Roku hits a major milestone with 100 million users

Stevie Bonifield is a news writer covering all things consumer tech. Stevie started out at Laptop Mag writing news and reviews on hardware, gaming, and AI.Roku continues to solidify itself in a very busy streaming landscape. As of April, over 100 million households are streaming with Roku devices, including its streaming sticks and boxes and Roku TVs.Roku originally spun out of Netflix in 2008, where it was conceived as an in-house streaming device. It’s not just Roku that has exploded in popularity since then, as streaming services have come to dominate the entertainment world. Netflix had less than 10 million subscribers in 2008, but now has over 325 million; Hulu, which also launched to the public in 2008, had 64.1 million subscribers in the US by late 2025; and Disney Plus had over 131 million subscribers by the end of last year, just six years after launching in 2019.In addition to its hardware, Roku has streaming services of its own now, including its low-cost Howdy platform and the ad-supported Roku Channel, which is currently the sixth most-watched streaming platform in the US, according to Nielsen. Roku’s streaming platforms offer a mix of original content, movies and TV shows, live TV, and even games.Roku got into the streaming device market early, appealing to users who were looking to ditch their cable box and go all in on streaming. I’ve been using a Roku streaming stick for five years now, but have never subscribed to cable, like many others who have opted for a streaming device instead of a cable box over the past 18 years. Roku claims that as of this month’s milestone, its streaming devices are currently “used by more than half of all US broadband households.” As of late last year, Roku also has the most popular streaming OS in the US, used in 28 percent of households.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Stevie Bonifield