Amazon said it has stopped releasing new Fire Stick models that permit sideloading because of malware risks associated with pirated streaming apps.
The company moved its newest sticks to Vega OS, a Linux-based platform that unlike the prior Fire OS blocks sideloading and gives Amazon tighter control over app support, ad placement and features such as its Alexa+ subscription and generative-AI integration.
"Apps that facilitate piracy, and other apps, can carry malware," Aidan Marcuss, vice president of Fire TV, advertising and the Appstore, said in an interview, per Cord Busters.
Rights holders and researchers have long blamed Fire Sticks for enabling streaming piracy, Sky Sports, the Premier League and DAZN were cited, and a May 2025 Enders Analysis report said Fire Sticks enabled billions of dollars' worth of piracy.
Amazon pointed to concrete incidents, saying in 2025 it blacklisted four video-streaming apps for malicious behaviour, while a 2018 XDA Forums discussion documented a botnet that installed cryptocurrency-mining malware on some devices.
The article also noted Vega blocks custom launchers that helped users avoid Amazon tracking and ads, and that Amazon has historically sold Fire Sticks at a loss, creating an incentive to monetise the hardware.
In the UK the two Vega-based Fire Sticks support about 3,000 apps versus roughly 40,000 on Fire OS models, and Amazon said developers who register their devices can still sideload apps.
