Features

Pre-rolls to become top cannabis seller, report predicts

Published on March 7, 2025 by Pat Bulmer

Photo: David Wylie/the oz.

Pre-rolls will overtake flower as the No. 1 selling cannabis category in 2025 in Canada, a new report predicts.

The 2024 Canadian Pre-Roll Market Report was prepared for pre-roll supply company Custom Cones USA. The report uses data collected by Headset, which gathers sales statistics from more than 3,500 retailers.

While the cannabis market is plateauing in Canada, pre-roll sales continue to grow slightly, the report said.

“Despite a drop in overall cannabis revenue in the Canadian market in 2024, pre-roll sales continued to grow, helping balance losses in other product categories, and are poised to become the top sales category in the country, eclipsing even flower, with multi-packs driving growth,” the report said.

That change at the top will happen this year.

“With the cannabis market maturing, pre-rolls have proven to be the strongest and most adaptable category,” said Harrison Bard, co-founder and CEO of Custom Cones, in a news release. “Consumers are choosing convenience, consistency, and quality—especially in Canada, where multi-packs and infused options are driving sales. If these trends continue, 2025 will mark the first full year that pre-rolls dominate the Canadian market.”

The report said the Canadian cannabis market has topped out.

“The Canadian cannabis market is transitioning from a rapid expansion to stabilizing maturity, with revenue dropping for the first time in the national legal market’s history and unit sales dropping 0.5% as well.”

Pre-rolls were the top sellers in Canada for six months of last year, and finished the year only 0.25% behind flower as the dominant category with an $11 million gap in sales, the report said.

Pre-roll sales grew by 5.6% last year in Alberta. Saskatchewan’s increase was 9.5%. Sales growth was smaller in B.C. and dropped slightly in Ontario.

Overall, the sales increase in Canada at 1.24% was small, but sales in other cannabis categories, including flower, declined, the report said.

“Only edibles and vape pens saw larger unit sales increases in 2024 over the previous year,” although edibles revenues were down, the report said.

“Growth in the pre-roll market in 2024 was led by the hybrid–single strain segment with sales increasing 8.3%, totalling more than $37 million. Infused/connoisseur products also grew 6.5%, more than $27 million. Mixed strain products saw the highest YoY (year over year) jump in sales at 19%, but with a smaller market share,” the report said.

“Looking at the top 50 products of 2024, 23 were infused … another 17 were hybrids, up two from last year. indica remains stable at five products, while sativa products lost half of their presence in the top 50, falling to just five products.”

Pre-roll sales are higher in warmer months, the data showed.

General Admission is the top pre-roll brand in Canada, the report said, followed by Shred, Black Forty Cannabis, Jeeter and Redecan.

Canadians like their pre-rolls in multi-packs. Multi-packs garnered 85% of the Canadian pre-roll market share, compared to about 50% in the U.S.

“Of the top 50 products sold in the Canadian pre-roll market, 96% were multi-packs. Only two individual pre-rolls landed in the top 50.”

Headset data also showed that in the latter half of 2024, 444 pre-roll products were released into the market. Flower came second with 425 new products (38.6%) followed by vape pens at 141. Concentrates, edibles and beverages followed with a combined 84 new products.

In 2023, there were 3,548 pre-roll products on the market throughout the year; in 2024 that number grew to 4,640.

The average item price for pre-rolls in Canada was $18.43. Alberta’s prices were about the same as the Canadian average. B.C. was higher at $19.31. In Ontario pre-rolls sold for an average price of $18.12, the report said.