Roku Sees Q1 Streaming Boost Due to Stay-at-Home Mandate, Estimates 39.8 Million Active Accounts

While the coronavirus has shut down many businesses, the streaming world has seen quite a boost and Roku is among those seeing a spike in viewership. In their Q1 estimated results report, the company revealed that as of March 31, they were at approximately 39.8 million active users, a nearly 3 million hike since December 2019. The company also projected their first quarter streaming hours will be at 13.2 billion, a 49 percent year-over-year increase.

While the viewership hike is bodes well for the company, Roku decided to withdraw their previous outlook due to the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus. “While we believe that our offerings to consumers, content providers and advertisers will enable our Company to deliver value in these uncertain times, the wider business and consumer impacts, as well as the duration of the pandemic, are unclear and thus we are withdrawing our prior 2020 outlook,” said Roku’s chief financial officer, Steve Louden, in a statement.

In February, Roku announced they had 36.9 million active accounts. This was up from the 32.3 million active accounts they reported in the third quarter.

Much of Roku’s user growth was coming from licensing the Roku platform to smart TV manufacturers. The company previously reported that nearly 1 in 3 smart TVs sold in the first half of 2019 use the Roku platform. The company continues to focus on growing their platform business as they also announced they hit $1.13 billion in revenue in 2019 in today’s report.