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Plex Grows to 16 Million Monthly Active Users in 2022; Doubles Count of FAST Channels

The free streaming service Plex is putting its best foot forward to start 2023. The service announced on Thursday that its monthly active users grew to 16 million in 2022, resulting in billions of minutes streamed during the year. Plex is a free streaming service that includes on-demand access to 50,000+ movies and TV shows. The service also offers hundreds of free-to-stream live TV channels in 193 countries around the world. Plex offers millions of deeplinked shows and movies from Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Prime Video, and more.

The service also offers a Universal Watchlist — simply add the streaming services you subscribe to and Plex becomes an automatic launch portal for any show or movie. This saves users the trouble of looking up which of their favorite shows and movies are streaming, and where. Plex launched its upgraded search and Universal Watchlist in April, and has seen 24 million titles added to user watchlists since the rollout.

Free ad-supported TV (FAST) viewership nearly doubled on Plex in 2022, with billions of minutes of FAST content watched. FAST channels on Plex now stand at over 300, with the top performing channels being A+E’s Crime 360, [Hallmark Movies & More], and “The Walking Dead” on Stories by AMC. Additions in 2022 include music channels from Vevo, and short movies from all over the globe via ShortsTV.

Plex offers many of its most powerful features for free, but it also offers a subscription tier for $4.99 per month. Users who want the ability to download and watch movies and TV offline should look into this tier, as that feature is not available to free subscribers.

It was reported in April that Plex is the second-most popular mobile video streaming app among Millennial users, behind only Redbox. The service is likely to experience another surge in popularity in 2023, as it is gearing up to launch a new transactional video-on-demand (TVOD) marketplace before the second quarter. This marketplace will allow users to rent and buy popular movies and watch them directly on their Plex account.

Plex

Plex is a free streaming service that includes on-demand access to 50,000+ movies and TV shows. The service also offers 1,100+ free-to-stream live TV channels in 193 countries. Users can also connect Plex to their computers to stream and share any media they have on their hard drives.

The service also offers a universal watchlist - simply add the streaming services you subscribe to and Plex becomes an automatic launch portal for any show or movie. This saves you the trouble of looking up what is streaming where.

Plex offers a subscription tier that offers even more features for people who want more functionality, but it packs a powerful punch even in its free version.

The service offers 11 live local news channels, including outlets in Detroit, Atlanta, Memphis, Jacksonville, Tulsa, Boston, and Seattle.

Plex even offers a Plex Arcade option where you can play dozens of Atari classics plus your own collection of game ROMs and emulators on your favorite devices.

This is an incredibly flexible platform that’s perfect for fans of any media.


David covers the biggest news stories, live events, premieres, and informational pieces for The Streamable. Before joining TS, he wrote extensively for Screen Rant and has years of experience writing about the entertainment and streaming industries. He's a Broncos fan, streams on his Toshiba Fire TV, and his favorites include "Andor," "Rings of Power," and "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds."

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