Pre-Roll Preferences by Generation

One of the keys in marketing any product, including pre-rolls, is knowing exactly who your audience is and who is buying the products.

Only then can you truly tailor your messaging to make sure it reaches the right buyers.

So let's take a deep dive into the generation gap in pre-rolls and find out exactly who is buying what.

Millennials: The Pre-Roll Generation

At the top level – and on any level, really – the generation that buys more pre-rolls, by far, is Millennials.

According to data from cannabis analytics firm Headset, Millennials account for a full 43.9% of pre-roll revenues and 43.1% of units sold, accounting for $1.6 billion in sales in 2025 on 164.6 million units sold.

Generation X follows with $857.3 million in revenue, or about 24.3%, and 95.7 million units, or about 25.1%

Gen Z is next, buying $696.6 million worth of pre-rolls (19.7%), or 73.9 million units (19.4%), with the Baby Boomers bringing up the rear at $427.7 million (12.1%) and 47.2 million units (12.4%).

The pre-roll purchasing percentages actually line up pretty well with the overall cannabis purchasing percentages, in that Millennials account for about 43.1% of all cannabis purchases and 43.9% of pre-rolls. Gen X also comes in slightly higher for pre-rolls than the overall cannabis industry, but Gen Z and Baby Boomers both come in slightly below their industry average.

Pre-Roll Segments by Generation

But while the overall pre-roll picture skews toward Millennials, the individual pre-roll segments show that the generations have their favorites. Each segment on its own is still dominated by the Millennial generation, but a deeper look at the data can show us which segments overperform or underperform relative to the category as a whole.

Infused Pre-Rolls

The pre-roll segment that brings in the most revenue is the infused segment, which combines a concentrate with flower for increased potency and flavor, as well as a higher average price point.

And while millennials still account for 43.2% of all infused revenues and 42.4% of infused units sold, it's Generation X that over-indexes in both categories, showing a preference for these higher-priced, higher-potency pre-rolls.

Generation X bought more than 37.2 million infused pre-roll units, nearly 26% of all infused products, totaling $416.4 million in revenue. That means that Gen X is buying more infused pre-rolls, not just spending more per unit, for these premium pre-rolls, which makes sense for a generation that – at this point – is pretty settled in and has some disposable income to spend on higher-end products.

Hybrid Pre-Roll Joints & Blunts

Turning to the hybrid segment, which moves more units than any other pre-roll segment by far, we return to the Millennials. That generation not only takes the top spot of revenue with $582.4 million (44.7% of segment) and units sold with 76 million units (43.5%), but it does so at a rate over-indexed to the category as a whole.

Gen X also over-performs here when it comes to unit sales, accounting for 43.3 million units or 24.8% that generated $307.5 million (23.6%). This tells us that Gen X is buying more volume, but at a lower price point.

Also worth noting is that Baby Boomers drastically under-index in this category, buying a lower percentage of hybrid pre-rolls than they do pre-rolls in general.

The Indica Pre-Roll Segment

The indica segment, which is regularly the third-place segment on both revenue and units sold, shapes up much like the category as a whole, with Millennials accounting for 44% of all revenue and 43.4% of all units sold.

Though again, it's worth noting that Gen X's unit sales share (25.2%) exceeds its revenue share (24%), indicating again that Gen Xers buy more of less expensive indica pre-rolls.

And much like hybrids and Boomers, Gen Z under-indexes its normal percentages in the category, buying a lower percentage of indica pre-roll products than pre-rolls in general.

Sativa Pre-Rolls

When it comes to sativa pre-rolls, Gen Z's performance flips the indica numbers. Once again, Millennials and Gen X take the top spots, but Gen Z under-indexes revenue while over-indexing on units, making sativa the category that Gen Zer's buy a lot of at lower price points.

It's also worth noting that this is the strongest category for Baby Boomers, though not by a lot.

Mixed Strain Per-Roll Joints

Despite taking the top spot in each segment and the category as a whole, the mixed strain segment is the most Millennial-skewed segment, accounting for 45.6% of revenue and 44.8% of units sold within the segment.

Interestingly, the mixed strain segment is also the one that Baby Boomers under-perform the most in, accounting for only 11% of revenues and 11.2% of units sold, indicating that variety packs are just not the way to get the attention of older pre-roll buyers.

Opportunity Within Pre-Roll Blunts

This is an underperforming segment in general because infused pre-roll blunts are figured into the infused segment rather than the blunt segment.

However, though small, there is nuance within the segment, including the strongest generational signal in the segment data: Gen Z over-indexes well above its normal positions when it comes to blunts, jumping Generation X to take the second spot in the category with 27.8% of revenue and 28% of units sold. That means they are not just spending more, but buying disproportionally more units.

Conversely, the Baby Boomers under-perform in the Blunt segment by its largest margin, only making up about 8% in both revenue and units. Considering the blunt's rise to popularity in the 1990s, this makes sense for a generation that learned to love cannabis well before the blunt became the staple we all know and love today.

And Lastly, CBD Pre-Rolls

The smallest segment in pre-rolls is the CBD segment, and once again Millennials take the top spot. Not only that, they over-perform in this category with 51.5% of the revenue and 48.3% of the units sold. That means millennials are paying premium prices for CBD pre-rolls.

Every other generation underperforms in the CBD category.

Pre-Roll Multi-Packs by Generation

One of the hottest trends in the pre-roll category is the multi-pack, which in 2025 accounted for 48.7% of all pre-roll products and a whooping 90 of the top 100 products. Multi-packs offer customers the opportunity to stock up on favorites, often at a reduced rate per pre-roll, with fewer trips to the dispensary.

Multi-packs also appeal across the generations, with each generation's percentage of multi-pack sales generally in line with their percentage of pre-roll sales, though there are some details worth mentioning.

For example, the older generations – Gen X and Baby Boomers – over-index in their percentage of multi-pack sales compared to their overall percentage of pre-rolls sales, while Gen Z slightly under-performs.

In fact, Baby Boomers spend the highest percentage of their pre-roll dollar on multi-packs at 42%, followed by Generation X at 41.5% and Millennials at 41.1%, while Gen Z only spends 38% of its pre-roll dollars on multi-packs.

Final Thoughts on the Pre-Roll Generation Gap

Though Millennials absolutely dominate the sales charts, the pre-roll is a product that appeals across every generational level, though some segments and packaging choices do better than others with each generation.

Gen Z, for example, buys sativas at a pace that outperforms its overall place in the category, though it buys them at lower price points, suggesting they place a premium on value. Baby Boomers also over-index on sativa, though not at the rate of Gen Z.

Generation X, on the other hand, spends more on premium categories, such as the infused segment, where they over perform on both revenue and units sold.

Finally, the blunt category is the most divisive, with Gen Z over-indexing by a large margin while Baby Boomers seem to stay away in droves.

Meanwhile, Boomers and X'ers spend a higher percentage of their pre-roll dollars on multi-packs.

In all, each segment has its own ups and downs, though in order for a brand to reach its full potential with buyers of all ages, it needs a pre-roll line that touches nearly every segment.

Contact the Pre-Roll Experts today to find out how you can build or scale your brand to reach every age group, including custom and designer pre-rolled cones that clearly indicate exactly what type of pre-roll you are producing.