5 May, 2022
Microsoft Edge overtakes Safari as the world’s second most popular browser
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Microsoft Edge has officially surpassed Apple’s Safari as the world’s second most popular desktop browser, according to web analytics firm StatCounter. 

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The Edge user base has steadily climbed since the release of Windows 11 and that’s helped take it above Safari and keep it there Since March 2022. 

Edge now holds 10.07% market share, according to StatCounter, just slightly ahead of Safri on 9.961%. Unsurprisingly Google’s Chrome is by far the top desktop browser with a massive 66.64% market share. Below Safari is Firefox, which saw its market share drop from 9.47% in February to just 7.86% three months later.

Still, the rise of Edge is worth noting; it debuted in 2015, initially built on a proprietary browser engine developed by Microsoft. It was the long-awaited replacement for the soon-to-be-binned Internet Explorer, but the original version of Microsoft Edge didn’t go down well with users. It was rebuilt three years later on the same Chromium code as Google’s Chrome browser. That would now appear to have been a very shrewd decision, along with making Edge the default web browser in Windows 11. 

That could very well be the reason Edge isn’t as popular on other devices. On mobile, for instance, its market share is almost non-existent. Chrome is again the dominant browser with 63.57% market share and the iOS version of Safari taking up 24.82%. Across all platforms, Edge again trails both Chrome and Safari; Chrome takes up 64.36% while Safari holds 19.13%, compared to just 4.07% for Edge. Again, Firefox makes up the top four with 3.41%. 

There is still, however, the potential for Edge to gain more market share considering the slow adoption of Windows 11. Reports suggest that a considerable number of desktops and laptops are still running Windows 10 and as more and more switch they’ll be taking on Edge as their default browser.