Roku viewers performed a whopping 1.2 billion searches in the United States throughout 2023, giving a pretty comprehensive glimpse into the actors, TV shows, and blockbusters that were on everyone's lips
If you own a Roku streaming box or a Roku-powered Smart TV, chances are, you spent the last year watching one of the following shows or films. The US streaming brand has revealed insights into what its customers did on its streaming platform in 2023.
The data was published in a new blog post by Roku to celebrate the huge number of searches performed on the platform over the last 12-months. Over 1.2 billion searches were made on Roku devices across 2023 in the United States alone, the popular brand has confirmed.
That’s a 50% increase on the previous year.
Searching on Roku lets you scour through the catalogues of over 4,000 streaming appsavailable on your device, so you’ll never accidentally rent or buy a filmthat’sincluded as part of one of your monthly subscriptions. According to research from Kantar, the average US household subscribes to 5.2 different streaming services ― making it difficult to keep track of what’s included with each one.
Roku lets you perform searches using the remote to type on the on-screen keyboard, dictating to the built-in microphone, or typing on your smartphone screen with the Roku app on iOS or Android.
If the movie or TV show that you’re looking for isn’t included in a subscription, Roku will always rank the rental options by price. You don’t need to search for a specific title either, try searching for a favourite actor or director to get a comprehensive list of their work.
The top-searched movie of the year, according to the data from US households shared by Roku, is The Super Mario Bros. Movie. With global Box Office takings of $1.36 billion, it’sperhaps unsurprising that the Nintendo smash-hit was on the lips of so many Roku viewers this year.
Other family-friendly hits like Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, The Secret Life Of Pets, and The Little Mermaid also appear in the top 10 ranking. Twilight ― an adaptation of the popular book starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson that was released in cinemas back in 2008 ― isan outlier in the most-searched titles on Roku as it’s unclear what drove interest in the 15-year-old film.
Here’s the full list of the top searches across all Roku gadgets in the US...
The reigning champs of boxset searches in the United States were Yellowstone and SpongeBob SquarePants ― both of these shows held onto their top spots from last year. Both shows have huge followings and air exclusively on Paramount+ ...suggesting that viewers aren’t as aware of which app they need to click on when they want to catch a new episode.
PAW Patrol, South Park and Bluey rounded out the top five. Four titles in the Top 10 ranking are family-friendly, while a total of six are animated, including The Simpsons and Peppa Pig.
Roku viewers spent more time searching for Adam Sandler than any other actor. The Hollywood star had a decent year, starring in the Netflix original Murder Mystery 2. Adam Sandler was also the top-searched star last year. According to data from Roku, searches for Sandler across all platforms spiked in early April following the release of the movie on Netflix.
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Melissa McCarthy takes the crown as Roku’s most searched actress of the year. Roku data shows searches spiked from the end of November, when the latest Richard Curtis film ― Genie ―launched on streaming service, Peacock, with the comedienne as the titular genie.
