Roku has sold a total of five million players in the U.S. since launching the first Roku box in 2008, the company announced Wednesday. Roku CEO Anthony Wood also said in a blog post that the company’s devices have delivered a total of 8 billion streams so far, and that one out of four Roku players now streams more than 35 hours to TVs – a pretty impressive number, considering that the average U.S. consumer watches 33 hours of traditional TV a week, according to Nielsen.
Wood told me in early 2012 that his company had sold 2.5 million players by the end of 2011, which was below its own forecast. It looks like sales have picked up since then, with Roku customers buying another 2.5 million players in just 16 months. Just as a frame of reference: Apple sold two million Apple TVs during last year’s holiday quarter, and more than 10 million total since the device was introduced.
Roku has invested heavily in advertising for its products to keep up with the market leader, and has raised around $ 67 million to finance its ad blitz.
The company has also made advancements to its product line: Roku recently launched its 3rd generation Roku player, and the company also started to partner with TV makers to bundle its MHL-based Roku stick with TV sets that don’t use an integrated smart TV platform.
Take a look at our Roku 3 review below:
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