Microsoft’s Chromium Flavoured Edge Overtakes Firefox

Strange But True, Edge Is Officially Number Two

According to NetMarketShare’s recent data Edge overtook Firefox as the second most used browser back in March, hitting 7.59% of the market while Firefox could claim only 7.19% of the market.   This is specifically the version of Edge which is actually Chromium wearing a skin, with some Microsoft specific integrations and optimizations.  The version of Chrome not wearing a dead browser’s skin sits comfortably at 68.50%; it has held top spot for many years now.

In a way the strangest part about this is that it is not Enterprise driving this change, as the vast majority are nowhere near ready to integrate the new Edge into their systems, in many cases they are still trying to get systems moved off of IE and working on at least one modern browser.

The spike in usage could come from those who previously spend more time outside than browsing the web, so their usage didn’t account for much traffic, that is until the latter half of March when spending most of your time outside became a very bad idea for those around you.  It is only half of a percent, but it is definitely a win for Microsoft and an example of just how strange of a year 2021 has revealed itself to be.