.svg){kind=small}
May-2026
Sales
Trend
6-Month
Product Count
SKUs
Avg Price
YoY Sales Change
YoY Price Change
Market Insights Snapshot
In May 2026, (the) Essence concentrated 41.69% of sales in Flower and 35.43% in Vapor Pens, while Pre-Roll accounted for 20.51%, signaling a three-category core where Flower led despite a 47.44% year-over-year decline and a 9.28% month-over-month lift. Vapor Pens fell 65.68% year over year but rose 3.45% month over month, whereas Pre-Roll slid 60.53% year over year and dropped 16.61% month over month, pushing mix away from Pre-Roll on a sequential basis. At the margins, Concentrates held 2.05% share with a 46.33% year-over-year decline but a 15.59% month-over-month rise, and Edible shrank to 0.32% share with an 87.27% year-over-year drop and a 40.29% month-over-month decline. With average price up 10.19% year over year to $31.30 and Flower priced at $45.72, the pattern implies reliance on higher-ticket Flower to stabilize near-term volume while Pre-Roll weakness and Edible attrition compress the accessible-entry segment.
The mix shifts imply (the) Essence is tilting toward a premium-leaning, inhalables-first stance, as Flower’s 9.28% month-over-month rebound and Vapor Pens’ 3.45% sequential gain offset a 16.61% Pre-Roll contraction and an 87.27% year-over-year Edible decline; this reweights the portfolio toward categories where price elasticity may be tighter alongside a 10.19% average price increase. With Concentrates growing 15.59% month over month from a 2.05% share base and Pre-Roll losing share on a sequential basis within a 20.51% slice, the brand’s pathway favors depth in Flower and selective recovery in concentrates rather than breadth across lower-price formats. In Ohio Flower, the brand’s rank at 21 and a 47.44% year-over-year Flower decline suggest that sustaining position will depend on converting the month-over-month Flower uptick and protecting Vapor Pens’ 35.43% share contribution, implying a focus on higher-velocity SKUs in core inhalables rather than rebuilding lagging Edible and Pre-Roll lines.
Competitive Landscape
(the) Essence sits at rank #21 in Ohio Flower in May 2026, improving 14 positions from #35 year over year while slipping 1 spot from #20 over the last three months; the brand’s peak of #18 in March 2026 frames a near-term downtick of 3 ranks even as the annual trajectory is upward. Against incumbents, Riviera Creek holds #1 despite a 10.1% year-over-year sales decline and RYTHM advanced from #7 to #2 with 49.2% growth, indicating that (the) Essence’s climb of 14 ranks year over year coexists with faster-moving leaders and a tightening gap only if quarterly slippage is contained; the pattern implies momentum is accumulating on a long horizon but near-term share capture will require converting the March 2026 peak into sustained top-20 stability as competitors accelerate.
Notable Products
J's - Modified Grapes Pre-Roll (1g) posted the steepest movement in May 2026 with a -15.9% month-over-month decline while sitting at rank 4, contrasting with Hyphen - Bombsicle Distillate Cartridge (1g) up 14.8% at rank 5. Hyphen - Strawberry Cough Distillate Cartridge (1g) added 7.1% MoM while holding rank 3, and the category mix shows concentration with six of the top ten in Pre-Roll and three in Vapor Pens. This pattern implies the portfolio is tilting toward higher-velocity Vapor Pens for stability while single-strain Pre-Rolls face sharper volatility, nudging assortment and inventory bets toward cartridges over one-gram joints.
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.
