An average internet user spends 4 hours a day on their mobile phones.
While 88% of this time is spent on dedicated mobile applications, mobile browsers remain dominant in some functions such as searching for information and accessing sites without apps.
What is the current look of the mobile browser market share worldwide?
Let’s find out which are the most popular mobile browsers among users this year.
As of November 2022, Chrome holds the biggest mobile browser market share worldwide. Meanwhile, its competitor from Apple Inc, Safari, places second.
- Google Chrome – grew its influence to 66.23% of the mobile market share globally after starting the year at 62.02%. It was the only major service provider that managed to increase user influence during the period
- Safari – Apple Inc’s homegrown product holds a 24.14% share of the total, falling from its 26.71% settlement at the start of the year
- Samsung Internet – holds a 4.54% share of the total, falling from its 5.26% settlement at the start of the year
- Opera – holds a 1.66% share of the total, falling from its 1.89% settlement at the start of the year
- UC Browser – holds a 1.11% share of the total, falling from its 1.57% settlement at the start of the year
- Firefox – holds a 0.47% share of the total, falling from its 0.51% settlement at the start of the year
Opera has overtaken UC Browser’s market share this year, becoming the fourth-biggest mobile browser platform in the world
Here is what the mobile market share landscape looked like last year:
- Google Chrome – captured 62.48% of the mobile market share globally after starting the year at 62.43%
- Safari – captured a 26.48% share of the total at the end of the year after its January 2021 settlement at 24.98%
- Samsung Internet – captured a 5.19% share at the end of the year, with a starting point of 6.30% in January
- UC Browser – captured a 1.96% share at the end of the year after its January 2021 settlement at 2.51%
- Opera – captured a 1.96% share at the end of the year, with a starting point of 1.89% in January
- Firefox – captured a 0.52% share of the total at the end of the year after its January 2021 settlement at 0.50%
Here is what the mobile market share landscape looked like during the pandemic year:
- Google Chrome – captured 62.63% of the mobile market share globally at the end of the Covid year after starting the year at 61.77%
- Safari – captured a 24.55% share of the total at the end of the year after its 22.84% finish in January
- Samsung Internet – captured a 6.23% share of the total at the end of the year, falling from its 6.40% finish in January
- UC Browser – captured a 2.51% share of the total at the end of the year, falling from its 4.74% finish in January
- Opera – captured a 2.09% share at the end of the year, growing from its starting point of 2.14% in January
- Puffin – captured a 0.18% share of the total at the end of the year after its starting point of 0.25% in January
Meanwhile, here is what the mobile market share looked like in 2019:
- Google Chrome – captured 61.01% of the mobile market share globally, growing significantly from its starting point of 56.34%
- Safari – captured a 22.88% share of the total at the end of the year, also climbing from its 20.87% finish in January
- Samsung Internet – captured a 6.49% share of the total at the end of the year, growing from its 6.43% finish in January
- UC Browser – captured a 5.15% share of the total at the end of the year, falling from its 7.31% finish in January after losing much of its market share to Samsung Internet, Safari, and Google Chrome
- Opera – captured a 2.02% share at the end of the year, falling from its starting point of 3.62% in January
- QQ Browser – captured a 0.36% share of the total at the end of the year after its starting point of 0.30% in January
Here is what the mobile market share looked like in 2018:
- Google Chrome – captured 57.22% of the mobile market share globally, growing significantly from its starting point of 50.88%
- Safari – captured a 20.11% share of the total at the end of the year, also climbing from its 18.10% finish in January
- UC Browser – captured an 8.02% share of the total at the end of the year, falling from its 15.17% finish in January after losing much of its market share to Samsung Internet, Safari, and Google Chrome. This was UC Browser’s last year at the third spot before Samsung Internet took over its place
- Samsung Internet – captured a 6.01% share of the total at the end of the year, growing from its 5.48% finish in January
- Opera – captured a 4.05% share at the end of the year, falling from its starting point of 5.07% in January
- QQ Browser – captured a 0.26% share of the total at the end of the year after its starting point of 0.29% in January
Conclusion
Roughly 3 billion people are using Google Chrome today, and a big percentage of these users access it through their mobiles.
Google Chrome dominated the mobile browser market share for four years in a row. Analysts noted it will continue the lead in the coming years.
Meanwhile, Safari is trailing behind, with more people using iOS products nowadays.
However, smaller service providers like UC Browser and Opera lost a significant percentage of their market shares over the years as Chrome and Safari’s pre-installed dominance on smartphones took effect.
