Microsoft Browsers Lose Users At Record Rate

Just a month after Google’s Chrome stole the top browser crown from Microsoft, IE and Edge have continued their downward spiral of popularity according to data released yesterday. As, Internet Explorer and Edge combined occupy 38.7% of the global user share, which is to say the percentage of all desktop and laptop PCs that run a browser, according to Net Applications, a US-based analytics vendor. Comparatively, their figure for April was a whopping 2.7 percentage points higher, which is the greatest one-month decline in user share since 2005, when Computerworld first began to record browser usage data.

Looking over the whole of the last year, IE (as well as Window’s 10’s replacement, Edge), have lost an amazing 11.4 percentage points. This makes IE and by extension, Edge, the most rapidly abandoned browser in the whole of the last 11 years. This is a shocking decline when you consider that less than a year ago, Microsoft’s browsers combined made up over half of the global browser user share.

The one capitalizing on this drop? Chrome of course, which, despite being one of the younger browsers in the field, managed to rise 3.9 percentage points since May, pushing its total user share to 45.6%, putting it tantalizingly close to the majority milestone. If growth continues at the current rate, this could happen as soon as August this year, effectively turning the tables on IE.

With Firefox’ popularity also on the decline, it seems like there is nothing stopping Chrome from dominating the browser market. Microsoft has done little to help their ailing browsers either, with them being long hated by power users for their lesser security and features compared to their rivals. Even their attempts to push Edge alongside Windows 10 have run into issues, with many reluctant to switch to another Microsoft browser and unfortunately less than 30% of Windows 10 users have chosen to use Edge. There is no doubt that Microsoft’s browsers will continue to be packaged with the Windows operating system, but the golden days for the browser now seem to be fading away, with no resurgence in sight.