Nicotine Pouches and Who's Leading
Nicotine pouches are taking a much larger role in the U.S. oral tobacco market as the category continues to shift toward the Nicotine Pouch format. In the second quarter of 2026, the overall nicotine pouch category accounted for 59.9% of the oral tobacco category, up 8.1 percentage points year over year and 1.8 points sequentially.
So, who is leading this trend?
Philip Morris International Inc. PMI (PM), reported ZYN U.S. shipments of 2.9 billion pouches, up 1.8% year over year, while ZYN retained around 57% retail value share. Philip Morris also broadened the portfolio with ZYN ULTRA and additional strength and flavor variants.
Turning Point Brands, Inc. (TPB), distributors of ALP and FRE are also benefiting from the shift toward nicotine pouches with Modern Oral reaching 48% of Turning Point Brands’ net sales, the category reported $68.4 million in second-quarter 2026, up 128% year over year.
And,
Altria’s On! brand, Altria Group, Inc.
(MO), improved its position during the quarter. Its share of the total oral tobacco category reached 8.6%, up 0.3 percentage points year over year and 0.8 points sequentially. MO’s share of the nicotine pouch category was 14.4%, down 1.7 points year over year but up 1 point sequentially. On! reported second-quarter volume of 49.9 million cans, down 4.2% from a year earlier due to trade inventory movements. First half volume, however, rose 5.1% to 96.1 million cans as on! PLUS expanded nationally. Estimated retail takeaway volume increased to 47.2 million cans in the second quarter from 40.8 million in the first quarter.
So, with PMI's ZYN leading the pack with a more than 43% dominating lead, ONE would think that Altria would focus ON brand diversity and increasing their brand awareness through the addition of next generation, alternative, oral tobacco, nicotine SKU's such as VaporEFX', Sublingual Oral Spray (as an example) to broaden their On! and On!+ appeal and brand visibility to consumers globally; or perhaps Altria's On! is waiting for ALP to take the lead...
Important Note:
Data from large-scale youth studies (such as the TEEN+ Study by the CDC Foundation) indicate that nicotine pouch use among youth and young adults nearly quadrupled between 2022 and 2025. Past-30-day use among 10th-to-12th grade teens jumped from 3.0% in 2023 to 5.4% in 2024. High school use specifically doubled from 1.3% to 2.6% in that same timeframe.
OUR MISSION:
At Air2, we believe there is a better way to achieve true, methodical nicotine reduction and reduce greatly the risks associated with smoking cigarettes and vaping harmful chemicals. VaporEFX - Air2vapor Website.
