PMI: Committed to the decline of cigarettes

• Investing in a world without cigarettes
• Why doesn’t Philip Morris International just stop selling cigarettes?

We’re often asked if we’re serious about ending the sale of cigarettes. 

The answer? Unequivocally yes, we are. 

PMI recognizes that a decline in the sales volume of our cigarettes—and more broadly, our combustible product portfolio—is an imperative component of our ambition to deliver a smoke-free future. 

And we’re making rapid progress toward that goal. 

Data from our publicly available  disclosures  reveal a steady downward trajectory in the sales volume of our cigarettes over the past decade. 

Cigarette shipment volume has fallen from 927 billion units in 2012 to 607 billion units in 2025. The slight rise in 2024 was explained by Chief Financial Officer, Emmanuel Babeau at the 2024 Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year Results: “The growth in the cigarette market can be largely attributed to growth in markets where smoke-free products are not permitted such as Turkey, Brazil and India. Excluding such markets, we observe a low single-digit decline, consistent with historic trends.” 

This clearly refutes disinformation spread by some anti-tobacco organizations that our cigarette shipment volume is rising. 

Investing in a world without cigarettes 

Our aim is to ultimately replace cigarettes with smoke-free alternatives. 

Since 2008, we have invested over USD 16 billion in these innovative products, including in research, product development, production capacity, scientific substantiation, and studies on adult smoker understanding. 

It’s an investment that’s paying off—with the increasing number of adult smokers switching to our smoke-free products contributing to the decline we’re seeing in cigarette shipment volume. 

As of December 31, 2025, over 43 million adult smokers were using our smoke-free products. 

The shipment volume of our heated tobacco units—the consumable element of our leading smoke-free product—has risen from 7 billion in 2016 to 155 billion in 2025.

These figures are the facts, transparently published every year by our company and available for everyone to access. 

We’re always clear that while the best choice for any smoker is to quit tobacco and nicotine altogether, scientifically substantiated smoke-free products are a better choice for those adults who would otherwise continue smoking. 

Why doesn’t Philip Morris International just stop selling cigarettes? 

The answer is simple: Even leaving aside our duty to investors and the fact that some major markets don’t legally allow us to sell smoke-free nicotine products, the following two things would happen if PMI immediately stopped selling cigarettes—both of which would significantly impede our efforts to end smoking: 

Firstly, our adult consumers who smoke would switch to competitor brands. There are plenty out there. Worst case, they would turn to the illicit market, purchasing products that are smuggled or otherwise illegally sold. 

Secondly, PMI would lose access to the very people we aim to help: Current adult smokers. It’s not enough to simply develop and deliver better products. We need to be able to connect with these adults and educate them about the potential of tobacco harm reduction. Only then can we help those who would otherwise continue smoking to make a better choice. 

Finally, we need to ensure that legal age smokers can legally access and receive accurate information about smoke-free products. Unfortunately, there are still too many markets with high smoking incidence rates where only combustible tobacco products are legally available for sale, which creates a barrier to progress. That needs to change.  

We will continue to advocate for sensible regulation which can both enable access to smoke-free products for legal age smokers, while guarding against underage access. Combined with traditional tobacco control measures, this can help accelerate an end to smoking.  

As a result of this approach, we expect to be a  substantially smoke-free business by 2030, with more than two-thirds of our total net revenues coming from these innovations. 

“Philip Morris International as a single company stopping selling cigarettes won’t achieve anything,” says Moira Gilchrist, PMI’s Chief Communications Officer. “Because other companies, and maybe even the illicit market, will simply step in to supply the demand that still exists from one billion people on the planet who are still smoking today.

“We have a different plan: To encourage all those people, if they’re going to continue smoking, to instead switch to better alternatives, and to do that as quickly as possible.” 

Through our commitment to delivering smoke-free innovations, we are making significant strides in bringing a world without cigarettes to fruition. 

“The numbers are impossible to ignore,” says Stefano Volpetti, PMI’s Chief Global Growth Officer. “They paint a clear picture of the change we’re driving—firstly, in delivering a range of better alternatives to adult smokers and, secondly, in accelerating the end of cigarettes.

“Our science substantiates that PMI’s smoke-free products—while not risk-free—are a much better choice than cigarettes for adults who would otherwise continue to smoke. 

“With support from the industry, stakeholders, and civil society, we believe that cigarette sales can end in many countries within 10 to 15 years. That would be a monumental achievement for the world’s one billion smokers, for global public health, and for our company.” 

¹Important Note: This information should be read in conjunction with the Philip Morris International Inc. 2025 full-year earnings release dated February 6, 2026, as well as the accompanying glossary of key terms, definitions, explanatory notes, select financial information and reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures, both of which are available on our Investor Relations pages. “PMI,” “We,” “Our,” & “Us” refers to the entire Philip Morris International family of companies.