21+ Web Browser Market Share Statistics and Facts [2020]

According to the web browser market share statistics, web browsers are part of what sparked the “internet boom” in the 90s. From Netscape Explorer, down to Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Safari, and Chrome browser from Google, the web browser market has experienced fierce competition down the years with almost all competitors vying for the top spot at separate intervals. Furthermore, the battle for the best web browser has continued for more than three decades. 

With that in mind, we have scoured the web to bring you some of the most mouth-watering and up-to-date web browser market share statistics that you need to know in 2020.

Fascinating Web Browser Statistics

To help satisfy your curiosity a little, here are some fascinating web browser statistics for 2020.

• Internet Explorer has a market share of 6.38% of the web browser market this 2020.
• Google Chrome holds 63.93% share of the total web browser market in 2020
• Safari browser has a market share of 18.19% of the total web browser market in 2020.
• Firefox has a 4.38% market share of the total web browser market in 2020.
• Safari is the most used web browser on tablets.
• Chrome for Android is the most used web browser version.
• Google Chrome is the most vulnerable web browser with 177 identified weak spots in 2019.

Hold on, we have even more in stock for you!

Web Browser Market Share in 2020 

The web browser market has been changing hands since day one. Customers will always flock to that browser that offers the best user-experience and flawless service 24/7. Keep reading to find out the top web browsers which hold the highest and the least market share in 2020.

1. Internet Explorer has a market share of 6.38% in 2020.

(Source: Net Market Share) 

As of 2004, the Internet Explorer (IE) web browser from Microsoft had a 95% market share of the total web browser market. According to current web browser usage statistics, the market share of IE recorded in 2020 is a stark difference compared to what held in the early 2000s.

What could have caused such a downward streak?

Some of the key reasons why IE is slowly going into oblivion include:

• Security concerns,
• Lack of adaptability,
• Lack of support for modern browsing essentials such as extensions,
• Inability to quickly detect and fix bugs, and
• Difficulty updating outdated browser versions.

2. Google Chrome holds a 63.93% share of the total web browser market in 2020.

(Source: Stat Counter) 

Did you know that as of 2009, the combined web browser market share of both Google Chrome and Safari was less than 7%? 

Back then, Mozilla and IE were the chief pioneers of web browser usage, with a market share of 45.5% and 44.8% respectively. Google released the first version of Chrome in 2008. Ever since, it has slowly but steadily taken over the market, standing tall as the most preferred web browser across various devices, countries, and even search engines.

3. The Safari web browser has a market share of 18.19% of the total web browser market in 2020.

(Source: Stat Counter) 

According to browser statistics for 2020, Safari is the second most preferred web browser. Since the release of its first version in January 2003, Safari has undergone countless updates with new and improved features added in the process. 

Safari is also the default web browser of all iOS devices worldwide, which has helped to skyrocket its popularity to date.

4. Firefox has a 4.38% market share of the total web browser market across all platforms in 2020.

(Source: Stat Counter)

In January 2010, Firefox had a market share of 24.23%. By the end of 2011, this value had slightly decreased to 23.25%. However, in April 2015, statistics on the most popular browsers indicate that its stock began to fall massively, settling down at a market share of around 11.7%. 

Some of the major contributing reasons for the decline of Firefox in the web browser market include the slow integration of new features and the slow release of newer versions. Plus, the rapid rise of Google Chrome also factored.

5. There are currently over 1.78 billion websites on the internet in 2020.

(Source: Internet Live Stats) 

Browser statistics show that this is a stark difference from the ten sites registered on the Web as of 1992. 

Furthermore, as long as there is an increasing number of websites on the internet, there will always be demand for web browsers that meet the needs of customers. Web developers that are unable to keep up with the demands of the marketplace will continue to go obsolete.  

6. Chrome for Android is the most used web browser version with a market share of 31.26%.

(Source: Stat Counter)

Did you know that there are over 4.5 billion active internet users around the world in 2020?

Over 1 billion of them use Chrome for Android. Chrome 81.0 follows suit, with a market share of 23.72%. Safari iPhone sits in the third position with a market share of 12.32%.

Web Browser Statistics by Country 

Let’s take a look at some of the most used web browsers worldwide. Prepare to see some truly fascinating web browser usage statistics by country for 2020.

7. Safari is the most used mobile web browser in the US, with a market share of 55.04% of the total US mobile web browser market.

(Source: Stat Counter)

Google Chrome remains the top web browser across all platforms in the US, with a market share of 47.56%. However, it is not the leading web browser for US mobile users as its mobile market share sits at 38.37%.

The dominance of Apple’s Safari in the US can be traced to the fact that the iOS accounts for 58.54% of the total mobile operating system market share in the US. In addition, Safari is the default browser of all iOS devices.

US mobile browser statistics reveal that Firefox holds less than 1% of the total US mobile web browser market. 

8. UC browser has the second-highest web browser market share in India with 12.59% of the total.

(Source: Stat Counter) 

Google Chrome maintains its undisputed dominance with a market share of 75.23% in India. Surprisingly, statistics on the Indian web browser market share indicate that Safari is down with a market share of 3.2% in the country. 

The UC browser was one of the first browsers to meet the expectations of internet users in the country. As such, a significant portion of them has kept faith with the web browser despite the increasing popularity of Chrome. 

Firstly, the UC browser allows for a convenient browsing speed with its “Lite mode” even with a 2G network (which is what is still obtainable in selected places around India). Secondly, it has been proven to save data up to 79% better than Chrome and Firefox anytime 1000 MB worth of web page(s) is loaded.

9. Google Chrome holds 69.54% of the total Asia web browser market.

(Source: Stat Counter) 

Statistics on browser market share in Asia reveal that Chrome is followed by Safari with a market share of 11.75%. Since overtaking IE in the first quarter of 2012 as the most used web browser in Asia, Chrome has not looked back, maintaining its steady growth over the years. The use of IE and Firefox continues to decline. 

It is also worth mentioning that it took just 3.5 years after the launch of Google Chrome for it to overtake IE as the most used web browser in Asia.

10. Oceania is the region with the highest usage of Safari, where it has a market share of 31.21%.

(Source: Stat Counter)

Although Google Chrome remains the most significant shareholder of the web browser market in Oceania with a 54% market share, it is still followed closely by Safari. Plus, no other region in the continent uses Safari as much. According to statistics on web browser market share for 2020, only the United States (which happens to be a country, not region) has a higher market share Safari – 35.91%.

11. Chrome is the most popular web browser in China, with a market share of 46.93%.

(Source: Stat Counter) 

According to the China web browser market share statistics, UC comes second with a market share of 12.9%. Aside from the fact that a Chinese company owns the UC web browser, its other cost-saving features make it the browser of choice for low-income earners. 

What’s more, the UC web browser has a mini/lite version that allows users with low-memory space mobile phones to comfortably install the app and still enjoy the same features. It also provides its users with a cloud storage platform through the U-Disk option. 

12. 83.55% of the whole South America web browser market belongs to Chrome.

(Source: Stat Counter)

South America represents one of the regions where Chrome has its highest penetration. The other popular browsers in South America are Safari (6.58%), Firefox (3.41%), and Samsung Internet (2.07%). 

According to browser usage statistics by continent, in North America, Chrome and Safari are the most used browsers with a market share of 51.73% and 32.29%, respectively.

Mobile Browser Statistics in 2020

For years mobile has been the most preferred platform for internet users worldwide. As of Q1 2020, 51.92% of all internet traffic is coming from mobile. 

The following are some of our most carefully selected mobile browser usage statistics for 2020:

13. Google Chrome is the most used browser on mobile with a 61.61% market share.

(Source: Stat Counter) 

Safari sits in the second position with a market share of 24.45%, while Samsung Internet occupies the third position with a market share of 6.51%. According to statistics on Samsung Internet web browser market share, the Samsung Internet web browser has been downloaded more than 1 billion times on the Google Play Store alone.

14. Safari is the most used web browser on tablets with a market share of 49.69%.

(Source: Stats Counter)

This shouldn’t come as a surprise given that Apple has the highest share of the total tablet vendor market with a 63.11% market share in 2020. Plus, all of Apple’s tablets come with a pre-installed Safari browser, which acts as the default browser of all Apple’s tablets.

Chrome market share stats reveal that Safari is followed closely by Chrome with a market share of 36.37%. 

15. Google Chrome for Android has been downloaded more than 5 billion times.

(Source: Softonic)

Back in 2015, Google Chrome had already hit the 1 billion downloads mark on the Play Store alone. It is worth mentioning that the Google Chrome browser only debuted as a pre-installed app on Android devices in 2012. 

16. On mobile, Safari is the most popular web browser in the US with a market share of 55.04% in 2020.

(Source: Stat Counter) 

We already mentioned that Safari is the second most used browser across all mobile platforms after Chrome. However, according to statistics on the US web browser market share, in the US, Chrome sits in the second position with a market share of 38.37%. 

Apple has a larger mobile market share in the US. All of their mobile devices come with a pre-installed Safari browser as its default browser. As such, there is almost no need for users to download any external browser to their iOS devices

17. 52.18% of mobile browsers in China prefer to browse with Chrome.

(Source: Stat Counter)

Surprisingly, mobile browser statistics in China indicate that the UC Browser is the second most popular mobile web browser in China, with a market share of 20.42%. QQ browser comes third with a market share of 12.16%, higher than Safari, which has a market share of 11.45%. 

The QQ browser is another Chinese-owned web browser. However, it has a number of distinguishing features, with the most prominent being that it gives room for integration with other chat platforms.

18. Chrome has its lowest market on iOS devices with a market share of just 5.63%.

(Source: Net Market Share)

This stat right here is a no brainer!

Apple users are loyal to the fault!

Browser User Statistics

At this point, you should have an idea of some of the most popular browsers across several platforms. Now, let us dive into some of the most exciting internet browser usage statistics to find out how users interact with them!

19. 94% of mobile ad-blocking is coming from the Asia-Pacific.

(Source: Exo Click)

Aside from being one of the largest mobile internet markets worldwide, the Asia-Pacific is also prominent in ad-blocking. This follows as roughly 36% of all smartphone users in that region use ad-blocking. This comes as no surprise, considering the best antivirus and VPN services come with built-in ad-blockers. 

Countries like China and India have millions of users using ad-blockers. However, research has shown that the rise of the usage of ad-blocking services in the Asia-Pacific is majorly due to limited data plans of mobile users rather than the need of getting rid of intrusive ads.

20. Google Chrome is the most vulnerable web browser with 177 identified weak sports in 2019.

(Source: CVE Details)

The Google Chrome browser is open-source software, which means that members of the public can download and tweak its source code at any point in time. Despite the numerous benefits this provides, it also comes with its challenges. For example, the open-source gives room for hackers to try and penetrate its source code looking for vulnerabilities that have not yet been identified by the Chrome security team. 

Web browser statistics indicate that other browsers like Firefox and Safari each have 105 and 68 detected vulnerabilities, respectively.

21. 75% of all Internet Explorer and Edge browser users are running on outdated browsers.

(Source: Finances Online)

According to Microsoft web browser market share statistics, Microsoft has ended its support for all other IE versions except the IE 11 in a bid to prompt its users to download the new Edge browser. The modern Edge browser has better features and is well adapted to the current browser market.

22. Businesses are exposed to as much as 18.5 million malware-infected websites every time an employee accesses the internet through a web browser.

(Source: Security Week)

According to browser usage security statistics, at least 60% of businesses worldwide have suffered one way or another from a malware attack that came in through a web browser. This explains why companies and individuals need to be on the lookout for possible threats and put necessary security measures to protect their most sensitive data.

Wrap Up

The web browser market share is currently being dominated by a few browsers such as Google Chrome, Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Samsung Internet, UC browser, etc. 

Internet Explorer is no longer considered a significant player in the web browser market. Will Edge be the salvation for Microsoft?

We’ll surely be interested to find out!