Skip to Main Content

Vapor Pen Sales Up While Prices Go Down

Vapor pens continue to be one of the most popular categories in cannabis, especially with younger generations and particularly Generation Z.

According to a new Headset report, vape pens are the third most popular category in Canada and second most popular in the US, capturing 17.1% and 23.6% market share respectively. However, in Canada this is a distant third place to Flower (40.7%) and Pre-Rolls (26.4%), though a strong third compared to the market’s fourth largest category Edibles (5.9%).

Vape pens are growing in both total sales and market share across most markets in North America, with the exception of Oregon, Maryland, and Michigan. But prices have fallen significantly in both the United States and Canada.

Let’s look at how the sales breakdown.

Vapor Pens Market Share by Market

In Canada, vape pen popularity varies significantly by province. For instance, vape pens are most popular in Saskatchewan, capturing 23.5% of total sales in 2022, 57.1% higher than the 15% total sales captured in British Columbia.

Newfoundland is not included in this data, but the ban on cannabis vaporizer sales in the province was finally removed in December 2022.

Market Share Over Time

Vape pens in Canada and the US are growing, but category growth in Canada hasn’t been linear or fast. Between January 2021 and December 2022, the category market share increased 3.1% in Canada compared to 7% in the US. In 2022, Canada and the US saw an 8.3% and 23.3% increase respectively in share of total sales for vape pens.

Brand and Product Growth

While category growth may be slow and steady, the number of vape pen brands available in the Canadian market has increased quickly.

Between 2021 and 2022, brand count increased by 84.5% and grew by an additional 55% over the following year. In 2023, Headset suggests brand count will continue to grow, but at a lower rate.

With respect to product growth, there has been an 89.2% increase in vape pen products since January 2021 and a 14.4% increase during 2022. As brand growth seems to be levelling off, there are likely to be fewer new product launches in 2023.

Popular Products

Cartridges are the top vape pen segment in Canada and the US, representing 93.3% of all sales across Canada.

In both countries, the 1-gram cartridge is the most popular package size, capturing nearly 70% of total vape pen sales. The half gram package size and 0.95-gram pack size capture 11.1% and 10.4% of sales, respectively, in Canada.

Pricing

Prices are falling across all cannabis markets and categories, albeit at a slower rate for vape pens in Canada. In 2021, the price per gram fell by 35.6% to $46.91. In 2022, the price continued to fall but at a reduced rate of 15%, ending the year at $38.66.

Despite falling prices and a tough economy, vape pens remain a ‘resilient’ product category and are likely to see continued growth in the future, particularly as a younger generation of consumers matures into the market.

Tags: cannabis market share (3), Gen Z (26), Headset (41), vape pens (6), vapor pens (1)