VLC, our favorite open-source media player, has crossed a monumental milestone with over 6 billion downloads worldwide, as announced at CES 2025 in Las Vegas. In addition to this achievement, the VideoLAN team has a significant surprise that could radically change how we consume video content.
The journey began in 1996 at École Centrale Paris, where a group of passionate students aimed to stream videos on campus. This student project led to the creation of VideoLAN, which has since become one of the world's most popular media players, used by hundreds of millions.
The big news at CES 2025 is the announcement of an AI-powered automatic subtitle generation system that works entirely locally, ensuring user privacy. As per Jean-Baptiste Kempf, president of VideoLAN, the number of active VLC users continues to grow, even in the streaming era. The official release date for the automatic subtitle feature is yet to be announced, but this 6 billion download milestone highlights VLC's significant impact as the most beloved open-source media player globally.
