The original Fire TV Stick 4K was first introduced in 2018 alongside the 2nd-gen Alexa Voice Remote, which brought TV power and volume controls to the Fire TV lineup for the first time. Since then, Amazon launched the 3rd-gen Alexa Voice Remote with the 3rd-gen Fire TV Stick and the Fire TV Stick 4K Max. Now, Amazon has also decided to bundle the 3rd-gen Alexa Voice Remote the original Fire TV Stick 4K. The new bundle costs the same as the old bundle and the old bundle is still available if you prefer to older remote.

The 3rd-gen Alexa Voice remote was introduced earlier this year and Amazon swapped it in as the remote that comes with the 3rd-gen Fire TV Stick in all regions. The main difference between the new and old remote is the addition of a channel guide button and four app shortcut buttons. Later, when Amazon launched the original Fire TV Stick 4K in Australia, Brazil, and Mexico it included the new remote but kept the old remote bundled in all other regions.

That has now changed because a new bundle for the original Fire TV Stick 4K with the newer remote has been made available in several more regions and will likely may its way to all regions. The new bundle costs the same $49.99 as the older bundle. Amazon is also pushing the new bundle with messages on the old bundle’s product page that say a new version is available. While the new remote likely costs more to produce, due to the added functionality, it’s likely more profitable for Amazon because of revenue brought in by streaming services paying for the app shortcut buttons.

I expect that, once the existing stock of the Fire TV Stick 4K with the older remote runs out, Amazon will only sell the device with the new remote. There’s no saying how long that will be, but it took about a month for the 3rd-gen Fire TV Stick bundle that included the older remote to go out of stock, once the new bundle was released.

Fire TV Stick 4K w/ 3rd-gen Alexa Remote:

• US
• UK
• Canada
• Australia
• Brasil
• Mexico