Microsoft Edge November 2022 desktop browser market share increases

Microsoft Edge gained a bit of improvement in its desktop browser market share in November, according to the latest data from StatCounter. It is not a huge leap, but it shows the slow yet steady improvement of its Edge growth.

Last month, Edge received an 11.17% market share in the desktop category of browser market share globally. It is not that far from the 10.8% and 10.86% shares it garnered in September and October, respectively, but it can be considered a considerable improvement from the 9.52% it got in November last year.

There are a variety of reasons that could contribute to the growth of Microsoft Edge’s desktop browser market share. One of the contributors to this could be the continuous improvement of the browser through new features and tweaks Microsoft is releasing. Just recently, the Redmond company enhanced Edge’s ‘Follow this creator‘ feature. And during Ignite 2022, the company announced a bunch of new browser features, including the collaborative shared ‘Microsoft Edge Workspaces’ tabs, website typo protection improvements, and enhanced security mode. Microsoft also didn’t leave the accessibility section unticked, leading to the revelation of browser-wide Live Captions, Instant Answers, customizable page colors, and automatic image descriptions. Microsoft is also continuously improving Edge through the endless tests it is testing with its Insiders. In November, an Insider revealed Canary’s “Touch Mode” feature that would optimize the browser elements to make them more touch-friendly on tablets and other touchscreen devices.

Another reason that likely helped (though probably minimal in effect) this desktop market share increase was the recent release of Microsoft’s newest Surface products, including Surface Laptop 5 and Surface Pro 9. It can be recalled that Microsoft has always been a subject of criticism for pushing its products and services too much on its Windows customers, and the practice won’t spare these new devices boasting the latest Windows system. In September, this action caused Firefox browser parent Mozilla to express frustration over the browser competition in the market, claiming huge browser owner companies are doing “deceptive pattern practices targeted at consumers” that limit their browser choices. In the early months of 2022, Firefox gained a minimal rise in its desktop market share but later plummeted to 7.57% in March, which conversely marked the start of the progress of Edge. In StatCounter’s latest data for desktop browsers, Firefox now only holds a 7.1% share. Safari desktop browser, on the other hand, is just above Firefox and behind Edge at 9.59%.

While the news is a good thing for Microsoft, it is worth noting that the improvement only covers the desktop platform of its browser. Edge is still an underdog in terms of the collective number of shares from all platforms (mobile, desktop, and tablet). As of November 2022, it only got a 4.45% general browser market share. It is far from Safari’s 18.67% share and Google Chrome’s whopping 65.86% share from last month. On a positive note, it is an improvement from the previous year’s figure of Edge, which was formerly overshadowed by the Samsung Internet and Firefox browsers.

Edge might get additional shares in the future through its recently retired sibling, Internet Explorer, but it won’t be a significant help, given that IE only now has a 0.3% share worldwide. With this, the only remaining path Microsoft could take to fatten Edge’s user population continuously is through the introduction of more improvements and features to the browser (or by being incessantly pushy in suggesting Edge to its Windows system customers, which might soon put the company in bigger trouble).