Statcounter has published its latest report, revealing information about different browsers on different platforms and operating systems. The overall picture has not changed – Google Chrome remains in first place with sharing out of reach, while Edge, Safari and Firefox continue to fight for second place.
note: Statcounter’s findings are not 100% accurate, so take such reports with a reasonable sized grain of salt. You can learn how Statcounter collects its data in the official information sheet.
According to Statcounter, Chrome currently holds a market share of 66.16%. In December 2022, Google’s browser lost only 0.02 points (down from 66.18% in November 2022), which may just be a margin of error. Microsoft Edge is unsurprisingly the second most popular desktop browser with a much more modest 10.99% (-0.18 points).
Safari is the only non-cross-platform browser in the report, and its macOS exclusivity makes it difficult for Apple to surpass its current market share. Statcounter claims that Apple Safari now owns 8.98% (-0.61 points). Firefox is in fourth place with 7.22% (+0.12 points), and Opera is in fifth place with 3.29% (-0.3 points).
As we head into 2023, let’s look at browser shares compared to previous years to identify year-over-year increases or decreases.
The overall picture hasn’t changed much for established players. Google Chrome was stable at 65-70% with periodic ups and downs, and the same applies to Apple Safari with a 9% market share. Firefox did experience a significant drop in users from around 10% at the beginning of 2020 to the current 7.22%.
Microsoft Edge shows that disrupting the desktop browser market is a very difficult task even for Microsoft, with its 1+ billion active Windows devices capable of running Chromium-based Edge. Although Microsoft Edge continues to climb, its year-over-year growth is less than 2%. It’s hard to get users to switch from Chrome to Edge, which explains why Microsoft sometimes resort to not-so-user-friendly methods of dumping Edge using all sorts of annoying methods.
You can find more details on Statcounter’s latest monthly report on the official website.