The Edge browser is now more popular than Firefox

According to a report on Bleepingcomputer and using data from NetMarketShare (via Sweclockers), Microsoft Edge is now the second most popular browser, having just overtaken Firefox for the first time.

It won't come as much of a surprise to find out that Chrome is still the leader, with a whopping 68.5% of the market, but this is still encouraging news for Microsoft, which only released the new Chromium-based Edge browser in January this year.

It's worth noting that this data doesn't separate the old proprietary Edge from the new Chromium one, and that is the default browser for Windows 10 and new laptops could sway the numbers. But even so, it's pretty obvious the rising trend is more likely down to Microsoft's Chromium-based variant.

Back in March 2019 Edge was in fourth place with just 5.2% share of the market (behind Internet Explorer 11, Firefox, and Chrome), but since then has leapfrogged the other two to claim a 7.59% share. In the same timeframe Firefox has dropped from 9.27% to 7.19%, while Internet Explorer 11 has dropped down to a 5.6% share.

The slightly surprising thing about these numbers is that you have to go out of your way to get the new version of Edge at the moment, as it isn't included with Windows 10. If you want it now, you can download it here. Microsoft will be upgrading Windows 10's default browser to the Chromium-based Edge in a forthcoming patch though, at which point its share in the browser space will surely only improve.

The new Microsoft Edge is worth trying out as well, and a few of us on the PC Gamer hardware team have already made the switch (although to be fair I tend to have both Chrome and the new Microsoft Edge open at the same time). As it's Chromium based it has the advantage of being able to access the extensions that have been written for Chrome, and there's a lot of those. It's speedy, efficient, and it's familiar enough to use without having to rethink the way you work.

Alan has been writing about PC tech since before 3D graphics cards existed, and still vividly recalls having to fight with MS-DOS just to get games to load. He fondly remembers the killer combo of a Matrox Millenium and 3dfx Voodoo, and seeing Lara Croft in 3D for the first time. He's very glad hardware has advanced as much as it has though, and is particularly happy when putting the latest M.2 NVMe SSDs, AMD processors, and laptops through their paces. He has a long-lasting Magic: The Gathering obsession but limits this to MTG Arena these days.