The biggest Prime Day deal was one I didn’t expect

Prime Day has come and gone, and according to Amazon, Prime Day 2022 was its most successful yet, bringing in $3 billion for the two-day event. This shows that amid rising inflation and a cost-of-living crisis, people are craving bargains wherever they can find them.

Perhaps, as I thought, the items that would sell best would be the expensive items. Given that this is a sound and vision column, that would be TVs, soundbars, headphones, wireless speakers, etc. But at least in the UK this was not the case. According to data released by Amazon, people actually needed 110 Finish Powerballs, Rimmel mascara, Purina cat food, Garnier SkinActive serum, and a Shark Cordless vacuum cleaner.

But to bring it back to audiovisual products, the best-selling item in the UK was – drum – the Amazon Fire TV Stick with Alexa voice remote control. And I’m actually quite surprised.

It’s a surprise because we’re supposed to live in the 4K era (the era I keep trying to beat the drum for), but this particular Fire TV Stick only supports resolutions up to HD (1080p) and HDR. Did people buy it for their HDTVs, turning them into smart TVs? Or was it because the price was so low that they decided to throw 4K to the wind and settle for HD instead? Or have they unwittingly bought a streamer that doesn’t support 4K?

If so, they’re missing out on that optimal performance that comes with 4K, but maybe they’re not subscribed to 4K tiers of streaming services. If that’s not the case, then it seems a bit odd that people have latched on to a streaming stick that doesn’t get included in the full offering they get.

The other surprise is that people bought a streaming stick at all. It’s surprising to me that the Fire TV Stick was a priority for many people during Prime Day, more so than a new TV, a new soundbar, or a new pair of headphones (although on that front, it looked like Bose beat Sony, according to reports from Amazon). This certainly speaks to the increase in the number of sofas during the pandemic, an increase that is sustained as we emerge from this sedentary time with many people Amazon customers still engaging with the apps that have entertained them for the past two years .

But there’s also Alexa intelligence to consider. There’s no point in buying an Amazon streaming stick if you don’t want to make the most of Alexa, and with optional integration with doorbells and heating systems, perhaps the Fire TV Stick’s popularity shows that households are getting smarter.

Hopefully people actually bought the streaming stick they were after, or there could be a lot of refunds from Amazon in the coming days.