The Rise and Fall of Popular Web Browsers 2009 - 2026

In 2009, Internet Explorer ran almost two thirds of the web. Today it's below 0.1%. This is the fall of Internet Explorer and the rise of Google Chrome, shown as the most popular web browsers in the world every month from 2009 to 2026. Chrome launched just 4 months before this race starts and has under 2% of the web. Then it passes Firefox in 2011 and Internet Explorer in 2012, smartphones lift Safari and UC Browser, Microsoft gives up and launches Edge (later rebuilt on Chrome's own engine), and Internet Explorer is retired in 2022 after 27 years. By 2026, Chrome shows about 2 in every 3 web pages viewed worldwide. 👉 Did you ever use Internet Explorer? Which browser are you using right now? Tell us in the comments, and subscribe for more data races. Chapters 0:00 The Browser Wars (2009) 1:24 Chrome Takes Over (2012) 3:15 The Mobile Web (2016) 5:05 The Chromium Era (2020) Data source • StatCounter Global Stats, Browser Market Share Worldwide (all platforms: desktop, mobile, tablet and console), monthly, January 2009 to September 2026: https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-ma... Notes on the data • Market share is the share of page views on the websites StatCounter tracks, worldwide, across all devices. • Values are a 3-month moving average to smooth out month-to-month noise, so they can differ slightly from StatCounter's monthly numbers. • Chrome includes Chrome on Android and iPhone. "Android Browser" is the old built-in Android browser. • Microsoft Edge combines the original Edge (2015–2020) and the new Chromium-based Edge (2020 onwards). Browser logos are used for identification only. Logo images come from the English Wikipedia articles of each browser. #internetexplorer #chrome #browsers #barchartrace #tech #datavisualization