Amazon has revealed that it has now sold more than 150 million Fire TV devices worldwide in total. This is the first time that Amazon, which normally does not reveal any kind of concrete sales figures, has indicated how many Fire TVs it sold. Amazon does occasionally reveal how many active Fire TV users there are, with the most recent figuring being 50 million active users as of about 1 year ago. Comparatively, Roku announced it reached 56.4 million active accounts in November 2021 and Google announced it reached 80 million active Android TV devices in May 2021. Total devices sold (Amazon’s latest figure), active users (Roku’s latest figure), and active devices (Google’s latest figure) are three very different metrics, so there’s no telling which streaming platform is in the lead at this point.

One of my most viewed (and controversial) posts from last year was why you should never power a Fire TV Stick from your TV’s USB port. Seeing how many people have recently purchased or received new Fire TV Sticks over the holidays, it’s a good time to revisit the subject. Read more ›

The year is almost over so, just like last year, I looked back to see which Fire TV models were the most popular throughout 2021 among the now 36 million people that have used my Downloader app. Has any Fire TV model dethroned the 2nd-gen Fire TV Stick from its place in the top spot last year? Have Fire TV boxes and Cubes gained any traction against Firesticks in popularity? Are people now willing to pay the small premium for the 3rd-gen Fire TV Stick to get TV controls on their remote or are is the cheaper Fire TV Stick Lite still more popular? Have 4K devices become more popular than 1080p devices? Read on for answers to all of these questions and more. Read more ›