Microsoft’s Edge last month posted its first ever double-digit browser share, while Google’s Chrome slid for the third month straight.
Mozilla’s Firefox once again held steady, keeping its head above water.
According to data published Sunday by California-based metrics company Net Applications, Edge’s October share climbed by 1.4 percentage points, ending the month at 10.2%, the first time Microsoft’s browser broke through that psychologically important barrier. The gain was the largest ever for Edge in a single month, almost double that of the previous record set in December 2019.
The increase was so large that it immediately raised suspicions that it was a miscount by Net Applications rather than a reflection of reality. Bolstering that was an even greater boost to the share of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE), the obsolete browser the Redmond, Wash. company has started to strip of some of its support. IE’s share for October — 5.6% — was 1.7 points higher than the month prior, a jump so out of character as to be unbelievable.
