April 20th is the most popular day of the year for cannabis consumption, with the date serving as the annual day of celebration for the global cannabis movement, particularly in the United States where the tradition is reported to have started in the 1970s.
Every year licensed cannabis retailers across the country try to gain their share of sales via various promotions and deals, and every April 20th cannabis consumers frequent dispensaries to load up on discounted products.
Thanks in large part to seed-to-sale tracking requirements and data released by point-of-sale cannabis industry service providers, there is a considerable amount of data available regarding U.S. 4/20 sales figures and statistics from 2024.
According to initial reporting by Forbes, “Jane Technologies, an e-commerce and POS platform serving more than 2,500 dispensaries and brands across 39 U.S. states as well as Canada, reported record sales in some markets. Leading the pack was Illinois, with total sales at retailers utilizing Jane’s technology totaling $4,494,973.86. Total transactions for this year came in at 245,926, representing a 1.67% increase over the 2023 figures of 241,877 and a 13.74% increase over total transactions on April 19 of 216,208, the company reported on Monday.”
“Jane reported that the top five cannabis brands on April 20 were RYTHM, Shine, STIIIZY, Savvy and Float. Cannabis flower led as the top product type with nearly $9.4 million in sales, followed by weed vapes with more than $6.2 million. Pot edibles rounded out the top three product types, with more than $3.2 million in 4/20 sales.” Forbes also stated in its coverage.
“Despite a minor 8% decrease from 2023’s sales on the same day, the combined total for 4/19 and 4/20 reached a record $45,708,937.34, up 14.32% from the previous highest two-day total.” Benzinga reported regarding Jane Technologies’ total sales processing for the two-day period.
“Sales figures from California and Colorado also highlighted significant market activity, with California recording $2,271,390.97 in sales and Colorado bringing in $671,307.73.” Benzinga also reported.
Forbes also listed sales data from point-of-sale service provider Treez in its coverage, which experienced a 120% increase in customers on 4/20 of this year compared to 2023. Additionally, on April 19th of this year dispensaries using Treez’s technology experienced a 200% increase in customers, products, and gross sales compared to last year.
“In 2024, cannabis flower and pre-rolled joints tied for first place rankings, according to data shared by the company, with each product type generating 25% of total sales, or a commanding 50% of the total market between them” Forbes stated in its reporting.
Point-of-sale service provider Dutchie, which experienced outages on April 20th, still posted some impressive numbers.
“This year’s 4/20 was a record setting day for the majority of Dutchie powered dispensaries. Our systems powered over 2 million transactions, representing $165 Million dollars in retail commerce – a 50% increase from 2023 4/20.” stated Dutchie CTO Chris Ostrowski according to initial reporting by Talking Joints Memo.
According to Benzinga’s coverage, online cannabis dispensary resource Weedmaps reported that “the average price of vape pens decreased by 16% since 2021, and edibles saw a 21% reduction” on April 20th this year compared to 2021.
“Conversely, the average price of flowers on Weedmaps experienced a 5% year-over-year increase from 2023, although it remained 10% below 2021 levels.” Benzinga also stated about data provided by Weedmaps. Weedmaps also found that 72% of 4/20 sales were ‘brand verified,’ indicating that consumers preferred established brands more this year than in years past.
Cannabiz Media recently conducted an analysis to determine which point-0f-sale service providers had the largest market share in the United States’ emerging legal cannabis industry.
“The Cannabiz Media research team made approximately 37,000 outbound phone calls to survey U.S. and Canadian stores about their current POS software use, ultimately surveying 6,151 stores in the course of its research.” the company stated in a press release about its methodology.
“In 2024, the top five POS software vendors in the U.S. cannabis industry are 1) Dutchie, 2) BioTrack, 3) Flowhub, 4) MJ Freeway, and 5) Magestore, who is new to the leaderboard. In the top spot, Dutchie collectively holds 34.5% of the U.S. market share. By comparison, in Canada Cova leads the market upholding its 45% share, followed by Blaze/Greenline with 25%. Only 15 providers operate in both the U.S. and Canada.” Cannabiz Media stated.
“The point-of-sale software market in the cannabis industry is more concentrated than ever,” says Ed Keating, Cannabiz Media’s co-founder, Chief Data Officer, and author of this report. “The total number of U.S. providers dropped to 71, down from 79 in the year prior. And the top five providers account for a whopping 67% of the market share, showcasing the stronghold of just a select few players.”
“We found 278 U.S. license holders switched POS software vendors, which was up from the 222 switches we tracked in 2022,” shares Keating.
Cannabis sales in the United States are expected to reach $31.4 billion in 2024 according to a recent analysis by Whitney Economics. Additionally, leading cannabis jobs platform Vangst, in conjunction with Whitney Economics, estimates that the legal cannabis industry now supports 440,445 full time-equivalent cannabis jobs in the United States.
Whitney Economics also projects the following legal cannabis sales figures in the United States for the coming years:
- 2024: $31.4 billion (9.1% growth from 2023)
- 2025: $35.2 billion (12.1% growth from 2024)
- 2030: $67.2 billion
- 2035: $87.0 billion