Chrome usurps Internet explorer as the most popular browser

It’s been more than two decades that the Internet explorer has enjoyed undisputed rule as the most popular web browser. But looks like, the reign is already over.

In 2015, the Internet explorer had a 46 percent of the market while Chrome had only 32 percent of the web users. But Microsoft ended its production in 2015 and shifted user attention towards its new browser ‘Edge’. Though Edge is faster, more secure and provides better support for web standards, its user base is affected because it is only accessible with Windows 10.

This resulted in Chrome usurping Internet Explorer in 2016, as the most popular browser with 56 percent of the market share, while Internet explorer stands at 21 percent.

Other internet browsers like Firefox and Opera, had a disappointing year with 12 percent and only one percent of market, respectively. Microsoft's Edge started the year at 2.8 percent and finished with 5.3 percent. On the other hand, Windows 10 started the year with only 10 percent web users and surged to 24 percent by the end of 2016.

Citing Steam hardware survey, Arstechnica claims that Edge is performing better among gamers, where Windows 10 passed 50 percent of Steam users. Edge's growth in gaming segment fetched the older versions a huge drop-down in its user base. Windows 7 dropped from 56 to 48 percent, Windows XP from 11 to 9 percent, and Windows 8.1 from 10 to 7 percent.

However, apart from the gaming segment, only 22 percent of Windows 10 users are using Edge, according to the statistics, whereas 32 percent of pre-Windows 10 users are still sticking with Internet Explorer.

With Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Microsoft tried to push Edge further. The Redmond-based titan added extension support to Edge, making it compatible with the HTML-and-JavaScript extensions supported by Chrome and Firefox. However, Edge still lacks the stability features in comparison with its competitors like Chrome and Firefox.