Technology & Business1995–2025
The Browser Wars
Thirty years of browser share is a story of three empires: Netscape ruled the early web, Internet Explorer crushed it and peaked above 90% around 2003, then Firefox cracked the monopoly open just long enough for Chrome to sweep the board after 2008. IE — once on 19 of every 20 desktops — was formally retired in 2022, while Chrome settled in around 65% with Safari a distant second.
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Source: StatCounter Global Stats Shares from 2009 follow StatCounter; pre-2009 figures are reconstructed estimates from TheCounter, OneStat and WebSideStory surveys. illustrative data Updated 2026-07-07
The race in numbers
2lead changes
30years covered
8contenders
Internet Explorerlongest reign — 13 yrs at #1
Final standings · 2025
- 1Chrome66.0%
- 2Safari17.9%
- 3Edge5.3%
- 4Firefox2.6%
- 5Opera2.3%