I spent years believing the “one box” dream for the living room meant finding a console that could do it all. I wanted a single device for my movies, my music, and my games. It turns out I was looking at the wrong piece of hardware. New research from Parks Associates, released on April 22, 2026, proves that the battle for your living room isn’t being fought between consoles anymore. It’s happening inside the software of your TV.
Samsung and Roku are the two biggest gatekeepers in the US market. Combined, they control the gateway to 51% of the country’s connected TV usage. This means your next gaming experience is likely to come from the remote already sitting on your coffee table rather than a plastic box. But as the data details, these two leaders are taking very different paths. One has built a gaming fortress, and the other is still stuck at the gate.
Roku: The 28% Giant in a Gaming Desert
Roku currently sits at the top of the mountain with a 28% share of primary connected TV usage in US homes. If you use a Roku, you’re part of a network that now tops 100 million streaming households worldwide. This makes Roku the biggest gateway for digital content in the country, yet it remains the industry’s most confusing puzzle for anyone interested in cloud gaming. You still can’t natively jump into Xbox Cloud Gaming or NVIDIA GeForce NOW on their devices.
This isn’t because Roku ignores gaming entirely. Just a few days ago, they launched Roku City Dash, a retro-style game built directly into their famous screensaver. They’ve also added Roku Daily Trivia and interactive quiz games like Roklue. These small steps prove Roku wants you playing on their platform, but they’re sticking to low-stakes, internal experiences.
The Parks Associates data details that platform control is the new battleground for advertising and discovery. For Roku, opening the door to major cloud services means sharing that control with giants like Xbox or NVIDIA. This creates a bottleneck where the most popular OS in the US is effectively blocking a revolution. If Roku ever adds a “Play” button next to Netflix, it would turn 100 million living rooms into gaming hubs overnight. Until that happens, Roku is sitting on a gold mine without a shovel.
Samsung: The King of the Gaming Hub
Samsung sits at 23% share, and they’ve used that position to turn their Gaming Hub into the gold standard for TV play. They’ve integrated the most powerful services in the industry. Tizen OS isn’t just for Netflix anymore, it’s a legitimate console alternative. There are now more cloud games available on Samsung Smart TVs than ever before.
Xbox Cloud Gaming is the headliner, allowing you to stream hundreds of titles directly to the TV. It’s important to remember that Xbox Cloud Gaming is included across all main Game Pass tiers. Joining Xbox is NVIDIA GeForce NOW, which lets you play the PC games you already own from Steam and the Epic Games Store. Amazon Luna rounds out the major trio, offering a rotating selection of games for Prime members.
Indie, Retro, and Variety Specialists
Samsung isn’t just focusing on the blockbusters. They’ve built a platform for every niche. Boosteroid is available for those who want to access their PC libraries through a service that has been expanding its data centres rapidly. For retro fans, Antstream Arcade is a must, offering thousands of classic titles.
Blacknut provides a family-focused catalogue, and Sora Stream is the newest addition aimed at bringing more variety. This variety ensures that every member of the household finds something to play without needing to buy separate discs. Recent job listings regarding partnership growth suggest that Samsung is nowhere near finished adding new ways to play.
Low-Barrier Play: Ad-Supported Gaming
One of the smartest moves Samsung has made is moving toward low-barrier entries. They understand that not everyone wants a monthly subscription. Services like PHȲND bring ad-supported cloud gaming to millions of homes. You don’t need a credit card to jump into these titles.
GameLoop follows a similar path, using Amazon GameLift Streams to offer snackable gaming. You watch a brief ad and jump into a game instantly. This mimics the success of free streaming services like Pluto TV. It turns gaming into something you can do casually between shows. This shift is why consoles are losing ground: it’s hard to justify a $500 box when you can play for free by clicking an icon on your home screen.
The Controller Fix: Hardware for the Hub
The biggest problem with TV gaming has always been the controller. Most gamers have a remote, but they don’t have a gamepad. Samsung is solving this through their “Designed for Gaming Hub” initiative. They recently unveiled a wireless controller specifically for this ecosystem, featuring a Replay Midnight Blue finish and a dedicated Gaming Hub button.
Third-party partners are joining the effort. PDP launched a controller designed for the Samsung Gaming Hub that feels as good as any traditional console gamepad. When you can buy a dedicated controller at a retail store that works with your TV, the barriers to cloud gaming disappear. You aren’t just streaming anymore: you’re playing on a dedicated platform.
The Future of the Living Room
The Parks Associates research details that consoles like PlayStation and Xbox account for just 2% and 1% of primary video usage. We still love them for dedicated gaming, but they’ve lost the battle to be the centre of your daily entertainment. For the other 51% of US households, the TV OS is the new home of play.
Samsung’s aggressive cloud gaming expansion, and dedicated hardware proves they want to own that space. Roku has the numbers, but Samsung has the vision. As long as Roku stays on the sidelines, Samsung will continue to define what it means to be a gamer in 2026.
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