Chrome dominates Q4 2024 browser market with 64.7% share
New Cloudflare report reveals Chrome's continued dominance in browser usage, while Safari holds 16.7% market share globally.
In a comprehensive browser market share report released on January 21, 2025, Cloudflare's Data Insights Team revealed significant shifts in global browser usage patterns for the fourth quarter of 2024. The findings, drawn from traffic analysis across more than 25 million Internet properties, showcase Chrome's substantial lead in the browser market.
According to Cloudflare's methodology, which analyzes user-agent headers and client-hints from websites using their network, Chrome secured a commanding 64.794% of the global browser market share in December 2024. This data represents traffic from websites that consistently used Cloudflare's services throughout the reporting period.
Safari, developed by Apple, maintained its position as the second most popular browser with a 16.715% market share. Microsoft's Edge browser claimed the third position at 7.357%, while Mozilla Firefox followed at 3.981%. Samsung Internet rounded out the top five with 2.515% of the market.
The report's significance stems from Cloudflare's extensive reach, with their network spanning more than 200 cities across 100 countries. According to Cloudflare, their services facilitate connections for more than 10% of all websites globally, including 17% of Fortune 1000 companies.
Regional variations in browser preferences emerged from the data. In Australia, Chrome's dominance decreased to 53.989%, while Safari showed stronger performance with 27.323% of the market. Edge maintained a stronger presence in Australia at 8.957% compared to its global share.
Mobile platforms demonstrated distinct usage patterns. On Android devices globally, Chrome commanded an even larger share at 86.828%, followed by Samsung Internet at 6.954%. The Android ecosystem showed greater fragmentation, with browsers like Yandex Browser, Opera, and Firefox each claiming less than 2% market share.
The Australian Android market exhibited unique characteristics, with Chrome holding 77.082% market share and Samsung Internet showing stronger regional performance at 18.054%. When including in-app browsers in the Australian Android market, Chrome's share adjusted to 66.096%, while social media platforms Facebook and Instagram combined for approximately 13% of browser usage.
Cloudflare's methodology differs from traditional market share tracking by capturing direct website requests, making it resistant to interference from ad blockers or tracker-blocking extensions. Starting from the first quarter of 2024, the analysis incorporated client-hints alongside user-agent parsing to enhance data accuracy.
The report excluded several categories to maintain data clarity. Chromium-based browsers were not counted separately due to their shared codebase with other browsers. Additionally, WebView implementations, including Chrome Mobile WebView and Mobile Safari UI/WKWebView, were excluded from the primary statistics despite representing significant traffic volumes.
Operating system categories in the analysis encompassed iOS, Android, and Desktop systems (including Windows, MacOSX, Linux, and ChromeOS). The mobile category included various platforms such as WebOS, WindowsPhone, Blackberry, SmartTV, gaming consoles, and Kindle devices.
Emerging browsers showed modest but notable market presence. Privacy-focused DuckDuckGo captured 0.213% of global traffic, while Brave Browser secured 0.826%. Regional browsers like UC Browser, QQ Browser, and Mi Browser maintained specific market niches, particularly in their home markets.
The data captured temporal trends across October through December 2024, allowing for analysis of short-term market share fluctuations. This quarterly report serves as a benchmark for understanding the dynamic landscape of web browser usage patterns across different regions and platforms.