Microsoft Edge gained less than 2% market share in 2022

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 number one with out-of-reach share, while Edge, Safari, and Firefox continue fighting for the second place.

Note: Statcounter's findings are not 100% accurate, so take reports like this with a reasonably-sized grain of salt. You can learn how Statcounter gathers its data in the official fact sheet.

According to Statcounter, Chrome currently holds a 66.16% market share. In December 2022, Google's browser lost only 0.02 points (down from 66.18% in November 2022), which might be just 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 harder for Apple to push past its current market share. Statcounter claims Apple Safari currently holds 8.98% (-0.61 points). Firefox is fourth with 7.22% (+0.12 points), and Opera is fifth with 3.29% (-0.3 points).

Charts showing desktop browser market shares in dec 2022

As we enter the unknowns of 2023, let's see browsers' shares compared to the previous years to spot year-over-year growths or declines.

The overall picture did not change much for well-established players. Google Chrome has been stable in its 65-70% spot with periodical rises and dips, and the same applies to Apple Safari with its 9% market share. Firefox did experience a notable decrease in users from about 10% in early 2020 to the current 7.22%.

Microsoft Edge shows that disrupting the desktop browser market is a tremendously difficult task even for Microsoft, with its 1+ billion active Windows devices capable of running Chromium-based Edge. Although Microsoft Edge keeps climbing, its year-over-year growth is less than 2%. Getting users to jump-ship from Chrome to Edge is hard, which explains why Microsoft sometimes resorts to not-so-user-friendly practices of imposing Edge using all sorts of annoying methods.