420 cannabis sales reach $154.4 million, setting a new record for most dollars spent in single day

This year’s national cannabis holiday, April 20, broke all previous cannabis retail records, bringing in a total of $154.4 million in adult-use and medicinal sales per Akerna, a leading enterprise software company and the developer of one of the most comprehensive technology infrastructures, ecosystems, and compliance engines powering the global cannabis industry.

Compared to last year’s 420, which until last week was the industry’s largest sales day to date and brought in nearly $112 million, this year’s 420 was a significant 38.1% growth over last year’s sales. 

When looking at the period around 420, US shoppers spent a total of $485.3 million on cannabis products. To put that into perspective, the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division recently reported the state’s largest year of liquor sales ever – which surpassed $400 million for the first time. This means that the US cannabis retail industry brought in more sales in just six days than Iowa did for liquor sales in a record-breaking year of their own.

“Using our historical Akerna data, we released a prediction report that the period around 420 would bring in a total of $494 million, only –1.79% variance from the actual sales of $485.3 million. This is a testament to the power of our data analytics. By leveraging data-driven insights, cannabis businesses can make strategic predictions and decisions for their businesses,” said James Ahrendt, Business Intelligence Architect at Akerna.

Akerna data has shown increases in cannabis sales market share for women shoppers over the past few years. This trend continued with this 420, with women’s market share of sales breaking the 40% mark for the first time ever. 

As more markets legalize cannabis and more Americans become comfortable with the legal cannabis industry, these year-over-year increases are expected to continue. Data shows cannabis has a broad appeal to people of all demographics. 

Other predicted values for the long “holiday” weekend (4/15 – 4/20)

• Category sales:
• Flower – 48.11%
• Cartridge/Pens – 31.66%
• Concentrates – 11.63%
• Infused Edibles – 6.87%
• Infused Non-Edible – 0.71%
• Non-Medicated – 1.01%

Sales by demographic:

• Men – 59.93%
• Women – 40.07%

Sales by age groups:

• Under 30 – 28.38%
• 30-40 –30.43%
• 40-50 – 19.92%
• 50-60 – 11.49%
• Over 60 – 9.78%

Flash Report looks at buying trends in the cannabis market as captured by Akerna’s flagship solution, MJ Platform. MJ Platform includes MJ Analytics, allowing operators, investors, and regulators to access the industry’s largest and most statistically relevant database to drive data-driven business decisions.