Roku, the oft-forgotten stepchild of the streaming wars, has had something of a glow-up since it launched in 2008. Founder and C.E.O. Anthony Wood conceived of the company as a cheap set-top box, created in partnership with Netflix, to bring streaming into millions of homes. Nearly two decades later, Roku has evolved into something else entirely: a practically ubiquitous streaming operating system that comes preinstalled on nearly one-third of all smart TVs, and reaches more than 90 million households. (Its next-largest competitor, Amazon Fire TV, doesn’t even come close.) The Roku Channel, which offers free, licensed content as well as the ability to subscribe to other streamers, is the second-fastest-growing platform behind YouTube, with more than 145 billion streaming hours in 2025. Also in 2025, Roku was profitable for the first time since the Covid era.