There Are Now Half a Billion Streaming Devices in Households Around The World

Summary: Game consoles are still leading the charge, but Chromecast grew faster than any other player this year.

No wonder Netflix and others are streaming billions of hours every month: Consumers around the world now own half a billion streaming devices, according toa new report from Strategy Analytics. The most popular brand is still Sony, with a total instal base of 123.8 million devices, a number that’s largely driven by the company’s PS3 and PS4 game consoles.

The biggest growth, however, is coming from non-gaming devices: LG saw 101.9 percent growth year-over-year with its smart TVs and connected Blu-ray players, according to Strategy Analytics estimates, followed by Toshiba with 98.8 percent year-over-year growth.

And on a quarterly basis, Google saw bigger increases from Q1 to Q2 of this year than any other vendor, thanks to Chromecast, with Strategy Analytics estimating a total of 6 million Chromecast devices sold by Q2 2014. We’ll ask Chromecast VP Mario Queiroz whether that number looks right to him when we have him on stage at Structure Connect later this month.

Source: http://www.gigaom.com