Explorer. This was done by inputting the “merch” search term and manually isolating the highest-ranking related term under the “matching terms” section.