David Farnor | On 18, May 2016

Amazon’s Fire TV devices are now neck and neck with Chromecast in the streaming device race.

Roku continues to lead at the front of the pack, accounting for 30 per cent of players purchased between Q1 2015 and Q1 2016. New research from Parks Associates, though, shows that Amazon has moved into a joint second place with Google, both accounting for 22 per cent of streaming media device sales.

All three are ahead of Apple TV, which accounts for 20 per cent of sales. Apple is far from out of the race, though: together, the four major players account for 94 per cent of the streaming media players purchased, up from 86 per cent in 2014.

Indeed, while Apple TV remains in fourth place, it had the largest increase in unit sales year-over-year, primarily due to its long-awaited new version, launched in Q4 2015. Its share of sales in 2015 was 50 per cent higher than its share in 2014. Amazon also had a substantially higher share of unit sales in 2015, as the online retailer’s hardware brand continues to grow.

“Device makers have successfully sold streaming media players to consumers by offering easy access to a variety of content streams, as well as frequent updates that add the latest innovation,” says Barbara Kraus, Director of Research, Parks Associates. “Amazon in particular has benefited by promoting its Fire TV devices in conjunction with the company’s Prime Video service as well as streams from HBO, Showtime, and other premium offerings.”

Amazon and Roku also benefit from offering sticks as well as boxes – the smaller, more affordable devices accounted for half of all unit sales in 2015, making up one-third of Roku’s sales and around three-quarters of Amazon’s sales – Apple and Roku were essentially tied for selling the most boxes.

Parks Associates estimates that 86 million streaming media players will be sold globally in 2019.

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