Microsoft Edge is gaining users and outpacing other browsers

By Robert Carnevale
last updated

From the edge of irrelevance to over 8% market share.

New Microsoft Edge logo
New Microsoft Edge logo (Image credit: Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • According to Statcounter, over 8% of desktop users utilize Microsoft Edge as of March 2021.
  • Edge has been steadily growing its userbase over the course of 2020 and 2021.
  • Edge is on track to beat out Safari.

The latest numbers from Statcounter (via TechRadar) paint an encouraging picture for Microsoft Edge. It's up to 8.03% in the global desktop browser market share department as of March 2021.

That sort of percentage can't be ignored, especially because the latest figures from March 2021 put Microsoft Edge above Firefox in terms of overall users. Edge now has more market share than Firefox and the continually dwindling Internet Explorer. But what's more impressive is that if Edge keeps growing at its current pace, it might overtake Safari and solidify its position as the number two browser for desktop users.

Statcounter mentions laptops are included in all desktop-related figures, which should signal just how far-reaching Edge has become. Safari is at a little over 10% of total market share control as of March 2021, so Edge is within 2% and could overtake the former within the next few months at its current growth rate. It's a long way off from reaching Google Chrome's 67% market share, but it's speedily climbing the rungs of the runner-up ladder.

It's not surprising Edge is doing as well as it's doing, given how routinely it adds useful features and considers the user experience. For example: you won't need the best ad blockers for Microsoft Edge soon if Edge Canary has anything to say about it.

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Microsoft Edge

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Microsoft Edge supports tons of extensions and constantly receives useful new features, making it a great primary browser.

Robert Carnevale
Robert Carnevale

Robert Carnevale is the News Editor for Windows Central. He's a big fan of Kinect (it lives on in his heart), Sonic the Hedgehog, and the legendary intersection of those two titans, Sonic Free Riders. He is the author of Cold War 2395. Have a useful tip? Send it to robert.carnevale@futurenet.com.

34 Comments
  • I recommend it to everyone. Use it on all my devices 👍 Beta on mobile and Dev channel on W10.
  • its cool , i love it and use it on daily basis
  • Well, 0.57% is for Edge Chromium, the new version which had only just launched in March of 2020. That doesn't include Edge Legacy, the version that preceded the current Chromium-based version. If we don't know how many people were using Edge Legacy then this isn't as helpful. But we can go to that Statcounter website and look back at previous years and see that Edge Legacy barely cracked 5% browser share. I think a lot of that had to do with IE remaining fairly common. IE is now below 2% and on its way to browser Valhalla or whatever. But IE had a 15% market share as early as 2016 - that is, Microsoft's total share of the desktop browser market has shrunk significantly. So growth to 8%+ is a great sign but there's plenty room for growth. (One glaring weak spot is mobile and tablet, where Edge is almost nonexistent.) Thankfully MS has given us a really excellent browser so the future looks bright. It looks like MS's browser strategy is finally paying off.
  • Microsoft Edge is already available for Surface Pro/ Go, iPad OS, and Android tablets.
  • Edge Legacy went from 4.6% in March 2020, to 4.8% in April 2020 at its peak, and then down to 0.4% in March 2021. So 4.4% of that growth comes from people just updating Edge to the next version. Of course *some* of that 4.4% has gone to other browsers and others have come in from other browsers, but it is very safe to say that 4.4% of that 8.03% is Legacy Edge users getting the automated update.
  • Yeah, that's more or less my point. IE also lost about 2pp. Looks like total MS browser share is less than 8% at the end of 2019, and now it's about 10% and almost all of that is the new Edge. That's still progress.
  • Yeah, this article is VERY misleading and should be corrected.
  • I don't think it's very misleading, but it doesn't tell the whole story. Overall this is good news and the author is right about that.
  • Left Google for edge and Microsoft bing last June. And it's great. Much better. 😇
  • Definitely going to grow going forward. Especially with 365 sync. As I am moving more and more customers to 365 I setup Edge with sync and no one has come back to be asking to move back to chrome. Only thing people ask for is to change default search to Google.
  • I'm interested in this, I've been using Bing happily for years, but I know a lot of people don't like it - am I missing out?! Maybe I should try Google for a while just for comparison.
  • The new edge browser has some features that make it better than Google Chrome.
    I like this browser
  • Microsoft Edge is becoming better and supports all platforms including Windows 7/8.1 and Linux 😉
  • if you use android there is no way you go for edge. Fast history sync, google maps, youtube, google search. Bing, ms maps are miles behind google because simply no one use them. Also egde on android lags and is not fully integrated with phone ecosystem. So if you use android you will go for chrome on pc for sure
  • MS needs to fix the perf on Android, which should be happening in a few months as they switch over the code base, but it works just fine with Google Search, Google Maps and YouTube, and it syncs history just fine. There aren't any obvious integration issues with the OS either. It implements all the standard hooks. The only reason not to use Edge on Android right now is performance, and that's going to get fixed.
  • I use edge and Bing on my Duo. I mostly use Waze for mapping but sometimes use Google Msp. Everything works great. Seems you have a bias?
  • Edge on Android doesn't lag at all for me, and you don't have to use Bing or Bing Maps. Sync with desktop Edge works fine and I'm not sure how it's not integrated with the phone ecosystem.
  • Not sure what you are spewing about there. I'm using Edge since its release on my Redmi Note 7 with no lagging problem. This is a $180 phone (2019) mind you, so think about low to mid-range performance. Maybe you are using a sub $100 device, hence the lagging. But I'm pretty sure Chrome wouldn't fare better with that.
  • I have a high-end phone and Edge has a noticeable lag compared to e.g. Samsung Internet, and it's worse for battery life, too. I'm on Samsung Internet until Edge on Android moves to the new codebase, until then it's just not really good.
  • I have a Note10. I haven't had Chrome installed in a while but I find Firefox and Samsung to not be any faster than Edge. That new codebase sound good though.
  • “Yeah, OK" gif....
  • Why would one have to give up Youtube, Google Maps or Google search if they want to use Edge on Android? Also if you use Edge on Android it syncs up with Edge on PC. Don't really follow your argument.
  • You don't , but if you want to use the integrated part of the browser, you will be giving up the Google side if you go to edge, instead using Microsoft integration. i don't use browser integration, that is why I just want a browser that is just a browser, none of this synchronising rubbish, more and more stuff gets added to browsers and it don't make them any better.,
  • Edge on Android is great, and it's just as fast as Chrome. Quit spreading FUD.
  • Jesus, people why so negative? Edge is a very good browser. After I showed my kids and colleagues that it's literally just Chrome everybody switched to it. Why have two of the same browsers on your computer one's a bloated memory hog and the other one actually tries to improve itself on a regular basis. (Edge)
  • Then you are lying to them, because it is not chrome.
  • Also the comment about edge is slow compared to Chrome on Android I don't know what you're talking about?? I have a pixel 5 and I've been using edge since the day I got this phone and it works great works perfectly with everything all passwords saved across all my devices I love it it's great.
  • Interesting how MANY people here used to ignore Stat Counter because the numbers were NOT the same as NetMarketShare. Stat Counter consistently showed LESS market share for Windows and MORE share for Macs. Among many other differences for browsers, etc. Now that NetMarketShare has given up (it was always wrong/behind/useless) suddenly Stat Counter is correct. AGAIN, NetMarketShare claims that it monitored "100 million valid sessions per month, widely distributed over thousands of websites". StatCounter claims "a sample exceeding 10 billion pageviews per month collected from across the Statcounter network of more than 2 million websites." AGAIN, which do you think is more accurate? 100 million hits on thousands of websites? Or 10 billion hits on 2 million websites? AGAIN, what was NetMarketShare looking at? Thousands of websites? That sounds like 1 state in the U.S. Stat Counter also shows U.S. Windows share down to 60% of desktop PCs, with OS X up to 29%. Do you now agree with this too? 20 years ago, it was Windows 95%, Mac 4%.
  • I don't have an opinion about these sources of data but your point is taken. Are there other sources that say Edge is not gaining?
  • The reason it is growing is that it is chucked at people who buy new computers, just like internet Exploder was, since computer sales have grown because of lockdown and people working at home it makes sense that Edge use have grown, it doesn't mean it is a better browser. I will stay with Firefox for a bit and may change back to Cent at some point, but I have no interest in using Edge, people say about Google spying on them when using Chrome, now they are prepared to have Microsoft spying on them twice, once with the OS and then with the browser.
  • "it is chucked at people who buy new computers" I mean so was Legacy Edge. Also, can't people just install Chrome if they want? I can buy this argument if it's about enterprise adoption, but that's a conscious choice by IT departments.
  • But legacy Edge was awful, sales of computers were dropping and people stuck with chrome.
    Sales of machine shave grown due to the pandemic and working from home, people are being told that the new Edge is chrome, which is a lie, because it is not Chrome.
    I do not like Edge myself, I tried it a while back, and I did not find it any better than what I was using and in some ways it was slower,
  • That must be why I started getting inundated with Download Chrome ads as of a few days ago.
  • Two words: anti fingerprinting