Based on a recent report, Apple’s Safari finally hit one billion users, becoming the second browser to hit the milestone, next to Google Chrome, which still shines brighter in popularity. According to Atlas VPN, 1,006,232,879 internet users (19.16% of all internet users) currently use the Safari browser. Meanwhile, Google Chrome has three times more, with a whopping 3,378,967,819 users. Microsoft Edge sits in third place with about 212,695,000 users.
Atlas VPN’s findings are based on the GlobalStats browser market share percentage, which was converted into numbers using the Internet World Stats internet user metric to retrieve the precise numbers. Its report seems to suggest that Safari’s growth could be related to the browser’s adoption of privacy and security features, but it’s likely more a reflection of mobile marketshare where Safari and Chrome come installed on Apple and Android devices.
Image Credits: Atlas VPN
Apple’s web browser is automatically installed on every Apple device, while Chrome is installed with most versions of Android. This helps to give both tech behemoths a leg up in the competition. And while Microsoft ships its Edge browser with Windows, it lost out on the mobile market due to the Windows Phone’s failure.
That said, Apple has introduced several new privacy features to the browser over the past year that could help attract users. The browser’s new privacy report, for example, shows how many and which cross-site trackers Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) stopped from accessing your information.
Chrome is often considered a more attractive browser, however, with web applications such as YouTube, Drive, Calendar, Docs, Earth and Maps, among others. Just last week, Google rolled out a new way to use Google Lens on the desktop, allowing Chrome browser users on desktop to search any image on a web page with Google Lens. In April, a new “multisearch” feature via Google Lens was launched on the Google mobile app as well.
Additionally, Version 100 of Google Chrome launched in late March, and Chrome on Android became 15% faster.
Other browsers in the report included Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Samsung Internet and Opera. As noted, Microsoft Edge was the third most popular browser with over 212 million users, overtaking Firefox, which has 179 million internet users. Since the release of Windows 11, Microsoft Edge became the default browser on all devices and, in turn, received a big increase in its user base.
Firefox browser is oriented toward more privacy-concerned users as it offers protection features like security against tracking, pop-up blocking malware and phishing. Mozilla launched version 100 of the browser at the beginning of May.
Fifth on the list was the Samsung Internet browser, which is used by more than 149 million users. Last is the Opera browser, with more than 108 million users. Not only can people utilize Opera for everyday tasks, but it also has a Crypto Browser and app with a built-in crypto wallet that supports Ethereum, Polygon and Celo blockchain technology.