Roku City

Roku City is the name given to a screensaver present on Roku streaming devices. The looping background depicts a virtual metropolis at night, colored by hues of magenta and blue.

Overview

The screensaver depicts a slowly looping city street in the foreground, composed of businesses, a diner, a movie theater, and a city hall. Across a body of water in the background sits a silhouette of skyscrapers and buildings, with unusual amounts of chaos: volcanoes, a spaceship, a robot monster, and more. The complementary color scheme is prominently composed of pink and purple hues. The scene changes with the seasons; in the autumn months, trees change colors. The illustration contains easter eggs^[1] of various films and characters, including King Kong^[2] and The Wizard of Oz.^[3]

The illustrations were created by Kyle Jones,^[4] a freelance graphic artist, who took inspiration from Art Deco architecture to design the city. The name of the background known internally at Roku was City Scroll: Movie Magic, and it debuted in 2018.^[5]

In December 2024, Roku City received its biggest update so far, in which the screensaver was updated from HD (720p) to FHD (1080p), a star button was added to billboards across the city to allow viewers to easily learn more about the program being advertised, and new Easter eggs and the Roku City train station were added to the city.^[6]

Easter Eggs

Roku City is filled with hidden Easter eggs and homages to famous Hollywood movies and tv shows, creating what has been described as a "Where's Waldo?" for the streaming era and inspiring a "new kind of fandom" (in 2022, Roku's internal tracking data showed that Roku City was mentioned once every 11 minutes on Twitter, as reported by The New York Times).^[7][8] Many outlets have covered the popularity of Roku City and how it is fueled by the screensaver's Easter eggs. As one journalist put it, "Roku fans love its screensaver that shows Roku City full of hidden references to movies and TV shows."^[9] Another stressed how Roku City is "updated periodically with the latest hits and Easter eggs to delight fans."^[10] Domenic DiMeglio, the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Paramount Streaming expressed similar thoughts when announcing a new limited-time Paramount neighborhood in Roku City, stating that "[f]ans are always looking for those Easter eggs."^[11]

Current Roku City Easter eggs include:

Background

• The Wizard of Oz: the outline of the Emerald City^{[12][13][14][15][16][17]}
• The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit: the city's volcano is Mount Doom from the Lord of the Rings series and Smaug, a dragon from the Hobbit movies, can be seen flying nearby^{[13][14][15][16]}
• Blade Runner: the Tyrell building (headquarters of the Tyrell Corporation that makes replicants)^[18]
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind: the Devil's Tower^[13][14][15]
• Superman: the Daily Planet building (where Clark Kent works)^{[12][13][14][15][16]}
• Batman: a beam of light resembling the Bat-Signal is projected near the Daily Planet building and the "Batman Building," a real building in Nashville, Tennessee^[15][19]
• The Marvel Cinematic Universe: the Stark Tower, later known as the Avengers Tower^{[12][13][14][15][16]}
• Spider-Man: swinging from the Chrysler Building^{[12][13][14][15][16]}
• King Kong: attacking the Empire State Building^{[13][14][15][16][17]}
• Mars Attacks!: a UFO is attacking Big Ben, as happens in that movie^[13][14][16]
• Mary Poppins: flying over the "Roku City" sign (which itself is an homage to the famous Hollywood Sign)^{[12][13][14][15][16]}
• Star Wars: the Death Star is floating in space^{[12][13][15][17]}
• Sleepless in Seattle: the Seattle Space Needle and a red heart on one of the buildings both serve as homages to this film^{[13][14][15][16]}
• The Matrix: one of the buildings has the iconic green Matrix code scrolling down its side^[13]

Middleground

• Godzilla: emerging from the water^[13][15][16]
• Cast Away: Wilson, the movie's famous volleyball, is sitting on an island in the middle of the water^{[12][13][14][15][16]}
• The Rock/Escape from Alcatraz: Alcatraz, a real, historic island prison central to these movies, is on a rocky island near the Golden Gate Bridge^{[13][14][15][16]}
• Pirates of the Caribbean: a kraken is threatening to destroy the Black Pearl, similar to a scene at the end of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest^{[12][13][14][15][16]}
• Jaws: a shark is following the fishing boat from this movie^{[12][13][14][15][16][17]}
• The Hunt for Red October: the submarine is a likely homage to this film^{[13][14][15][16]}

Foreground: Buildings

• Psycho: the Bates House (Alfred Hitchcock's silhouette can be seen in a window)^[13][14][16]
• Back to the Future: the Hill Valley Courthouse is adorned with Emmet "Doc" Brown's plugs hanging off its central clock and Marty McFly's skateboard on the courthouse's steps^{[12][13][14][15][16][17]}
• Ghostbusters: the fire station is the Ghostbusters' team headquarters and the Ectomobile, their primary vehicle, is parked in the open firehouse doors^{[12][13][15][17]}
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: three of the turtles can be seen on and around the power plant^{[12][13][15][16][17]}
• The Graduate: a famous scene from this movie (and its poster) can be seen in the top right window of an apartment building^{[12][13][14][15][16]}
• Barbershop: the titular barbershop^[13][14][16]
• Rear Window: a man with binoculars resembling James Stewart can be seen in the right apartment window above the barbershop^[12][13][15]
• A Christmas Story: the leg lamp can be seen in the top left window of an apartment building^{[12][13][14][15][16]}
• Harry Potter: Harry's luggage trolley (complete with his owl, Hedwig) from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone can be seen in the train station^[15]
• The Simpsons: the car entrance in front of the power plant matches the one where Homer works^[17]
• West Side Story: diagonal fire escapes behind an apartment building^[13][14][16]

Foreground: Sidewalk and Street

• Doctor Who: the Doctor's iconic TARDIS is parked on the sidewalk in front of the courthouse^{[12][13][14][15][16]}
• Singing in the Rain: a lamp post with an umbrella next to it can be seen in front of an apartment building^{[12][13][14][15][16]}
• Forrest Gump: the famous bench Tom Hanks sits on with a box of chocolates in this movie is in front of an apartment building, next to the Singing in the Rain lamp post^{[12][13][14][15][16]}
• Lady and the Tramp: sidewalk candle-lit table in front of the Italian restaurant^{[13][14][15][16]}
• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: bicycle with a crate attached that Elliot uses to transport E.T. in the movie is in front of the power plant^[15][17]
• Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory: Wonka's famous hat and cane are on the steps in front of the power plant's door^[15]
• Grease: Greased Lightning, the movie's famous car, is parked on the left in front of the diner^[20]
• National Lampoon's Vacation: the Griswold's family car is parked in the middle in front of the diner^[15][17][20]
• Purple Rain: Prince's motorcycle is parked on the right in front of the diner^[20]
• Ferris Bueller's Day Off: Cameron's dad's car is parked on a jack in front of the movie theater, a reference to how Ferris and Cameron attempt to reverse the car's extra mileage at the end of the film^{[13][15][17][20]}
• 101 Dalmatians: a dalmatian dog can be seen sticking his head out of Cruella De Vil's car as it drives down the street^[12][20]
• James Bond: the spy's famous Ashton Martin is driving down the street^[12][15][20]
• Cars: Ramone, one of the movies titular personified cars, is driving down the street^[12][15][20]
• Fast & Furious: Dominic Toretto's iconic Dodge Charger is driving down the street^[15][20]
• Squid Game: A van from the show can be seen driving down the street^[15]
• A Minecraft Movie: A mine cart containing a Creeper, Minecraft’s most iconic mob, can be seen driving down the street^[21]
• It: George’s lost paper boat can be seen floating on puddle of water on the curb.

Diner video game: The Last Starfighter.

Advertising

It slowly began adding advertising to the city through branded partnerships in 2023,^[22] including with McDonald's,^[23] Paramount+,^[24] and Disney.^[25] Roku built a real life, pop-up display of Roku City for the 2023 SXSW festival.^[26]

Reception

As Roku became a popular player in the streaming space, the ubiquity of Roku City gave rise to semi-ironic fascination among users, and it became the focus of memes.^[3] Olivia Craighead of Gawker wrote: "Roku City haunts me. What would it be like to live in such a place, where there is peace in one borough while just a river away there is mass hysteria and a giant robot is terrorizing the masses."^[27] Roku's internal team observed an uptick in attention at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when most people stayed home and nightlife was nonexistent.^[5]

Its widespread usage has been considered unprecedented. Luke Winkie at The New York Times wrote: "Roku has become the unlikely venue for a massive public art experiment. Due to the size of the company’s customer base, countless homes peer into Roku City every weeknight."^[5]