Roku has around 38.9 million users, as of July 2017, which is more than Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV, according to the latest report from eMarketer. The graph which eMarketer has created depicting the numbers, shows that the top three are relatively close to each other, with the Apple TV far behind. Roku has 38.9 million users, Chromecast with 36.9 million and Amazon Fire TV with 35.8 million. Now it’s likely that these three platforms are far ahead of Apple TV due to its pricing and the availability. Only Apple devices will work with Apple TV, meanwhile, Android and iOS devices work with Roku, Chromecast and Amazon’s Fire TV.
These numbers also note that there are around 168 connected TV’s out there, around half of them – 81.2 million – are smart TV’s. Something like LG’s webOS-powered TV’s, versus a regular TV that has a HDMI dongle plugged into it. That is up 10% year-over-year, which is pretty impressive that the number is still growing in double digit percentages. Now for Smart TV’s, that’s a 30.8% increase year-over-year, which is very impressive. Growing by nearly a third. Now Roku’s numbers are only up 19.3%, which eMarketer believes that this is due to the fact that more people are buying a smart TV and thus don’t need a connected device like an Amazon Fire TV or a Chromecast.
Roku, surprisingly is the top dog, despite not offering any of its own content like Google, Amazon and Apple all do. But what Roku has done to set itself apart from its competitors is offering a few different models. There are a slew of different models from Roku, with some as cheap as $40 (still more than the Google Chromecast), which is the Roku Stick and offers very little compared to something like the Roku Premiere+ which offers 4K and HDR support. This is a big deal for Roku, and so has the special offers its been doing with streaming TV companies like Sling TV and DIRECTV NOW, where it has been offering a free Roku, if you pre-pay for a certain amount of months. Or even offering the Roku Premiere+ for half off of its regular price. Which has enticed more people to buy one than normally would.
