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Jun-2026
Sales
Trend
6-Month
Product Count
SKUs
Avg Price
YoY Sales Change
YoY Price Change
Market Insights Snapshot
In June 2026, (the) Essence’s mix concentrated in Flower at 43.24% share and Vapor Pens at 40.40% share, while Pre-Roll held 14.71%; all three contracted year over year, with Flower down 63.56% YoY and Vapor Pens down 71.34% YoY, and month over month with Flower down 35.84% MoM and Vapor Pens down 23.76% MoM. Peripheral categories retreated further, with Pre-Roll falling 78.35% YoY and 51.06% MoM, and Edible shrinking 94.72% YoY and 55.00% MoM, implying a portfolio that is consolidating into two core inhalable pillars as non-core lines shed share at an accelerating monthly pace.
Average price rose 11.46% YoY to $31.31 while total brand sales declined 70.27% YoY and 78.33% over 24 months, placing (the) Essence at rank 14 in Vapor Pens in Illinois where the brand’s top category skews. The combination of a higher price point alongside double-digit MoM declines in Flower (35.84%) and Pre-Roll (51.06%), versus a smaller MoM drop in Vapor Pens (23.76%), implies positioning is tilting toward mid-to-premium inhalables with Vapor Pens as the relatively steadier anchor, but price elasticity and distribution depth likely cap near-term share gains without targeted adjustments in the rank-14 lane.
Competitive Landscape
(the) Essence sits at rank 14 in June 2026, down 8 positions year over year from rank 6, and 3 positions below its March 2026 mark of rank 11; meanwhile, it is 10 spots off its historical peak of rank 4 reached in February 2025, while category leaders shifted less, with &Shine steady at rank 1 year over year despite a 12.7% sales decline and Select holding rank 2 with a 6.8% sales decline. Compared to Joos at rank 3 and RYTHM at rank 5, which maintained their prior-year positions, (the) Essence’s 8-rank drop alongside a 3-rank slide since March 2026 signals share is rotating toward stable incumbents rather than volatile climbers; the pattern implies that without a near-term reversal of the spring-to-summer rank erosion, the brand is likely to settle into a mid-teens position rather than reattain its February 2025 peak tier.
Notable Products
Hyphen - Pineapple Express Distillate Cartridge (1g) posted the steepest move in June 2026 with a -24.2% month-over-month decline and slid to rank 7, while Hyphen - Bombsicle Distillate Cartridge (1g) fell -13.4% at rank 3. Hyphen - Strawberry Cough Distillate Cartridge (1g) also contracted -18.0% at rank 2, and combined with ranks 3, 6, 7, and 8, Vapor Pens account for five of the top ten SKUs, indicating a category still central to the lineup despite tighter velocity. J's - Dead Headz Pre-Roll (1g) held rank 1 as a non-Vape anchor even as J's - Wedding Cake Pre-Roll (1g) sat at rank 9, suggesting Pre-Roll strength balancing Vape volatility. The pattern implies (the) Essence is leaning on breadth in Vapor Pens for scale while relying on a few stable Pre-Rolls to stabilize month-to-month swings.
Top Selling Cannabis Brands
Data for this report comes from real-time sales reporting by participating cannabis retailers via their point-of-sale systems, which are linked up with Headset’s business intelligence software. Headset’s data is very reliable, as it comes digitally direct from our partner retailers. However, the potential does exist for misreporting in the instance of duplicates, incorrectly classified products, inaccurate entry of products into point-of-sale systems, or even simple human error at the point of purchase. Thus, there is a slight margin of error to consider. Brands listed on this page are ranked in the top twenty within the market and product category by total retail sales volume.
