The number of external streaming devices connected to smart TVs in the U.S. declined by 31% in 2024, according to a report compiled by Samsung Ads.
Samsung’s Q1 2025 State of Video report, which culls data from the Advertising Research Foundation, claims that Roku alone went from having 40.3 million HDMI dongles, hockey pucks and other streaming peripherals connected to U.S. smart TVs in 2023 to just 28.1 million in 2024.
However, smart TVs with embedded operating systems continue to be sold by Roku and others, and US smart TV adoption appears robust. According to the report, smart TVs are now in 83% of the 122 million U.S. TV households and 77% of the 133 million total U.S. households.
Samsung had a market-leading 67.8 million smart TVs positioned in these U.S. homes, more than twice as many as the next closest competitor, LG. According to ARF’s DASH study cited in the Samsung report, Samsung smart TV’s account for 32% of all smart TVs in the US and are present in 45% of all US smart TV households.
A Samsung Ads rep told us that makes Samsung the leader in the U.S. TV operating system market, with Roku positioned in second place.
Roku recently said it’s TVOS in is 90 million households, with many of those located in Mexico and Canada. While its external devices might be used less these days, Roku has been, since early 2023, selling its own branded smart TVs. And through an OEM program started a decade ago, Roku’s TVOS has been featured in smart TVs sold brands including TCL, Hisense, Insignia, Walmart’s ONN and others.
Overall, the Samsung Ads report, using its own data sources, found that time spent streaming during the fourth quarter in the U.S. was up 5% YoY, while traditional linear TV viewing time declined 19%. That’s not surprising. However, given a pandemic-era backdrop during which the amount of TV consumption always headed up, up and up, this figure is a little shocking: overall TV usage in the U.S. actually declined 2% YoY.
Finally, while other research has suggested that churn for subscription streaming services has leveled off, the Samsung Ads report (again using the company’s own automatic content recognition data) sees churn remaining high.
