Over 100 million new users flocked to Google TV in the last year alone

Key Takeaways

• Google TV and Android TV now boast 270 million monthly active devices, up 120M from January 2023.
• Google TV is expanding to more countries and is now accessible through various devices like the new Google TV Streamer.
• The base Android TV OS that Google TV is built on top of first debuted in 2014, so the sudden uptick in usership is somewhat surprising.

Google dropped a big feature update for Google TV devices today, along with the new Google TV Streamer — a set-top box that takes over from the old Chromecast. The update adds support for new free channels, introduces a Sports Page, and extends the Streamer’s smart home controls to all Google TV devices. Amid these announcements, the search giant also reported a dramatic increase in users for its Google TV and the underlying Android TV OS.

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Android TV has a long way to go

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Google revealed in a blog post that Google TV and Android TV OS are now active on over 270 million devices every month (via 9to5Google). That’s up from 150 million in January 2023, so we’re looking at a huge jump of 120 million monthly users. This growth is way faster compared to previous years. There were 80 million active devices in 2021, rising to 110 million in 2022.

A lot of this growth comes from more brands hopping on the Android TV OS bandwagon in different countries. Google mentioned in its blog post that Google TV is also expanding to more countries, like Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. And you can access Google TV in all sorts of ways — like the new Google TV Streamer, TCL and Hisense TVs, and smart projectors from Vankyo, Epson, and XGIMI.

Google has been working on TV software for over a decade, and it’s had its fair share of reboots. The original Google TV, which launched in 2010, was pretty clunky, but that didn’t hold them back. At first, the goal was to get Google TV onto most TVs, but the company really started finding success with the simpler Chromecast devices before rolling out the new Android TV platform in 2014.

Google TV gets a nice feature boost

Google is stepping up its Google TV game with a new Google TV Freeplay app for its free ad-supported channels. Available in the US, it gives you access to 150 free TV channels. Plus, Google AI is rolling out to all Google TV devices, helping to analyze and suggest content that matches your taste. There’s also a new Sports page in the For You tab, which makes it easy to catch live games, check out upcoming schedules, and watch highlights all in one place.

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