Independent web analytics firm StatCounter confirms milestone as Chrome overtakes IE globally for first calendar month

“Browser wars back with a vengeance”

Boston, USA & Dublin, Ireland; Friday 1st June, 2012: After weeks of speculation, Google's Chrome has unseated Microsoft Internet Explorer to become the world's top internet browser for the first time for a full calendar month in May, according to StatCounter, the independent website analytics company. The firm's research arm StatCounter Global Stats says that Chrome surpassed IE for the first full day back in March and the achievement of the weekly milestone was widely reported on 21 May.

For the full month of May according to StatCounter data from over 15 billion page views, Chrome took 32.43% of the worldwide market compared to 32.12% for IE and 25.55% for Firefox.

StatCounter says that a battle royal has broken out between Chrome, IE and Firefox. “While attention has recently been focused on the battle between Chrome and IE, not-for-profit Mozilla's Firefox with its loyal membership base should not be underestimated,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. He points out that an upswing of over 0.6% in Firefox usage from April to May 2012 (apparently at the expense of IE) helped to push Chrome into pole position.

“The browser wars are back with a vengeance,” he added. “This time there are three major players competing for the top spot but, ultimately, the real winner will be the end user who can look forward to more choice and innovation as a result of this increased competition.”

In a stunning display of growth, Chrome has gone from zero to market leader on a worldwide basis in less than four years. That said, while IE has ceded the top spot to Chrome for May 2012, Microsoft's newest browser version (IE9) is performing well and Firefox is holding its own.

In the US, IE remains the dominant browser. IE is similarly dominant in the UK.

StatCounter Global Stats has recently launched a new map feature which clearly illustrates the increasing global usage of Chrome. The increase is particularly evident when mapped data from May 2011 and May 2012 is compared – both IE and Firefox cede a significant number of countries to Chrome over the period.

Ends

Press queries

For interview with Aodhan Cullen, photo or other press queries please contact:

Naomi McElroy, Simpson Financial & Technology PR

T: + 353 1 260 5300 or E: naomi@simpsonftpr.ie

Notes to Editors:

Sample Size

Stats are based on over 15 billion page views per month recorded across over 3 million websites. We are not aware of any publicly available stats with a larger sample size.

Browser Usage Stats based on Page Views

To accurately measure browser usage, we base our stats on page views (and not unique visitors). This means we take account of how frequently browsers are used and we also track multi-browser usage by individuals. Click to view a video explanation.

Google Chrome Prerendering

From 1 May 2012, prerendered pages in Google Chrome (which are not actually viewed) are not included in our stats. Statistics prior to this date have not been revised. Note that this change has not had any discernible impact on our browser stats. This is due to our use of page views to track browser usage - page views are less susceptible to influence by prerendering than unique visitors.

Fact Sheet

Further information is available in our fact sheet - Understanding Browser Usage Share Data.