In this study, Gaussian mixture model clustering analysis was carried out to examine characteristics of Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Dual‐frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR)‐retrieved mass‐weighted mean diameter (Dm), and normalized intercept parameter (Nw) of the drop size distribution (DSD) for heavy rainfalls (>10 mm h−1) for 6 years (2014–2019). Three objective DSD types – continental, oceanic deep, and oceanic shallow convective types – emerged. The means and standard deviations of Dm and Nw obtained for the three types are in good agreement with various ground‐based observations, indicating that global view of DSD characteristics can be obtained from DPR‐derived DSD parameters. Global distributions of occurrence and contribution of each DSD type to total heavy rainfall are produced for the first time, which will help examine the dominant DSD type, its contribution to total heavy rainfall, and composition of different convective types in the rainfall system at a given location. Plain Language Summary The surface rainfall is composed of a variety of spectrum of raindrops, which can be best represented by mean drop size and number concentration of droplets. Thus, those magnitude and shape may well describe rainfall‐related features such as convective type and associated atmospheric environments. Thus, information on the rain drop size distribution is important for improving the remote sensing capability or modeling the rainfall phenomena. From the analysis of satellite‐derived rain drop size distribution, it is noted that the heavy rainfall can be largely classified into three types – continental, oceanic deep, and oceanic shallow convective types. Satellite‐derived mean diameter and drop size distribution for heavy rain are found to be very consistent with ground observations from limited local areas, indicating that the global view of drop size distributions can be synthesized from the satellite observations. The newly obtained global features overcome the spatial limitations of existing studies using ground‐based observations. Furthermore, estimated contribution to the heavy rainfall from each classified type shows that a largest portion is from the oceanic deep convective type, and the oceanic shallow convective type contributes as much as the continental type. Key Points Global synthesis of drop size distributions for heavy rainfall using satellite‐borne radar measurements Three heavy rainfall types emerged – continental, oceanic deep, and oceanic shallow convective types Geographic distributions of occurrence frequencies and rain contributions of three types are presented