There’s no denying the remarkable growth of over-the-top (OTT) video services, driven by better broadband networks, a rising tide of attractive content (think House of Cards, Orange (News - Alert) is the New Black) and, crucially, the increasing availability of consumer electronics products that can efficiently support OTT. SNL Kagan MRG’s latest research shows that one of these categories has particularly seen a big spike in penetration: streaming media devices and OTT set-tops.

SNL Kagan found that worldwide unit shipments of streaming media players has increased by more than 50 percent to reach nearly 15 million units in 2013. And while that growth is expected to flatten out over the course of the forecast period, the sustained consumer demand so far has actually been surprising to the firm’s analysts.

“While many felt that these products would be quickly replaced by other consumer electronics devices capable of streaming video such as smart TVs and Internet-connected Blu-ray players, the streaming media player market continues to shrug off such challenges,” explained senior analyst Mike Paxton. “Low prices and ease of use have led to continued consumer demand with many households enjoying more than one of these devices.”

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While Apple (News - Alert) TV remains the leading streaming media player product on the market, the space continues to grow, as witnessed by the launch of Amazon Fire TV, increasing interest in Roku and the warm reception received by Google’s (News - Alert) Chromecast dongle. In fact, approximately 40 different vendors are currently shipping streaming media player products.

These vendors run the gamut from consumer electronics giants such as Samsung, Sony, and Hisense (News - Alert), to start-up companies like Nano Tech and QPlay.

The segment will be unlikely to keep up the incredible growth for that long however as it may run out of runway, so to speak. SNL Kagan noted that approximately 90% of all streaming media player unit shipments occur in North America, and in order for the market segment to continue to growing, vendors will need to push their products into new markets such as Western Europe and select countries in Asia.