New Report: Nicotine Pouch Market Has Exploded with Big Marketing Push from Big Tobacco

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New STOP nicotine pouch brief examines the latest scientific evidence, sales data, industry tactics, risks to youth and concerns the industry is planting the seeds of a new epidemic.

(New York, USA, June 23, 2026): Sales of nicotine pouches are estimated to have grown by 660% globally since 2020 and are projected to reach US$25 billion by 2028, according to market data highlighted in a new brief from tobacco industry watchdog, STOP.

This rapid growth has been driven by a lack of regulation paired with aggressive marketing from Big Tobacco aimed at hooking new users, including youth and people who have not previously used tobacco or nicotine products. Sales of pouches with higher levels of nicotine, linked to quicker growth of dependence, have increased more quickly than nicotine pouches with lower nicotine content. STOP warns that this expansion of the nicotine pouch market may be laying the foundation for a new generation of people hooked on harmful products.

The brief, “Understanding Nicotine Pouches: Current Evidence and Industry Activity” examines the latest academic research, market data and evidence of tobacco industry lobbying and marketing tactics. Published in the wake of a landmark World Health Organization report examining the regulation and marketing of nicotine pouches, key findings in the STOP brief include:

Most nicotine pouches are being sold by transnational tobacco companies

• The market is dominated by three cigarette giants who account for more than three-quarters of global sales: Philip Morris International (PMI), British American Tobacco (BAT) and Altria. They use their extensive production, distribution, marketing and sales infrastructure and well-known lobbying and marketing tactics to accelerate sales.
• Japan Tobacco International (JTI), PMI and BAT have marketed pouches as products that can be used discreetly, “whenever, wherever,” signaling they can be used in places where other products—such as cigarettes, heated tobacco products or e-cigarettes—might be restricted or socially unacceptable.
• In a company document, BAT confirms that consumers who use several of their tobacco and nicotine products (poly-use) are driving 80% of BAT’s total revenue growth in e-cigarettes and vapor products, heated tobacco products and nicotine pouches.
• The global reach of these companies is reflected in the markets where these products are popular. In 2023, the top markets for nicotine pouches were the United States, Sweden, Denmark, Pakistan and Austria. In the United States, currently the largest nicotine pouch market, sales increased by more than 1,300% between 2019 and 2025.

Global youth are a target

• Companies use tactics proven to appeal to young people including flavors, social media marketing and campaigns that associate consumption with friendships, an active lifestyle, romance, success and the ability to use these products covertly.
• In the U.S., an estimated 85% of youth users preferred flavored pouches, primarily mint- or fruit-flavored products, with relatively high nicotine strengths.
• Concerns about youth nicotine pouch use in Sweden led the Public Health Agency to suggest they must be included in tobacco prevention efforts.
• The companies are targeting low- and middle-income countries with growing, young populations, including Kenya, Nigeria and the Philippines. In Mexico and Pakistan, nicotine pouches have been prominently displayed in retail outlets near schools.

Aggressive industry lobbying

• In many countries, nicotine pouches are not yet regulated. Tobacco companies take advantage of this to quickly expand into new markets and lobby against strong regulation, before governments close regulatory gaps.
• Some tobacco companies have promised governments increased tax revenues or investment if nicotine pouches are authorized. There also are examples, such as in Kenya, where the industry threatens job cuts if nicotine pouches are banned.
• PMI and its allies have cited the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s 2025 marketing authorization of Zyn, the company’s leading pouch brand, in the press and social media in other countries to attempt to sway regulatory debates.

Cessation

• There is insufficient evidence that nicotine pouches are an effective tobacco or nicotine cessation tool.
• Instead, use of nicotine pouches alongside other tobacco or nicotine products such as cigarettes, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products (also known as dual- or poly-use) is a growing issue.

Harms

• The long-term risks of nicotine pouch use are unknown, though researchers have detected carcinogens found in tobacco products in some nicotine pouches.
• There is growing evidence of short-term health risks, such as damage to the gums.
• Nicotine is harmful to brain development up to the age of 25 and uptake among people who had not previously used tobacco or nicotine products introduces new risk.
• Many pouches lack clear information about nicotine strength, deliver more nicotine than cigarettes and some people use multiple pouches at once, all of which risks users consuming dangerous amounts of nicotine.
• Dual-use with cigarettes still exposes users to the deadly health harms of smoking.

“This is yet another case of consumers paying tobacco companies to be part of a real-time experiment that will likely lead to addiction and health risks, especially among children and young people,” said Dr. Sophie Braznell, Research Associate at the Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath and co-author of the STOP brief. “There are three key things policymakers and consumers need to know. First, there is a lack of scientific evidence on nicotine pouches, meaning we know little about whether they can aid cessation and their true impacts on health. Second, policymakers and consumers should be wary of basing decisions on science that actually relates to snus, pouches containing tobacco that have been available for a long time in certain markets, rather than nicotine pouches, or data from tobacco companies being used to fill this evidence gap. Third, concerning trends are emerging that show increasing poly-use of nicotine pouches alongside other tobacco and nicotine products and nicotine pouches being sold at ever-higher nicotine strengths.”

“Nicotine pouches are starting to look like little seeds of an epidemic that tobacco companies are planting everywhere, even as the world continues to grapple with the effects of the current cigarette and e-cigarette epidemics. Rather than helping to end these epidemics, they are part of a deliberate industry strategy not only to sustain but also to expand tobacco and nicotine use,” said Jorge Alday, Director of STOP at Vital Strategies. “From cigarettes to vapes to heated tobacco and pouches, tobacco companies are offering a menu of addictive, harmful products, some delivering nicotine at strengths we haven’t seen before, that can be used by anyone, anywhere at any time. Clearly, the next generation is firmly in the industry’s sights. Nicotine pouch marketing today looks a lot like what we saw 10 years ago before the youth vaping epidemic took off. We should be acting now to prevent history from repeating itself.”

Learn more by downloading the brief, “Understanding Nicotine Pouches: Current Evidence and Industry Activity.”

Please contact the STOP press office for more information or to speak to a STOP spokesperson.

About STOP

STOP is a global network of academic and public health organizations. STOP connects experts in all aspects of the tobacco industry’s business to expose and counter its relentless efforts to sell harmful, addictive products. For more information, visit exposetobacco.org.