The Google Chrome web browser was publicly released in 2008. Originally only available for Microsoft Windows, support for macOS, Linux, and mobile platforms quickly followed.
By mid-2012, Chrome was the most popular browser worldwide. It has been the dominant player in the category ever since.
Read on to discover all of the important Google Chrome statistics for 2021. Here’s a summary of what we’ll cover:
Chrome Stats (Top Picks)
- Chrome is currently the primary browser of more than 2.65 billion internet users. That’s up from 1.29 billion in 2014.
- Chrome has a worldwide browser market share of 63.58%.
- In the US, the Chrome share of browser usage is 46.32%.
- 137,345 extensions are available for Chrome.
Chrome market share worldwide
Google Chrome has a global browser market share of 63.58% across all device types. A slight decrease from the 64.6% share registered in 2019.
For comparison, the second most popular browser worldwide (Safari) has a market share of 19.37%.
Google Chrome claimed more than half of the global browser market share within its first decade. Chrome’s share grew more than 16x over this period, from 3.23% in 2009 to more than half of the worldwide market (53.96%) in 2017.
Here’s a table showing the Google Chrome browser market share (across all device types) since 2009:
| Year | Market share |
|---|---|
| 2009 | 3.23% |
| 2010 | 9.95% |
| 2011 | 19.79% |
| 2012 | 29.3% |
| 2013 | 34.67% |
| 2014 | 38.94% |
| 2015 | 44.87% |
| 2016 | 49.08% |
| 2017 | 53.96% |
| 2018 | 59.12% |
| 2019 | 63.31% |
| 2020 | 64.6% |
| 2021 | 63.58% |
Among mobile users, Chrome has a slightly lower market share of 62.48%. Chrome’s presence in the mobile browser market has nonetheless grown significantly in recent years.
We’ve charted the growth in Chrome’s mobile browser market share since 2012:
| Year | Market share |
|---|---|
| 2012 | 0.35% |
| 2013 | 3.98% |
| 2014 | 21.25% |
| 2015 | 33.58% |
| 2016 | 38.38% |
| 2017 | 48.86% |
| 2018 | 54.14% |
| 2019 | 60.14% |
| 2020 | 62.5% |
| 2021 | 62.48% |
Chrome has a tablet browser market share of 42.5%, which is the lowest among all device types (excluding games consoles).
Even so, Chrome is still the second most popular browser among tablet users. Safari leads the way with a slightly higher market share of 43.52%.
Despite being in second place, Chrome usage on tablets has significantly grown in recent years. Market share has increased from 16.8% in 2015 to 42.5% today.
We’ve prepared a table showing the growth in Chrome browser market share among tablet users:
| Year | Market share |
|---|---|
| 2012 | 3.96% |
| 2013 | 6.87% |
| 2014 | 11.8% |
| 2015 | 16.8% |
| 2016 | 19.41% |
| 2017 | 23.73% |
| 2018 | 23.46% |
| 2019 | 23.82% |
| 2020 | 37.21% |
| 2021 | 42.5% |
Source: Statcounter GlobalStats.
Chrome market share in the US
Chrome has a 46.32% share of the US browser market. The US share is significantly lower than the 63.58% cut Chrome enjoys worldwide.
The second most used browser in the US is Safari, which has a 38.24% market share.
Chrome’s US presence has been in slight decline for the last 3 years, dropping from an all-time high of 49.4% registered in 2018.
Here’s the historical data on Chrome’s market share in the US since 2009:
| Year | Market share |
|---|---|
| 2009 | 2.99% |
| 2010 | 8.58% |
| 2011 | 14.92% |
| 2012 | 20.81% |
| 2013 | 26.65% |
| 2014 | 31.36% |
| 2015 | 38.38% |
| 2016 | 43.4% |
| 2017 | 45.27% |
| 2018 | 49.4% |
| 2019 | 49.39% |
| 2020 | 46.93% |
| 2021 | 46.32% |
Chrome holds a majority of the US desktop search market (58.01%). Safari, the closest competitor, has a market share more than 3 times smaller (19.15%).
Here’s a table showing Chrome’s desktop browser market share in the US since 2009:
| Year | Market share |
|---|---|
| 2009 | 3.03% |
| 2010 | 8.95% |
| 2011 | 16.09% |
| 2012 | 23.54% |
| 2013 | 32.08% |
| 2014 | 36.87% |
| 2015 | 42.1% |
| 2016 | 51.4% |
| 2017 | 55.66% |
| 2018 | 61.99% |
| 2019 | 63.17% |
| 2020 | 58.84% |
| 2021 | 58.01% |
Within the mobile category, Chrome has a usage share of 35.86% in the US, making it the second most popular mobile browser in the country.
Safari leads the way on mobile, with a market share of 57.19%.
Here’s a breakdown of Chrome’s mobile browser market share in the US since 2012:
| Year | Market share |
|---|---|
| 2012 | 0.44% |
| 2013 | 5.48% |
| 2014 | 24.22% |
| 2015 | 38.7% |
| 2016 | 36.56% |
| 2017 | 39.13% |
| 2018 | 40.56% |
| 2019 | 40.09% |
| 2020 | 37.24% |
| 2021 | 35.86% |
Source: Statcounter GlobalStats.
Number of Chrome users
An estimated 2.65 billion internet users globally use Chrome as their primary browser. The user base has grown by 0.48% compared to last year.
In fact, Chrome has added 1.36 billion new users in the last 6 years. As a result, the Chrome browser market share has more than doubled since 2014.
Here’s a table with Chrome user growth since 2014:
| Year | Number of users |
|---|---|
| 2014 | 1.29 billion |
| 2015 | 1.54 billion |
| 2016 | 1.88 billion |
| 2017 | 2.07 billion |
| 2018 | 2.4 billion |
| 2019 | 2.64 billion |
| 2020 | 2.65 billion |
Source: Statista.
Chrome app importance for Americans
Chrome is ranked as the 6th most important mobile app among American users, according to an AudienceProject survey. A 6% share of respondents agreed that Chrome is the app they could least do without.
To put it in perspective, Facebook, which finished first in the survey, was named the most essential app by 17% of respondents.
Source: AudienceProject.
Number of Chrome extensions
There are 137,345 Chrome extensions available for installation from the Chrome Web Store. An additional 39,263 themes are available for download.
86.3% (118,526) of Chrome extensions have less than 1,000 users. Only 1.79% (2,459) have more than 100,000 users.
Here’s a complete breakdown of the average popularity of Chrome extensions:
| Number of users | Number of Chrome extensions |
|---|---|
| Less than 100 | 95,492 (69.53% of total) |
| Between 100 and 1,000 | 22,584 (16.44% of total) |
| More than 1,000 | 10,523 (7.66% of total) |
| More than 10,000 | 5,950 (4.33% of total) |
| More than 100,000 | 2,459 (1.79% of total) |
| More than 1 million | 337 (0.24% of total) |
Source: DebugBear.
Number of Chrome extensions developed by Google
There are 45 Chrome extensions developed by Google available for download as of February 2021.
A total of 10 extensions developed by Google (22.22%) have more than 1 million users.
Source: Chrome Web Store.
Chrome Web Store
The Google Chrome mobile app was downloaded 8.8 million times across iOS & Android platforms in January 2021.
Most of the downloads (8 million) came from the App Store, while the remaining 800 thousand installs came from Android users via Google Play.
Google Chrome has more than 5 billion lifetime installs on Google Play, a milestone it passed in July 2019. It is the 6th most popular app on the Play Store.
Source: Sensor Tower, Androidrank.
Conclusion
You made it! That’s it for my Google Chrome stats roundup.
Hopefully, you’ve learned something new about Chrome from these facts and figures. The browser has an incredible growth story and continues to be the top player in the market. It will be interesting to see whether it can sustain its position of dominance in years to come.
Now I’d like to hear from you:
Any queries or comments? What else would you like to find on this statistics page?
And do you think Chrome can fend off the challenge from the likes of Safari?
Feel free to leave any thoughts and feedback in the comments below.
Keep reading the article at Backlinko. The article was originally written by Brian Dean on 2021-03-08 06:44:57.
The article was hand-picked and curated for you by the Editorial Team of WP Archives.