According to the latest data, Microsoft Edge has become the world's second most popular desktop browser after Google Chrome. Safari has been the most popular browser on Apple's platforms, including Mac, iPhones and iPads, while Chrome has long dominated on Windows and Android.
Built on Microsoft's EdgeHTML engine and released in 2015 for Windows 10, the original Microsoft Edge failed to gain much traction with users due to less-than-stellar performance and the lack of third-party extensions. However, the switch to Chromium has worked wonders for the browser, thanks to the faster rendering engine and extensive compatibility with extensions on the Chrome Web Store.
According to data from analytics company Statcounter, Microsoft Edge surpassed Apple's Safari as the second-most used desktop web browser globally, with a 10.07 percent market share in April 2022. Safari was pushed down to number three with a 9.61 percent share of the market, while Google Chrome continued to dominate the sector with a massive 66.64 percent share. Mozilla's open-source Firefox browser came in at number four with 7.86 percent of the global browser market, while Opera rounded out the top five with a 2.43 percent market share. Interestingly, the long-deprecated Internet Explorer still had a 0.97 percent market share as of last month.
Chrome Dominates On Mobile As Well
Interestingly, most of the top five browsers seem to have held steady over the past twelve months, meaning none have seen either a massive increase or decrease in their users. However, there have been slight fluctuations, with Edge seemingly the primary beneficiary, improving from a 7.96 percent market share in April 2021. However, from the start of this year, Firefox has lost a significant amount of users despite rolling out regular updates, bug fixes, security enhancements and performance improvements. In January, the browser had a 9.18 percent market share, which improved to 9.47 percent in February but has since declined to below 8 percent.
Chrome once again dominated the market on the mobile side of things with a massive 63.57 percent market share as of April 2022. Safari came in at a comfortable number two with a 24.82 percent market share, while Samsung Internet was the third-most used browser with a 4.9 percent share. Opera, with 1.88 percent, was the fourth-most popular browser on mobiles, while the UC browser rounded out the top five with a 1.41 percent market share. Interestingly Firefox only came in at a lowly eighth with just 0.53 percent share, while Microsoft Edge couldn't even make it into the top nine, possibly reflecting that many people simply use the default browsers on their mobile devices rather than installing a third-party app of their choice.