Record market share for Microsoft browser despite allegations

The browser market has been firmly in the hands of Google’s Chrome for years. But Edge user numbers have been slowly but steadily increasing. The browser has now reached a new record. However, competitors are accusing Microsoft of unfair tactics.

Edge is growing steadily

According to data from Statcounter Edge’s value in July 2024 was 13.74 percent, 0.39 percentage points higher than in the previous month. Over the course of the last year, the browser was able to record an increase in user numbers of almost a quarter. According to the competition, however, this development is at least partly due to Microsoft’s questionable practices, with which the company allegedly encourages users to use its own browser. The competition has already complained about the so-called ‘platform tilt’ and the use of manipulative ‘dark patterns’ with which Microsoft is said to manipulate users when choosing a browser.

Chrome could scare away users

Despite all this, Chrome is still unassailable with a market share of 64.73 percent. However, there could soon be a dent in the trend curve of the world’s most popular browser. This is because Google is switching from Manifest V2 to Manifest V3. In concrete terms, this means that a number of browser extensions for Chrome will no longer work by the beginning of 2025 at the latest. Adblockers such as uBlock Origin are particularly hard hit. This is because Manifest V3 severely limits the range of functions of such extensions.

Firefox as a beneficiary?

Firefox in particular could benefit from this fact. The Mozilla team will continue to support Manifest V2. This means that some users could switch from Chrome. In the current comparison, Firefox is in fourth place with a market share of 6.64 percent, just behind Apple’s Safari with 9.09 percent. But smaller browsers are also becoming increasingly popular.

Brave, for example, recently reported a record number of users. Almost 79 million people now use the open source browser with built-in ad and tracking blocker. Are you planning to switch browsers? And if so, when and why? Or do you think the differences are so small that it doesn’t make any difference what you use to surf the web?