The browser wars continue to rage unabated as the latest figures place Microsoft Edge on the verge of surpassing Apple's Safari (opens in new tab) offering when it comes to desktop market share.
According to data (opens in new tab) from web analytics service StatCounter, Microsoft Edge is now used on 9.54% of desktops worldwide, just behind Safari at 9.84%.
As you may have guessed, Google Chrome (opens in new tab) still holds the top spot at 65.38%, with fellow challenger Mozilla Firefox now trailling in behind with 9.18%.
Microsoft Edge or Safari?
While Edge may be catching up to Safari worldwide, in North America it's a different story, as Apple's browser is used on 16.87% of desktops compared to Edge's 11.93% market share.
In Europe and Asia though, Edge has already leapfrogged Safari at 10.9% and 7.46% respectively with Apple's browser used on 9.95% of desktops in Europe and just 5.41% in Asia.
Since Safari is the default browser on Apple's iPhone (opens in new tab) and iPad (opens in new tab), it has a 26.71% of mobile market share worldwide which still pales in comparison to Chrome's 62.06% market share on both iOS and Android.
Although Microsoft Edge has been downloaded over 10 million times on the Google Play Store and the app has 4.6 stars on Apple's App Store, the browser isn't even listed in StatCounter's mobile market share rankings.
Edge Legacy vs Chromium Edge
While Chromium-based Edge (opens in new tab) was released in 2020, Microsoft originally created Edge Legacy for Windows 10 (opens in new tab) and the company's replacement for Internet Explorer was unveiled back in 2015. Before then, it was known by its codename “Spartan” in reference to Halo's Master Chief.
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Even though Edge Legacy only lasted a short while, Microsoft did port the browser to both Android and iOS in 2017 and included the ability to sync the browser with Windows 10 desktops. In March of last year though, Microsoft ended support for Edge Legacy (opens in new tab) before replacing its old browser with Chromium-based Edge as part of a cumulative monthly security update.
Following the release of its brand new Edge browser, the software giant has continued to update it with new features and functionality including Vertical Tabs (opens in new tab), Collections (opens in new tab), Web Capture (opens in new tab) and more. These efforts may not have dethroned Chrome but they have certainly taken away market share from Safari at least on desktop.
If you haven't given Edge a try yet or only have experience with Edge Legacy, there's never been a better time to test out Microsoft's browser. For those that managed to snag an Xbox Series X (opens in new tab), Edge even runs on Microsoft's console and can be used to stream games with Nvidia GeForce Now (opens in new tab).
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