Roku is top dog in the connected TV (CTV) space. Not only is the Roku Channel Store the largest CTV app store, it’s also growing faster than Apple TV, Fire TV, and Google TV.
Welcome to the first edition of our monthly CTV roundup! Each month, we’ll cover trends and insights from the top CTV app stores. Come here for monthly updates on inventory growth, leading categories, top apps, and more!
Here’s where things stand this month (click the links to jump to the corresponding section):
- Roku leads in total apps, but Apple TV has more publishers
- Roku’s inventory grew the most last month, but Fire TV is gaining steam
- Roku is driven by ‘Faith-Based’ apps
- Netflix is the most popular app on the Roku Channel Store
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Roku leads in total apps, but Apple TV has more publishers
Currently, the Roku Channel Store offers an inventory of 37,972 CTV apps, making it the largest, most popular CTV app store on the market. In addition, 10,163 publishers have released Roku apps.
Here’s how the rest of the top CTV stores shake out:
- Apple TV tvOS App Store has 22,625 apps from 14,981 publishers.
- Amazon Fire TV has 19,288 apps from 7,916 publishers.
- Google TV has 8,143 apps from 5,364 publishers.
Roku’s inventory grew the most last month, but Fire TV is gaining steam
Not only is the Roku Channel Store the largest CTV app store, it’s also the fastest growing. Indeed, 569 apps were added to Roku last month. However, Fire TV is gaining some momentum, adding 468 new apps in the same time frame.
Roku is driven by ‘Faith-Based’ apps
While Apple TV is driven by ‘Education’ apps, Fire TV is driven by ‘Lifestyle’ apps, and Google TV is driven by ‘Entertainment’ apps.
Below, you’ll find the top three categories for each of the top CTV app stores…
The Top Roku Categories
As noted above, the largest category on Roku is ‘Faith-Based’, with ‘Movies & TV’ (5,670 apps) and ‘Apps’ (2,467) rounding out the top three.
The Top Apple TV Categories
On Apple TV, ‘Education’ leads the way, with 5,698 apps. Then come ‘Entertainment’ (4,155) and ‘Lifestyle’ (3,095).
The Top Fire TV Categories
‘Lifestyle’, meanwhile, takes the top spot on Fire TV, with 3,092 apps. It’s followed by ‘Movies & TV’ (2,951) and ‘Games’ (1,471).
The Top Google TV Categories
Finally, on Google TV, ‘Entertainment’ is far and away the top category, with 3,214 apps. The Top three is rounded out by ‘Music & Audio’ (683) and ‘Games’ (537).
Netflix is the most popular app on the Roku Channel Store
To wrap up, we identified the top CTV apps on the Roku Channel Store based on the number of reviews they’ve received. Currently, Netflix leads the way with 3,711,919 total reviews. The rest of the top five includes household names, like YouTube (2,061,201 reviews), Hulu (1,018,056), Prime Video (906,460), and the Roku Channel (480,267).
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, while Roku remains the top dog in the CTV app store landscape, each platform offers exciting opportunities to businesses of all types — from advertisers looking to regain lost linear TV audiences, to ad tech companies, app developers, and game developers looking to access the streaming market.
So, as the CTV industry continues to evolve, it will be interesting to monitor how these trends shift and shape the future of television.
