🇺🇸 Canadian Eye on the US: Volume, Fragmentation, and the Rise of the Reddit Powerhouse

Introduction: The Rumblings from South of the Border

Bud Trendz has focused on tracking the pulse of the legal cannabis market from our Canadian vantage point, using deep dives into user-generated content from subreddits like r/TheOCS and r/CanadianCannabisLPs to determine what products and brands are truly "hot." Our model thrives on parsing consumer sentiment to create our weekly summaries.

However, the US market is at a pivotal inflection point. With major policy changes rumbling at the federal level and state markets rapidly evolving—from Michigan's crashing prices to New York's complex rollout—we recognized it was time to expand our scope.

This first exploratory post introduces our initial look at US market activity using the exact same metrics we apply in Canada: raw counts of activity, engagement, and attention. We compared activity across six US state- and city-specific subreddits with our two largest Canadian benchmarks. The results confirm one thing: the US market operates at a speed and scale unlike anything we see at home.

The Data: US Fragmentation vs. Canadian Centralization

To set the stage, here is the raw activity data from one typical week in November 2025:

Section 1: Subscribers — The Power of State Giants

In Canada, r/TheOCS (Ontario Cannabis Store) is the monolithic hub, commanding over 80,000 subscribers, reflecting the centralized nature of provincial retail boards.

In the US, there is no single national hub, yet three state-specific subreddits are almost as large as or larger than every other Canadian community:

• r/Michigents (74,607): A massive, active community that nearly rivals the largest Canadian hub, reflecting Michigan's mature, competitive market known for its low prices and high consumer volume.
• r/bostontrees (59,690) and r/ILTrees (50,745): These two markets also show that state or city-specific hubs can easily surpass smaller national forums like r/CanadianCannabisLPs.

Outlier: The tiny r/WAents (Washington State) at only 1,066 subscribers shows the unevenness of US market adoption, where an older, established legal market may have lower digital community centralization.

Section 2: Authors and Posts — The Velocity Difference

This is where the Canadian and US models diverge most dramatically. Our primary Canadian groups are relatively passive, with a low weekly count of new content and authors: r/TheOCS had 41 authors submitting 49 posts.

The US markets are a whirlwind of discussion:

• r/Michigents recorded a staggering 254 Distinct Authors and 419 Distinct Posts in the same week. This means the Michigan community is over six times more active in terms of unique contributors than the OCS subreddit.
• r/ILTrees follows closely with 177 Authors and 280 Posts.

Analysis: This explosion in raw post velocity confirms the need for Bud Trendz in the US. The sheer volume of consumer discussion means trends rise, fall, and change at a far quicker pace. Simply put, more conversations mean more actionable sentiment data.

Section 3: Average Comments per Post — The Intensity of Debate

While Canada's OCS community is very engaged (16.05 Avg. Comments), the US market reveals where the most intense conversations are happening, indicating strong opinions—both positive and negative—on local product availability.

• The Engagement Champion: r/NewYorkMMJ (23 Avg. Comments). Despite being the smallest of the major US hubs by subscriber count, it generates the highest engagement. This likely reflects the ongoing turbulence and high prices in the New York medical and adult-use market, driving contentious and detailed discussions about product quality and licensing issues.
• Highly Engaged Markets: r/bostontrees and r/OKmarijuana (both 16 Avg. Comments) also show debate levels matching the OCS.

Analysis: High average comments in a complex market like New York are often a strong indicator of negative sentiment around systemic problems. This is gold for brand tracking, as it highlights which products or retailers are drawing the most ire.

Section 4: Trend Score — Measuring Attention

The Trend Score is our measure of attention (Upvotes + Downvotes + Comments) and is the most important metric for determining "What's Hot."

• Canadian Baseline: r/TheOCS leads all communities with a high Trend Score of 16.2, reflecting a history of brand loyalty and collective focus.
• US Potential: While no single US subreddit matches that Canadian attention level (Michigan leads with 7), their scores are substantial, especially given the fragmentation. When you multiply Michigan's Trend Score of 7 by its 419 weekly posts, the Total Attention generated far exceeds the OCS community.

The Key Takeaway: US discussions are faster and more numerous, meaning attention is spread out, but the aggregateattention for a trending US product will be massive across multiple state hubs.

Conclusion: Why Bud Trendz Must Be in the US

The data in this first post makes the conclusion undeniable: The US cannabis market is absolutely worthwhile for Bud Trendz to pursue.

The reasons are clear:

1. Sheer Volume: Key state subreddits like r/Michigents and r/ILTrees provide a massive, reliable stream of weekly discussion that far outstrips the volume of the most active Canadian communities.
2. High-Intensity Feedback: Outliers like r/NewYorkMMJ offer hyper-localized, intense consumer feedback that acts as an early warning system for product failures or regulatory wins.
3. Policy Agility: The nature of US cannabis policy—with federal rumblings and state-by-state regulation—means sentiment shifts are sudden and dramatic. Our tracking model is perfectly suited to capitalize on these shifts, providing timely intelligence on brand performance in a volatile environment.

The US market is not a single, easy-to-track national entity, but a collection of high-volume, highly-engaged state giants. This fragmentation is our opportunity.

We are confident that by adapting our proven sentiment model to this new landscape, we can begin generating "What's Hot" US content that will be invaluable to consumers and industry players alike. We have only scratched the surface.

Look forward to our next post, where we will dive into the specific brands and product types driving the high-velocity discussion in the US powerhouse markets!