Amazon Fire TV reaches 50M active users

Amazon Fire TV, the company’s streaming device platform that launched six years ago, now reaches 50 million monthly active users.

That’s a significant increase over the 40 million monthly active users that company had at the beginning of 2020. The recent growth has likely been accelerated by the pandemic and the dramatic increase in demand for streaming content for consumers stuck at home.

The new total puts Amazon Fire TV ahead of Roku, one of its closest competitors for streaming device market share. In November, Roku said it has 46 million active accounts, up 43% year over year.

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The new users total comes as Amazon is starting to roll out a new user interface for Fire TV new a redesigned home screen and user profiles.

The update is available on the new Fire TV Stick (3rd gen) and Fire TV Stick Lite, and Amazon said it will provide a more personalized and intuitive user experience. The new “Home” includes a Main Menu navigation bar at the center of the screen along with updated content discovery functions and search.

The new Fire TV Stick, priced at $39.99, features a 1.7 GHz quad-core processor, 1080p at 60fps with HDR compatibility, dual-band and dual-antenna Wi-Fi with support for 5 GHz networks, Dolby Atmos for immersive sound with compatible content and speakers, and an Alexa voice remote. Amazon said the new device consumes 50% less power than the previous generation.

Fire TV Stick Lite is a similar device that supports full HD streaming and HDR support for $29.99.