I have it installed and used once, but my cable box also have Netflix and I use it there. Most Netflix users certainly have configured their credentials in their console but mainly use it on smart TV or cable box so those numbers could come from that. But also, have two friends who use it on the Ps4 because they don't have any other device that is connected to the TV that runs Netflix so, despite the main usage of the console was to game on it, the Netflix app is a very convenient solution without buying other hardware.

Those numbers are old, aren't they?. The console usage rate has been falling since 2011 when it was over 60%, and is likely well under 40% now (see for instance http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2014/10/03/netflix-usage-on-playstation-xbox-is-declining/#66feba427167).

People who own a smart TV are likely to use that for Netflix, rather than a console. People who own 8th gen consoles are more likely to own smart TVs. Combined with the adoption rate dropping, it's reasonable to assume that a large chunk of the people who use Netflix on consoles use it on older consoles.

Last gen, 270 million home consoles were sold, while just shy of 90 million have been sold this gen. So you've got somewhere around twice as many people who own a 7th gen console but not an 8th gen one, as who own an 8th gen one. If we make the simplistic assumption that each customer is equally likely to use netflix, no matter which console they have, we can get some numbers for usage. Total numbers for consoles are a bit shy of 40 million, so 7th gen would be around 25 million, and Ps4 just shy of 10 million.

I'm not sure why you find that to be a shockingly large number, though. Somewhere around a quarter of console owners use it to also watch television. If anything, I'd say that's lower than I'd expected.

Yup.... killer app confirmed!!!

MS got mocked because they thought people using media apps alot meant that they bought their consoles for the media apps.

Nearly everything plugged into a modern TV has media apps, why would they pull focus from it's primary function to focus on them?

The Web Browser and PlayStation Vue are the most used apps on my PS4 and Vita by far. I also watch WWE Network and MLB.TV. I usually only game about 3 hours a day between Vita and PS4. I think my day is about 3 hours gaming, 3 hours web browsing, and 3 - 5 hours of TV, Movies, or Live Events.

My room mate uses his Xbox One for Youtube while he games on his phone 90% of the time. When he is not doing that he pretty much only plays NBA 2K.

I also know countless other people that almost exclusively use their console for Netflix, Hulu, and Youtube with very little gaming. That is why I never understood the hate for XBO, I honestly love the XBO OS, and really wish PS4 had the snap feature so I could watch Vue and Browse the web at the same time.

In the future even more non gaming apps will come to the systems, and they will be the main driver of sales, while the games will be a feature that is a nice convenience. At the end of the day though, it will see userbases for the XBO and PS4 platforms reach numbers way beyond what we have seen for consoles. I can easily see 400M consoles sold by Sony and Microsoft by the time the bring out their next platforms.

not me, didn't even bother to open it once after all these years... 

Thanks.  I mean, a Roku box costs, what, $100?  That means they're paying that +$200 for a gaming console for a reason.  

Usage time does not translate directly into a standard value-per-unit, either.  Ten hours playing Bloodborne might have more value to a particular consumer than twenty hours watching Sabrina The Teenage Witch out of boredom.  Personally, I mostly watch stuff when I'm taking a break or when I'm having a meal.

Free netflix is the only source of tv I get!. And my PS4 can conveniently run it.

For $10/month my mother covers herself, my brother, and me even though we live in 3 places 60 miles apart each.

I use PSVue.

It's wonderful.

I often use my Xbox for streaming video. It would probably be equal with game time lately. Something even a couple of years ago I considered an impossibility.

Don Matrick was a visionary ahead of his time!