Philip Morris Market Share By Country — Cigarette Only

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This article presents the market share of Philip Morris International (PMI)’s cigarettes in key countries.

PMI categorizes its markets into four major regions, namely: Europe, SSEA & CIS & MEA, EA & AU & PMI DF, and Americas.

Let’s look at the cigarette market share results!

For other key statistics of Philip Morris International, you may find more resources on this page: PMI key stats.

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Definitions

To help readers understand the content better, the following terms and glossaries have been provided.

Cigarette Market Share: Cigarette market share is defined as PMI’s cigarette in-market sales volume as a percentage of total industry cigarette and heated tobacco unit sales volume, excluding China and the U.S., including cigarillos in Japan.

Heated Tobacco Units (HTU): HTU is the term PMI uses to refer to heated tobacco consumables, which include BLENDS, DELIA, HEETS, HEETS Creations, HEETS Dimensions (defined collectively as “HEETS”), Marlboro HeatSticks, SENTIA, TEREA, TEREA CRAFTED, and TEREA Dimensions, as well as the KT&G licensed brands, Fiit and Miix (outside of South Korea). HTU’s also include zero tobacco heat-not-burn consumables (LEVIA).

Reduced-risk Products (RRPs): Reduced-risk products (“RRPs”) is the term PMI uses to refer to products that present, are likely to present, or have the potential to present less risk of harm to smokers who switch to these products versus continuing smoking.

PMI has a range of RRPs in various stages of development, scientific assessment and commercialization. PMI’s RRPs are smoke-free products that contain and generate far lower quantities of harmful and potentially harmful constituents than those found in cigarette smoke.

In-Market Sales (IMS): In-market sales (“IMS”) is defined as sales to the trade channels, which serve the end legal age nicotine users.

Depending on the market and distribution model, IMS may represent an estimate. Consequently, past reported periods may be updated to ensure comparability and to incorporate the most current information.

In other words, in-market sales (IMS) represents the number of units sold to consumers rather than shipments from manufacturers or distributors.

IMS is often used to gauge real consumer demand and market penetration, making it a valuable metric for assessing product performance.

Europe Region: Europe Region is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, and covers all the European Union countries, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and also Ukraine, Moldova and Southeast Europe.

SSEA, CIS & MEA: South and Southeast Asia, Commonwealth of Independent States, Middle East and Africa Region (“SSEA, CIS & MEA”) is headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

It covers South and Southeast Asia, the African continent, the Middle East, Turkey, as well as Israel, Central Asia, Caucasus and Russia.

EA, AU & PMI GTR: East Asia, Australia, and PMI Global Travel Retail (“EA, AU & PMI GTR”) is headquartered in Hong Kong, and includes the consolidation of PMI’s global travel retail business with East Asia & Australia.

Americas: Americas Region is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, and covers the United States, Canada and Latin America.

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Insight & Summary of PMI’s Market Share of Cigarette By Country

PMI’s cigarette-only market share tells a distinctly different story from the combined cigarette-and-HTU picture — a story of near-universal, sustained decline across nearly every country shown, reflecting the direct consequence of consumers transitioning from cigarettes toward heated tobacco products within PMI’s own portfolio, rather than share loss to competitors.

• Japan and South Korea: The Steepest, Most Sustained Cigarette Share Declines in the Entire Dataset Japan’s cigarette market share fell from 21.3% (2017) to just 10.9% by 2025 — nearly halving over nine years, with no single year showing a reversal. South Korea followed an almost identical pattern, from 19.2% to 11.1% over the same period. Both declines are the steepest and most consistent in the entire dataset, and this makes sense given what we’ve already established: Japan is PMI’s single strongest HTU market by a wide margin (32.1% HTU share by 2025), meaning this cigarette decline is very likely substitution within PMI’s own portfolio rather than losses to competitors.

• Italy Shows a Similarly Dramatic Decline, Also Consistent With Strong HTU Substitution Italy’s cigarette share fell from 51.5% (2017) to 35.0% by 2025 — a decline of 16.5 percentage points, among the largest of any European market. This aligns closely with Italy’s position as Europe’s strongest HTU market (18.6% HTU share by 2025), reinforcing the same substitution pattern seen in Japan: cigarette share erosion concentrated most heavily in exactly the markets where PMI’s own HTU products have gained the most ground.

• Poland Stands Out as the Lone Market With a Genuine Recent Recovery Poland’s cigarette share fell from 42.5% (2017) to a low of 30.7% (2022), following the broader declining pattern — but then reversed course, climbing back to 35.3% by 2025. This is the only market in the entire dataset showing a clear, sustained multi-year recovery in cigarette share after an extended decline, a genuinely distinct pattern worth noting given how uniformly downward every other market has trended.

• Philippines and Turkey: Sharp, Opposite-Direction Moves Consistent With What We Found in the Total Market Share Data Philippines’ cigarette share collapsed from 70.5% (2019) to 46.2% (2024) before a marginal uptick to 46.3% in 2025 — an extraordinary decline of over 24 percentage points. Turkey moved the opposite direction, climbing from 41.3% (2020) to 52.0% (2024) before pulling back to 46.4% in 2025. Both patterns mirror what we identified in the earlier total-market-share analysis, confirming these swings are being driven primarily by cigarette-category dynamics specifically, not offset or amplified by HTU activity in either market.

• Structural Takeaway: PMI’s cigarette-only market share has declined in nearly every country shown over this nine-year period, with the steepest drops concentrated in Japan, Italy, and South Korea — precisely the markets where PMI’s HTU market share has grown the most, strongly suggesting this is portfolio transition rather than competitive share loss. Given Poland’s genuine reversal stands as the sole exception to this otherwise near-universal decline, and given Philippines’ and Turkey’s continued volatility shows no clear sign of settling, the trend worth monitoring going forward is whether more markets begin following Poland’s stabilization-and-recovery pattern as HTU penetration matures, or whether cigarette share continues its broad-based decline as PMI’s transition toward heated tobacco products continues across its remaining, still-cigarette-dominant markets.

The table below combines all key Philip Morris’ cigarette market share metrics into a single view for the latest three fiscal years.

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Cigarette market share breakdown in Europe

The definition of PMI’s cigarette market share is available here: cigarette market share.

You may find more information about PMI’s regions here: Europe, SSEA, CIS & MEA, EA, AU & PMI GTR, and Americas.

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Cigarette market share breakdown in SSEA, CIS & MEA

The definition of PMI’s cigarette market share is available here: cigarette market share.

You may find more information about PMI’s regions here: Europe, SSEA, CIS & MEA, EA, AU & PMI GTR, and Americas.

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Cigarette market share breakdown in EA, AU & PMI GTR

The definition of PMI’s cigarette market share is available here: cigarette market share.

You may find more information about PMI’s regions here: Europe, SSEA, CIS & MEA, EA, AU & PMI GTR, and Americas.

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Cigarette market share breakdown in Americas

The definition of PMI’s cigarette market share is available here: cigarette market share.

You may find more information about PMI’s regions here: Europe, SSEA, CIS & MEA, EA, AU & PMI GTR, and Americas.

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References and Credits

1. All financial figures presented were obtained and referenced from PMI’s quarterly and annual reports published on the company’s investor relations page: PMI’s Reports And Filings.

2. Pexekls Images.

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Disclosure

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to assist us in writing some of the text in this article. However, the data is directly obtained from original sources (usually the quarterly and annual reports) and meticulously cross-checked by our editors multiple times to ensure its accuracy and reliability.

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