Roku’s latest streaming bet is off to a solid start. His affordable subscription service, helloaccording to the research firm, it has now crossed 1 million subscribers Antenna. It’s a remarkable milestone for a platform that’s still fairly new, and one that shows it’s catching the attention of viewers tired of paying yet another expensive subscription fee.
It started In August 2025, Howdy is Roku’s first real push into paid, ad-free streaming. At just $2.99 a month, Howdy is designed for people who want to watch something extra for a lower price.
Lionsgate and Warner Bros. Thanks to deals with studios like Discovery, it includes about 10,000 hours of content, with a mix of movies and old TV shows. This includes titles such as The Blind Side, Mad Max: Fury Road and Weeds.
In addition to the budget-friendly price, Roku has also made it easy to access. Howdy recently expanded standalone mobile application and has been activated Amazon is bringing it to a wider audience on Prime Video. This wider reach likely helped it hit the 1 million mark fairly quickly.
According to Antenna, Roku’s Howdy garnered nearly 300,000 subscribers in its first month alone, then continued to grow steadily, adding at least 100,000 subscribers every month thereafter.
Additionally, among users who signed up for Howdy in August and September 2025, Antenna estimates that 51% were still subscribed six months later. This puts Howdy ahead of the average six-month retention rate for both premium SVOD services (47%) and dedicated SVOD platforms (38%). (“Special” platforms include ALLBLK, AMC+, Crunchyroll, and others.)
Howdy’s subscriber base remains a tiny slice compared to giants like Netflix and Disney+, as well as free, ad-supported platforms like Tubi. However, Roku has been clear that Howdy isn’t meant to go head-to-head with streaming heavyweights, but instead serves as a cheap, ad-free option that complements other subscriptions.
That being said, it’s still early days. If the antenna’s new data is any indication, this kind of simple, low-commitment offering could be just what viewers are interested in, especially at a time when prices are rising everywhere.
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