Browser wars: Microsoft Edge is steaming away from an established rival

Is Microsoft Edge ready to compete with the real big guns?

Slowly but surely, Microsoft Edge is beginning to establish a lead over veteran web browser Firefox, new data suggests.

According to the latest figures from StatCounter, Microsoft Edge now holds 3.99% of the market, up from 3.77% at the end of September. And since this time last year, the browser’s share has increased by roughly a third.

Mozilla’s web browser, meanwhile, has lost market share in eight of the last twelve months, and now accounts for just 3.66% of activity on the web.

Microsoft Edge overtook Firefox in the rankings for the first time back in May, albeit by a very fine margin. However, the latest surge has now put daylight between the pair.

Still a long way to climb for Edge

Since its (re-)launch in January 2020, the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge has been broadly well-received, courtesy of a series of upgrades that modernized the user experience.

The handsome adoption figures can be attributed in part to more focused marketing efforts, but also to the steady stream of improvements introduced since Edge Chromium went live.

In recent weeks, for example, Microsoft has rolled out new features for shoppers ahead of Black Friday and the holiday season, citation functionality for students and academics, and security features that shield against malware hosted on the web.

Another factor that has contributed to the growth of Edge is the retirement of both Internet Explorer and Edge Legacy, whose users Microsoft has been careful to funnel towards its new web browser.

However, with few gains left to tap into here, Microsoft will need to find a way to snatch users from the largest browsers on the market if Edge is to continue to grow. Recent signs suggest the company is doing just that, but slowly. There is still a long way to go before Microsoft Edge can be said to pose a genuine threat to Google Chrome (which dominates with 65% of the market) or Apple’s Safari (19%).

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