What is the most widely used browser in the world? If you are looking for the answer to this question, you have come to the right place. In this article we will analyse which are the most popular web browsers from 1996 to 2021 with some insights. In order to create the share of web browsers I used several sources. From 2009 to 2021 the data refers to StatCounter. For the years 1996 to 2009 I used W3Counter, Wikimedia, Clicky, StatOwl, AT Internet Institute. The data for the early years refer to interviews with different samples of respondents mainly in the United States.
Most popular web browsers
In September 2021, Chrome was the number one browser among the 10 most used in the world. According to StatCounter data, almost 65% of users use Chrome as their web browser. The second most popular browser is Safari with 18.75%. Chrome and Safari together occupy over 80% of the total worldwide browser market by usage. In third place, we find Edge with a value of 3.57%. Edge has almost 20 times less usage than Chrome. Continuing the ranking we find Firefox, with 3.55 and Samsung Internet with 2.89. Internet Explorer is also in the top 10. Microsoft decided a few years ago to focus entirely and exclusively on Edge, but even today there remains a share of users who use IE.
If we move the hand of time to 25 years earlier, the situation was quite different. In this case, the data refers to surveys carried out at that time. There may well have been other browsers, but the video shows the main ones. In first position, in the second quarter of 1996, was Netscape. Netscape, which led the first browser war with Internet Explorer, was for many years the most widely used browser in the world. According to data, Netscape users in 1996 were as high as 80%. In second place was Internet Explorer with almost 10%, followed by Mosaic and Opera. In the following years, the first browser war took place between Netscape and Internet Explorer.
Browser Wars
Although the first successful browser was Mosaic, the first browser war took place between Netscape and Internet Explorer. At the end of 1995, these two browsers competed for market share. The challenge initially took place through continuous browser modifications. But at a certain point, the choice that allowed Internet Explorer to win over Netscape was a different one. Microsft decided to pre-install the Internet Explorer 3 browser in its own operating system, Windows 95. This move, which was, among other things, denounced by Netscape for violating market freedom, allowed Internet to conquer a large part of the market. Despite being condemned for its dominant position in 1997, Microsoft continued to reinstall IE in its operating system in the following years. In the course of time, IE came to have more than 80% of the world’s users. And Netscape was bought by AOL. Thus ended the first browser war, with Internet Explorer, in spite of everything, succeeding in defeating Netscape.
Most popular web browsers 2021
After the first browser war was over, and after a few years in which Internet Explorer seemed to dominate the market, new browsers began to be developed over time. Firefox released its first version in 2002, Opera became free for the first time, and Safari became the default browser on Mac systems. While Firefox seemed to be the first direct competitor of Internet Explorer between 2008/2010, it was Chrome that exploded during those years. After many years of dominance by Internet Explorer, Chrome overtook IE as the world’s most used browser for the first time in 2012. For more than 9 years now, Chrome has led the ranking of the world’s most used browsers, having reached 65% of users worldwide in 2021. Not only that, Internet Explorer has changed its design a few years ago by launching Edge. But Edge currently has 3.57% of users and has been overtaken in turn by Safari which in 2021 has almost a 20% share of the market.
Internet Explorer was shut down on June 15
The first version of Internet Explorer was released almost 27 years ago, on August 16, 1995. As of Wednesday, June 15, one, if not the most popular online browsing program (browser) IE will no longer be updated. This will therefore result in Microsoft’s abandonment of this browser that has made Internet history. The news had been published by Microsoft last year.
Most Popular Browser 2022 (May):
- Chrome: 64,95%;
- Safari: 19,01%;
- Edge: 3,99%;
- Firefox: 3,26%;
- Samsung Internet: 2,85%;
- Opera: 2,11%;
- UC Browser: 0,76%;
- Android: 0,70%;
- Internet Explorer: 0,64%;
- 360 Safe Browser: 0,23%;
Source and links
I used several sources for this aIn order to create the share of web browsers I used several sources. From 2009 to 2021 the data refers to StatCounter. For the years 1996 to 2009 I used W3Counter, Wikimedia, Clicky, StatOwl, AT Internet Institute. The data for the early years refer to interviews with different samples of respondents mainly in the United States.
See the video here: Most Popular Web Browsers – 1996/2021: https://youtu.be/3S23cO5orLo
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